xmms blocks sound device

[Wade Chandler]

thedogfarted wrote:

> i noticed one more interesting thing - i can listen to xmms and cdplayer 
> in the same time... cdplayer continues to play even after the system is 
> halted
> 
> thedogfarted 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...
>>
>>
> 
> 
What sound server are you using?  Artsd is one example of a sound 
server.  This is an area where the linux community has to come together. 
  The standard sound system works the way you are describing.

You can use ALSA or Arts for your sound.  If you are are using Artsd you 
can change the output of XMMS to use the artsd plugin.  Artsd will allow 
multiple sound outputs.  artsdsp will start my app and redirect my sound 
system calls to artsd.  If you don't have this plugin by default you can 
download it from the xmms home page.

Sometimes, but not as often as I believe it should work, you can use 
artsdsp for you sound.  artsdsp will run your application for you 
redirecting sound system calls to arts.  Lets say I have an app call 
playmysounds.  I would do this:
artsdsp playmysounds
artsdsp will find my app on the path and run it as a child process 
redirecting sound lib calls.

What we need is a multi process kernel level sound system for /dev/dsp. 
  This means we need another layer of abstraction between the sound 
driver and the device files I believe.  Currently it does not spool in 
the manner the sound servers do.  I like to write java applications as 
well as C apps, but my java apps have to use the standard sound services 
for sound output.  Thus, my apps block the sound device, or they don't 
output sound because of another application hogging the device.

You best bet with XMMS is to use something like artsd and then to set 
XMMS to use the artsd plugin for sound output.  KDE makes using Artsd 
very easy from the control panel.

Wade