On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 16:40:51 +0200 thedogfarted <thedogfarted@xxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi > > I installed Fedora Core 1 today and got bad surprise - et failed to > start because xmms was blocking the soundcard. My previous os was > freeBSD 5.2 and then i was able to play et and listen to xmms > > pls give me some advice... You need sound mixing. Some drivers (like e10k1 for SoundBlaster) offer it as standard feature, relaying this task directly to the driver; others however need some extra tweaking. This is definitely an area where Linux still needs to be more "plug and play", but it's catching up, I believe things will improve soon as sound drivers improve (the fact that ALSA has been chosen for kernel 2.6.x is also a good sign AFAICS). In the meantime, we need to get our hands dirty, but, hey, that's the fun part, isn't it?=) If you use ALSA drivers, you might configure apps such as xmms, xine and others to make use of software sound mixing. I wrote a very basic HOWTO describing my experience with this, available on FedoraNEWS.org: http://fedoranews.org/contributors/andre_costa/alsa/ Hopefully it will work for you, too. NOTE: you will only get sound mixing for apps that allow sound configuration, see HOWTO for more info. My setup here is not 100%, since some apps (like totem) cannot be configured to explore ALSA fine-tuning, but I am very happy xmms, xine and gaim don't compete for sound device anymore. HTH Andre -- Andre Oliveira da Costa
