Problems with sound solved

[rootkowski]

Hi everyone!

I've been playing around recently and now I have a freshly installed Celena. Everything works perfect of course, except for one little issue. With the default configuration I have only stereo sound, but I can play it from more than one app at a time. I find it very useful since i can chat on skype and listen to music in the same time. I have in integrated sound card on Asrock mother board with 8 channels. I have a 5.1 surround system and to make it work I need to have an .asoundrc file which I found on http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feis ... _with_ALSA

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "surround51"
slave.channels 6
route_policy duplicate
}

It definitely fixes the surround but I can no longer have sound from more than one app. I have also been playing with the mixer but however I set it I can never have sound on all 6 channels.

Does anyone know what it is in this small file that stops different apps from accessing the sound card? How should I change the file so it will work again? I would really like to have the possibility to play sound from different programs and have it surround. I will appreciate all help.

PS. since I'm already talking about sound issues, is there any equalizer for linux like those for windows that come with the sound card drivers? I can never get the sound on amarok as nice as on itunes on windows. Any ideas?

PS2: yes i have yet another question related with sound. I noticed that Celena comes with alsa 1.0.13. Is it a good idea to upgrade to 1.0.14 or 1.0.15rc3? And if yes, what is the safest way to do that?

Thanks a lot!

[Husse]

I think it's what the script achieves that block sound from more than one app at the same time.
I may be wrong but as it sets everything to be used by the 5.1 there is "nothing left"
You can create some application launcher to toggle this off and on

[scorp123]

I can no longer have sound from more than one app.

I switched my Audio preferences to use the 'ESD' sound system. Problem solved. Now I can have sound from multiple sources at the same time. For KDE apps that I use (Amarok, kopete, konversation, some others) it was necessary to install 'kcontrol' and tell these KDE applications too that they should use the 'ESD' system (and not e.g. 'ARTS'). Now I can watch movies in 'MPlayer' and yet I get sound notifications when someone sends me a message in kopete or konversation.

[rootkowski]

Thanx a lot for the replies guys!

I'm afraid it might be right what you wrote Husse.

I have ESD enabled all the time and still no sound from more than one app at a time. I installed kcontrol and set the hardware to use the Enlightened Sound Daemon instead of automatic settings and then I don't get any sound (from amarok) even if I have only amarok on. It says that "xine was unable to initialize any sound drivers" or something of the kind. Since I installed kcontrol there is artsd in the process list. To get rid of it I disable sound system in kcontrol and I can still play music on amarok. But of course I can't have sound from more than one app anyway.

I bet there's something in that script in .asoundrc as you say Husse. Is there any other way of getting the sound to all 6 channels and have sound from more than one app? I searched on alsa's site but i just get more confused from all that.

And what do you say about my other questions in the top post? The one about equalizer and that about upgrading alsa. Any clue? I'd be most thankful!

Cheers

[Husse]

I don't know about equalizers but at least you have alsamixer - give that command in a terminal and you get a simple mixer
I would not care about an update, to small a step if you don't have problems - and it wont solve the sound from more than one app problem.
Make two ~.asoundrc files one with one without surround and toggle between them (rename back and forth) Can easily be done with two application launchers on desktop
I think you are not listening to sound from more than one app when you listen to surround sound.

[rootkowski]

Thanks for the ideas and help. I would like to try to have two .asoundrc files but I must confess I don't know how to fix such launchers. How should they look?

And isn't it so that i need to restart the system or at least sound system so that new .asoundrc file is read and loaded?

I hope you don't think I have annoying questions about unimportant things
They are quite important for me.

I hope in half a year or so I'll be able to help others myself since I'm going to take some linux related courses next term. I would like to be useful on this forum you see

[Husse]

I got an unexpected problem when I tried to create the launchers or rather the scripts to be used
Will have to check for errors

[Husse]

I think I have the solution - but I don't have the time right now to write it down and test it

[rootkowski]

That's great news! Thanks a lot. And don't worry, take your time. I am very thankful you take all that time to help me. Stort tack!

[Husse]

You could have got an answer long ago, but for some reason I don't know it did not work at first - I must have made one of these typos you don't see no matter how hard you look
Make two .asoundrc one for the normal sound when you can use several sources and one for five channel sound
I made two test files with no difference other than a comment two or fiwe
Make two bash scripts, code below. This is in you home folder so there is no need for sudo when you make them. Make the scripts executable (easiest way is by right click) and of course use the same names for your template files as in the scripts. You have to use sudo to restart alsa
You can double click them and select "Run in terminal" and give your password.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash      
cp ~/.asoundrc-fivechannel ~/.asoundrc
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash      
cp ~/.asoundrc-twochannel ~/.asoundrc
sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

I had to post before I was finished earlier - small adjustment to the script is done - and you can put the scripts anywhere, but the desktop is the best I guess

[rootkowski]

Man, it's working!!! Thanks a lot. Now i can easily enable and disable surround sound. I still need to turn off/restart amarok but it's sooo much easier now. It's possible now, 'cos it wasn't earlier. It's great! Thanks again!