[gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Alex Schuster]

Hi there!

I cannot access /dev/dsp once Amarok 2 has started playback, even if the 
playback was stopped. I have to close Amarok, then /dev/dsp is accessible 
again. Does anyone know why this is?

This happens in KDE4, 2.6.28-tuxonice-r3 kernel, audio device according to 
lspci is "ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller".
I do not have this problem with my older machine, running KDE3 and Amarok 1.

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Dienstag 05 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> Hi there!
>
> I cannot access /dev/dsp once Amarok 2 has started playback, even if the
> playback was stopped. I have to close Amarok, then /dev/dsp is accessible
> again. Does anyone know why this is?
>
> This happens in KDE4, 2.6.28-tuxonice-r3 kernel, audio device according to
> lspci is "ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller".
> I do not have this problem with my older machine, running KDE3 and Amarok
> 1.
>
> 	Wonko

no problem here. So.. maybe you forgot something. dmix should do everything 
for you. Are you using the xine backend for amarok/phonon?

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Alex Schuster]

Volker Armin Hemmann writes:

> On Dienstag 05 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:

> > I cannot access /dev/dsp once Amarok 2 has started playback, even if
> > the playback was stopped. I have to close Amarok, then /dev/dsp is
> > accessible again. Does anyone know why this is?
[...]
> no problem here. So.. maybe you forgot something. dmix should do
> everything for you. Are you using the xine backend for amarok/phonon?

Thanks for the info, Armin. So I know it _should_ work.

I'm using the xine backend. I forgot about this settings until you mentioned 
phonon, that let me find it again in the system settings.

I tried changing it to gstreamer. After I did so, even amarok was unable to 
play any sound, and switching back to xine did not help either. I had to log 
out and in again. From then on, when starting quake3-bin, the display 
freezed, and I had to kill X. There was no sound. Amarok was not started 
yet. I also experienced a couple of X crashes after starting quake3 [*] and 
got back to the kdm screen. Then I had to do some work and did not play more 
with the settings. Now I'm also busy, I will play a little with it in the 
evening.

[*] quake3 is the open source variant, it works well with ALSA, but does not 
work with punkbuster anti-cheating software, so I need the quake3-bin 
version running.

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Mittwoch 06 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann writes:
> > On Dienstag 05 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > > I cannot access /dev/dsp once Amarok 2 has started playback, even if
> > > the playback was stopped. I have to close Amarok, then /dev/dsp is
> > > accessible again. Does anyone know why this is?
>
> [...]
>
> > no problem here. So.. maybe you forgot something. dmix should do
> > everything for you. Are you using the xine backend for amarok/phonon?
>
> Thanks for the info, Armin. So I know it _should_ work.
>
> I'm using the xine backend. I forgot about this settings until you
> mentioned phonon, that let me find it again in the system settings.
>
> I tried changing it to gstreamer. After I did so, even amarok was unable to
> play any sound, and switching back to xine did not help either. I had to
> log out and in again. From then on, when starting quake3-bin, the display
> freezed, and I had to kill X. There was no sound. Amarok was not started
> yet. I also experienced a couple of X crashes after starting quake3 [*] and
> got back to the kdm screen. Then I had to do some work and did not play
> more with the settings. Now I'm also busy, I will play a little with it in
> the evening.
>
> [*] quake3 is the open source variant, it works well with ALSA, but does
> not work with punkbuster anti-cheating software, so I need the quake3-bin
> version running.
>
> 	Wonko

you could also check the xine settings - start xine, got to the audio settings 
and check them.

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Alex Schuster]

Volker Armin Hemmann writes:

> On Mittwoch 06 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > Volker Armin Hemmann writes:
> > > On Dienstag 05 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > > > I cannot access /dev/dsp once Amarok 2 has started playback, even
> > > > if the playback was stopped. I have to close Amarok, then /dev/dsp
> > > > is accessible again. Does anyone know why this is?
> >
> > [...]
> >
> > > no problem here. So.. maybe you forgot something. dmix should do
> > > everything for you. Are you using the xine backend for amarok/phonon?
> >
> > Thanks for the info, Armin. So I know it _should_ work.
> >
> > I'm using the xine backend. I forgot about this settings until you
> > mentioned phonon, that let me find it again in the system settings.
[...]
> you could also check the xine settings - start xine, got to the audio
> settings and check them.

Not many settings there... okay, I had to enable expert mode. I played 
around with some of the the settings, but I see no change. And when I set 
the audio driver to null, xine does not give audio output, but KDE/Amarok 
still do. I restarted alsasound and KDE, same result. How can that be?

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Freitag 08 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann writes:
> > On Mittwoch 06 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > > Volker Armin Hemmann writes:
> > > > On Dienstag 05 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > > > > I cannot access /dev/dsp once Amarok 2 has started playback, even
> > > > > if the playback was stopped. I have to close Amarok, then /dev/dsp
> > > > > is accessible again. Does anyone know why this is?
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > > > no problem here. So.. maybe you forgot something. dmix should do
> > > > everything for you. Are you using the xine backend for amarok/phonon?
> > >
> > > Thanks for the info, Armin. So I know it _should_ work.
> > >
> > > I'm using the xine backend. I forgot about this settings until you
> > > mentioned phonon, that let me find it again in the system settings.
>
> [...]
>
> > you could also check the xine settings - start xine, got to the audio
> > settings and check them.
>
> Not many settings there... okay, I had to enable expert mode. I played
> around with some of the the settings, but I see no change. And when I set
> the audio driver to null, xine does not give audio output, but KDE/Amarok
> still do. I restarted alsasound and KDE, same result. How can that be?
>
> 	Wonko

when you go to the multimedia settings in system settings - are those ok? 
right devices? xine set?

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Alex Schuster]

Volker Armin Hemmann writes:

> when you go to the multimedia settings in system settings - are those ok?
> right devices? xine set?

The backend is still set to Xine. As devices I have "HDA ATI SB (HDA 
Generic)", "HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI (HDMI Audio Output)", "Jack Audio 
Connection Kit" and "Esound (ESD)" listed. All except for the 2nd one give 
output when I press the Test button, although only with the first one the 
sound is perfect, with the others I seem to miss a tiny fraction of the 
start of the test music. I wonder why this works at all, I seem to have 
jack-audio-connection-kit and esound installed, but I cannot see them 
running with ps while the sound plays.

My sound device according to lspci -v is:
01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 960f               
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19         
        Memory at fdffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]  
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3             
        Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ 
Count=1/1 Enable-
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel                                                
        Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel                                                  

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Freitag 08 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann writes:
> > when you go to the multimedia settings in system settings - are those ok?
> > right devices? xine set?
>
> The backend is still set to Xine. As devices I have "HDA ATI SB (HDA
> Generic)", "HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI (HDMI Audio Output)", "Jack Audio
> Connection Kit" and "Esound (ESD)" listed. All except for the 2nd one give
> output when I press the Test button, although only with the first one the
> sound is perfect, with the others I seem to miss a tiny fraction of the
> start of the test music. I wonder why this works at all, I seem to have
> jack-audio-connection-kit and esound installed, but I cannot see them
> running with ps while the sound plays.
>
> My sound device according to lspci -v is:
> 01:05.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RS780 Azalia controller
>         Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Device 960f
>         Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
>         Memory at fdffc000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
>         Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
>         Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+
> Count=1/1 Enable-
>         Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
>         Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
>
> 	Wonko

wait you have esd and jack running? stop both (and in case of esd remove it) 
and retry.

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Alex Schuster]

Volker Armin Hemmann writes:

> On Freitag 08 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:

> > The backend is still set to Xine. As devices I have "HDA ATI SB (HDA
> > Generic)", "HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI (HDMI Audio Output)", "Jack Audio
> > Connection Kit" and "Esound (ESD)" listed. All except for the 2nd one
> > give output when I press the Test button, although only with the first
> > one the sound is perfect, with the others I seem to miss a tiny
> > fraction of the start of the test music. I wonder why this works at
> > all, I seem to have jack-audio-connection-kit and esound installed, but
> > I cannot see them running with ps while the sound plays.
[...]
> wait you have esd and jack running? stop both (and in case of esd remove
> it) and retry.

No, I meant that media-sound/jack-audio-connection-kit (but not media-
sound/jack) and media-sound/esound are installed, but I did not see them 
running. Anyway, I explicitely deactivated the esd use flag and unmerged 
esound. Now both "Jack Audio Connection Kit" and "Esound (ESD)" devices no 
longer generate the test sound in system settings -> multimedial. That is, 
the sound still appears, but I get a message that the devices are not 
available, and that "HDA ATI SB (HDA Generic)" will be used instead.

But still, /dev/dsp is busy with amarok running.

	Wonko

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Freitag 08 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> Volker Armin Hemmann writes:
> > On Freitag 08 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > > The backend is still set to Xine. As devices I have "HDA ATI SB (HDA
> > > Generic)", "HDA ATI HDMI, ATI HDMI (HDMI Audio Output)", "Jack Audio
> > > Connection Kit" and "Esound (ESD)" listed. All except for the 2nd one
> > > give output when I press the Test button, although only with the first
> > > one the sound is perfect, with the others I seem to miss a tiny
> > > fraction of the start of the test music. I wonder why this works at
> > > all, I seem to have jack-audio-connection-kit and esound installed, but
> > > I cannot see them running with ps while the sound plays.
>
> [...]
>
> > wait you have esd and jack running? stop both (and in case of esd remove
> > it) and retry.
>
> No, I meant that media-sound/jack-audio-connection-kit (but not media-
> sound/jack) and media-sound/esound are installed, but I did not see them
> running. Anyway, I explicitely deactivated the esd use flag and unmerged
> esound. Now both "Jack Audio Connection Kit" and "Esound (ESD)" devices no
> longer generate the test sound in system settings -> multimedial. That is,
> the sound still appears, but I get a message that the devices are not
> available, and that "HDA ATI SB (HDA Generic)" will be used instead.
>
> But still, /dev/dsp is busy with amarok running.
>
> 	Wonko

hmm, I have to admit, I have no idea. 

Re: [gentoo-user] /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy (when Amarok 2 is running)

[Alex Schuster]

Volker Armin Hemmann writes:

> On Freitag 08 Mai 2009, Alex Schuster wrote:
> > But still, /dev/dsp is busy with amarok running.

> hmm, I have to admit, I have no idea.

Me too. Well, thanks anyway for your support. I will live with that for a 
while, there are worse things I will need to take care of first, I think :)

	Wonko