Sound drivers clashing?

[Guest adpsimpson]

Hi, I normally post in a different forum, but can't find an answer to this question anywhere! So, I have a problem with my sound. Any time I play music with XMMS, no other system sounds can play. System sounds are saved up till the end of the current track, then all played at once, at which point XMMS kicks up it's usual error about the sound card being blocked. Pressing play will start it again.

 

It would be nice to hear beeps and pings from other stuff while music is playing. I think it may be that I'm using the wrong drivers, but don't know. I have the system and XMMS both set to use ALSA.

 

I'm using Mandrake 10.0CE, and didn't previously have this problem in 9.2.

 

Thanks for any ideas.

[chris z]

if you're using KDE, go to Kontrol Center (Configure your Desktop)->sound->sound system. under the "sound I/O tab, try checking the "enable full duplex" operation" box, "apply". since you're using ALSA, this may not apply, but there's options under the aRts tab that may or may not apply to your situation.

 

Chris

[Guest adpsimpson]

Thanks. I tried this, but to no avail. It seems that I have alsa, arts, OSS and others all installed, but no matter which combination I use, I'm having the same problem. KDE says (in the sound tab of the control centre)

The KDE sound system takes exclusive control over your audio hardware, blocking programs that may wish to use it directly. If the KDE sound system sits idle it can give up this exclusive control.

 

This is what's causing the problem - XMMS cannot play while KDE has control, but KDE cannot play while it has given up control. Is there a way to make XMMS output it's noise through the KDE sound system?