howto play audio here and hear it there

[Bill Davidsen]

Gerhard Magnus wrote:
> I'm running Fedora 11 with the gnome desktop on a small LAN. I'd like to
> run an audio player (say xmms) on box2 and hear it on box1, which is
> directly connected to my stereo. 
> 
> In the past I would connect to box1 from box2 via ssh and then run xmms
> from the command line. Now when I try doing this I get this message:
> 
> Couldn't open audio. Please check that
> Your soundcard is configured properly
> You have the correct output plugin selected
> No other program is blocking the soundcard.
> 
> I can play audio with problems from box1, so the soundcard must be OK.
> I have pulseaudio selected as the output plugin in xmms. (The same
> problem occurs with alsa and the other plugins.)
> It seems likely, then, that the problem is some other program is running
> on box1 that is blocking use of the soundcard.
> 
> Two related questions:
> (1) Does anyone know what other program this might be (gnome?) and how I
> might get around the block?

Chances are good that it is PulseAudio. I have heard that network audio will do 
this, but I never got it to work on a system with PA installed.

> (2) Isn't this the sort of simple application pulseaudio was designed
> for? Shouldn't I be able to run xmms on box2 and use pulseaudio to play
> the output on box1? Has anyone been able to do anything like this with
> pulseaudio and, if so, what settings did you use and where did you set
> them?

Can't help you, I consider PA to be people showing that they can implement the 
Windows "it's my resource and you have to follow my arcane rules to use it" 
approach to computing. I still use another distribution for audio, since alsa 
let's me solve contention instead of solving it when there isn't any.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot