1 soundcard (AC'97) / access for multiple users

[Guest Schnuck]

Hello everyone,

 

I just updated to 2010.0.

 

As usual I want to allow everyone to access the soundcard at once ...

 

I have done this in the past just by using the dmix feature of alsa and it worked somehow.

 

But what is actually the preferred method to do this ?

 

Using Mandriva 2010.0 with

 

lspci-excerpt:

 

00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)

 

 

I have experimented with pulseaudio, but it doesn't work. If the first user runs a flash video in firefox, the second

cannot watch a movie in mplayer or run xmms ....

 

Any pointers / suggestions ?

 

Thank you for your time

[Guest Schnuck]

So, OK, I couldn't wait for myself finding a solution through Google or somebody answering here ...

 

I have set things up the way I had it set up in Mandriva 2008.1:

 

That is, I have a /etc/asound.conf like this:

 

pcm.dsp0 {
   type plug
   slave.pcm "dmix"   # <-- this line has been altered!
}

# mixer0 can stay unchanged, because it isn't used anyway, I guess ;)
ctl.mixer0 {
   type hw
   card 0
}

# I also had to add/alter the following, making ALSA use dmix by default
pcm.!default {
   type plug
   slave.pcm "dmix"
}

 

I restart alsa sound:

 

 /etc/init.d/alsa 

 

I read very often that starting with some old alsa version you don't have to explicitely

set up software mixing with dmix ... but it never works without this config.

 

But this way it works:

 

User1 has firefox started and watches movies with the flash plugin, while user2 just has xmms play some random

mp3 tunes.

 

Nobody gets in the others way (except for the output of one of the sources may be way louder than the

other source, so only one may be heard, but that's OK with me).

 

If someone knows of a better (that is more elegant, more efficient, more whatever) way to do it

I'd still like to hear it (aka read it).

 

Thanks your interest.