payasam Posted October 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Good news, Devries. I reinstalled from scratch. Audio is now default (OSS or ALSA or whatever), and I'm getting sound in both Thunderbird and Netscape. Like so many things about computers, this is entirely inexplicable. Bad news. My views on Amstel have not changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 1, 2004 Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 Ah computers........ don't get me started... I could tell you stories......... Amstel beer on the other hand .................... Anyway, if you use KDE there is an easy way to get rid off programs that don't close nicely: Press ctrl-alt-esc and leftclick (you notice the pointer has become a little skull) the offending window. That will shut it down immidiately. An other way, more drastic, is to close X with ctrl-alt-backspace. That will close down all GUI applications. Have fun with your computer. Meanwhile I'll have another beer (no not Amstel but Grolsch ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 1, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2004 CTL-ALT-ESC, Devries, plus a left click? Do you believe that those who do not like Amstel have prehensile extremities like baboons? Computers are fun only rarely: I do not play games and much of my work is not terribly enjoyable. Once in a while children come to me to learn this or that -- and that is really fun, even though I have to spend an hour tidying up after the hurricane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Scrimpshire Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 LOL. Ctrl-Alt-Esc then left click. After hitting Ctrl-Alt-Esc the cursor will be shaped like a skull and crossbones (xkill) and will kill the 'stuck' window. Be aware however that this only kills the window. The process controlling the window is still alive and well which you can see by doing a ps ax in a console. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 (edited) That's a relief, Steve. I thought Devries took me for, if I may switch species slightly, an arachnoid contortionist. But now I have another problem: there's no volume control on the taskbar or whatever it's called. It was there in my earlier install. I need the thing because I use it: you know, soft jazz and loudly mooing cows and all that. In the help I can't find any reference to it; and I'm sure I didn't remove it as I removed several other things. Soon after. Don't bother, Steve. It was a simple matter, as I saw elsewhere on the forum. Multimedia --- Sound --- Kmix --- WHAM. Just have to remember to "close" and not "quit". Edited October 2, 2004 by payasam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 (edited) Rightclick kicker (that's the KDE name for the bar on the bottom of your screen), new, applet and then you have the choise between arts control, media control, soundmixer control (and I'm sure I have forgotten something). An even better way (well at least in my opinion) is to control the volume with the keyboard. Open kmix, rightclick on the 'master' slide, define keys (disclaimer: translated from Dutch by me so actual words can be different). PS Sorry for the misunderstanding. I should have known that some things are not humanly possible even for someone who doesn't like Amstel :D) PPS. If you don't play games, you don't now about Metal Slug http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=M&game_id=8675 Edited October 2, 2004 by devries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 I did right-click on the Kicker, Devries, and there were a great many options - but no volume control, not even in Dutch, which of course I don't speak although I had a Dutch girl friend for around two weeks back at the end of 1975. I'll try your KMIX method. But in the mean time, another inexplicable disaster. I just received mail in Thunderbird and there was audible notification. Moments later I got mail in Netscape, but in complete silence. I checked to see I had pointed to a WAV file, and I had. I clicked on "test" and it worked. This could of course be a Netscape problem - but I use the same version in Windows without all this nonsense. Thanks for the game reference. I'll pass it on to young friends who are into that sort of thing. Except they're all Windows types, so if the game is for Linux - there goes my machine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 2, 2004 Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 (edited) I think your sound problem has to do with mixing. If an application uses the soundcard/onboard sound and doesn't close correctly and the soundcard doesn't do hardware mixing, it keeps the soundcard 'locked' for other applications. Look in the list with processes (which Steve mentioned a few posts above) for 'sound' apllications. In particular look for 'mplayer' which in my opinion is the most likely culprit. If you see mplayer listed and after you have killed it, sound is restored, the solution is simple. Open $HOME/.mplayer/config and add this line 'ao=arts' (without the ''). Arts is the soundmixer in KDE and it will let you have multple sounds at the same time, just as harware mixing would. With ctrl-esc you get the list with processes. PS. I never had an Indian girlfriend but I once dated a girl from Suriname whose ancestors came from India. Does that count :D. PPS The game can be played in Linux with help from XMAME http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtop...533;entry109811 PPS http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=19226&hl= Maybe this threath can help save your computer :D Edited October 2, 2004 by devries Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 2, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2004 (edited) I don't know whether to laugh or cry, Devries, because the sound in Netscape is back and I didn't do a thing. I'll look into the MPLAYER business. Thanks. Surinam does count and it doesn't. Indians went there - and to that area generally - a long while back, mainly as indentured labourers. They keep some Indian customs but not others. P.S. I should say their descendants, who are not indentured labourers. Edited October 2, 2004 by payasam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Folks, this intermittent audio notification of new messages is a Netscape problem, probably peculiar to version 7.2. Mandrake is not to blame. In Google I found that NTSCP 7.2 behaves in the same way on, for example, the Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Afraid you'll have to translate, Devries. I'm not a face reader. In fact I can't even do the Indian Rope Trick, whatever that is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Translation: I thought it would be something like that, but why didn't I say it then, hey what's my problem, I knew the answer, sort off, should I post my gut feelings more often, I'll never make it to a 1000 words, maybe he buys smileys are worth 50 words.... :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted October 7, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 Maybe you're right. Trouble is, all of us are not exactly smiley-literate. Has to do with culture and age. I have always had a problem with Netscape. They never, never tell you what to do: in fact they don't even admit that something might be wrong. Google is the only way to find help. I'd probably switch to Mozilla or Firebird if it hadn't been for the fact that Netscape web mail, which I use a great deal, is handled only by you know which program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devries Posted October 7, 2004 Report Share Posted October 7, 2004 You can complain about it or do something about it. What's it going to be? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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