ubuntu_demon
December 9th, 2005, 06:16 AM
howto multiple sounds at once in Ubuntu Breezy (Gnome) including working sound in almost all games and system sounds.
thnx to the user intangible and the wiki I was able to compile this howto.
This guide is on your own risk(although there isn't much risk involved). I advise making backups of the files you edit. I'm posting this guide as a forum user and not as a staff member.
If you don't have any sound at all you may need other modules to get your sound working properly. Please search for your (sound) chipset / motherboard in the video & sound section : http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=114 Also look at the links I give at the end of this post. If you still have problems after that please start a new thread in the video & sound section and at least post your $ lspci
If you don't know what sound card or audio chipset you have do :
$ lspci
and look for a line with a words like audio/multimedia/sound
ac'97 : this esd guide works
other chipsets/soundcards on which esd works : this esd guide will probably work
other chipsets/soundcards on which esd doesn't work : try alsa
audigy2 : try alsa (see below for more on audigy 2)
This guide consists of three parts : oss,esd,alsa. Everyone do the oss part and do either the esd or the alsa part.
Let's start with oss :
intended audience : everyone
First make sure ubuntu is installed properly:
$sudo apt-get install ubuntu-base ubuntu-desktop
This will install alsa-oss. oss is needed for sound in a lot of games :
$sudo apt-get install alsa-oss
You will probably need this module for oss :
$sudo modprobe snd_seq_oss
If the modprobe didn't give an error make sure it gets loaded with each boot :
$ sudo pico /etc/modules
and add this line :
snd_seq_oss
OSS stuff (mostly games) will still tie up the sound card, but they don't run all the time. Just configure most things to use esound/esd and you'll be good.
esd :
intended audience : esd works but multiple sounds at once doesn't work properly. I tested this guide on a couple of machines. But for some soundcards / motherboards alsa is the better choice.
Ubuntu uses a program called esd to allow multiple applications to access the sound card at one time. However, many third party applications not in Ubuntu main aren't designed to use esd to access the card. On some sound cards, this causes these applications to not produce sound. To work around this problem, esd must be configured to release the sound card when it is not using it. Place the following in your /etc/esound/esd.conf:
$sudo gedit /etc/esound/esd.conf
and make it look like this :
[esd]
auto_spawn=0
spawn_wait_ms=100
default_options= -terminate -nobeeps -as 2
$sudo gedit /etc/libao.conf
and make it look like this :
default_driver=esd
Now go to system->preferences->sound
-make sure system sounds are enabled
-enable sound server startup
-enable sounds for events
-system bell > sound an audible bell
safe all your open work. ctrl-alt-backspace to restart gdm.
Try if everything works. If a program doesn't have sound make sure it uses esd/esound.
You can try to "route" the sound of some program for example applicationx to esd using this command :
$esddsp applicationx
If you don't have multiple sounds (and it isn't an application which can't use esd which is blocking everything) try alsa.
alsa :
intended audience : esd doesn't work at all or the esd multiple sounds guide above didn't work (good enough)
drawback : no system sounds
Follow the instructions in this thread :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44753
You can try this if it doesn't work :
$sudo gedit /etc/esound/esd.conf
and make it look like this :
[esd]
auto_spawn=0
spawn_wait_ms=100
default_options= -terminate -nobeeps -as 2
audigy 2 :
Do the OSS and ALSA part of the guide.
If you have ALSA set up with an Audigy 2 and everything "should" be working according to the manual, there is a chance that the following will fix it:
Run 'alsamixer'. If you have multiple cards, run it for the appropriate card, like in my case 'alsamixer -c 1'
Browse the channels until you find the "Analog/Digital Output Jack" and press 'M' to enable it if it's disabled
some links :
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44753
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundProblemsHoary
thnx to the user intangible and the wiki I was able to compile this howto.
This guide is on your own risk(although there isn't much risk involved). I advise making backups of the files you edit. I'm posting this guide as a forum user and not as a staff member.
If you don't have any sound at all you may need other modules to get your sound working properly. Please search for your (sound) chipset / motherboard in the video & sound section : http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=114 Also look at the links I give at the end of this post. If you still have problems after that please start a new thread in the video & sound section and at least post your $ lspci
If you don't know what sound card or audio chipset you have do :
$ lspci
and look for a line with a words like audio/multimedia/sound
ac'97 : this esd guide works
other chipsets/soundcards on which esd works : this esd guide will probably work
other chipsets/soundcards on which esd doesn't work : try alsa
audigy2 : try alsa (see below for more on audigy 2)
This guide consists of three parts : oss,esd,alsa. Everyone do the oss part and do either the esd or the alsa part.
Let's start with oss :
intended audience : everyone
First make sure ubuntu is installed properly:
$sudo apt-get install ubuntu-base ubuntu-desktop
This will install alsa-oss. oss is needed for sound in a lot of games :
$sudo apt-get install alsa-oss
You will probably need this module for oss :
$sudo modprobe snd_seq_oss
If the modprobe didn't give an error make sure it gets loaded with each boot :
$ sudo pico /etc/modules
and add this line :
snd_seq_oss
OSS stuff (mostly games) will still tie up the sound card, but they don't run all the time. Just configure most things to use esound/esd and you'll be good.
esd :
intended audience : esd works but multiple sounds at once doesn't work properly. I tested this guide on a couple of machines. But for some soundcards / motherboards alsa is the better choice.
Ubuntu uses a program called esd to allow multiple applications to access the sound card at one time. However, many third party applications not in Ubuntu main aren't designed to use esd to access the card. On some sound cards, this causes these applications to not produce sound. To work around this problem, esd must be configured to release the sound card when it is not using it. Place the following in your /etc/esound/esd.conf:
$sudo gedit /etc/esound/esd.conf
and make it look like this :
[esd]
auto_spawn=0
spawn_wait_ms=100
default_options= -terminate -nobeeps -as 2
$sudo gedit /etc/libao.conf
and make it look like this :
default_driver=esd
Now go to system->preferences->sound
-make sure system sounds are enabled
-enable sound server startup
-enable sounds for events
-system bell > sound an audible bell
safe all your open work. ctrl-alt-backspace to restart gdm.
Try if everything works. If a program doesn't have sound make sure it uses esd/esound.
You can try to "route" the sound of some program for example applicationx to esd using this command :
$esddsp applicationx
If you don't have multiple sounds (and it isn't an application which can't use esd which is blocking everything) try alsa.
alsa :
intended audience : esd doesn't work at all or the esd multiple sounds guide above didn't work (good enough)
drawback : no system sounds
Follow the instructions in this thread :
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44753
You can try this if it doesn't work :
$sudo gedit /etc/esound/esd.conf
and make it look like this :
[esd]
auto_spawn=0
spawn_wait_ms=100
default_options= -terminate -nobeeps -as 2
audigy 2 :
Do the OSS and ALSA part of the guide.
If you have ALSA set up with an Audigy 2 and everything "should" be working according to the manual, there is a chance that the following will fix it:
Run 'alsamixer'. If you have multiple cards, run it for the appropriate card, like in my case 'alsamixer -c 1'
Browse the channels until you find the "Analog/Digital Output Jack" and press 'M' to enable it if it's disabled
some links :
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=44753
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundProblemsHoary