Sound works randomly on Linux

Herbchef · Post by **Herbchef** » Fri May 05, 2006 12:43 am

So I'm enjoying the ZSNES goodness on Linux. However, sound seems to work randomly. I start ZSNES from a terminal, and sometimes I get the error message, "Sound init failed!" and then sound does not work.

Sometimes running "sudo zsnes" works. Sometimes running "sudo zsnes" does not work but running just "zsnes" does. Sometimes sound doesn't work either way and I have to reboot to got sound working...

It just seems random! Does anyone know how I can start to troubleshoot this problem?

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Fri May 05, 2006 1:44 am

some specifications and what linux you're using would help.

adventure_of_link · Post by **adventure_of_link** » Fri May 05, 2006 4:22 am

Check to make sure other applications weren't using the sound before you opened ZSNES.

This is one (of few) areas where windows wins. D:< But, however, iirc you can run a sound server, and these types of things shouldn't happen.

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Sat May 06, 2006 11:58 am

for me, linux sound seems to work better. In windows i usually cant get more than 1 thing to acess the sound. in linux i can.

Post by **Agozer** » Sat May 06, 2006 4:39 pm

paulguy wrote:In windows i usually cant get more than 1 thing to acess the sound.

With DirectSound you can.

kevman · Post by **kevman** » Sun May 07, 2006 11:06 pm

That depends.

Under Linux ALSA (and I think, OSS) can only handle as many simultanious sounds as your soundcard can. If you have a half-decent sound card, then this number is likely too high to practically hit.

If you have a cheap-ass shitty onboard sound card, then it can't hardware miz any sounds together, and ALSA will only take sound from one app at a time. If one app allocates the sound card, no others can make sound.

This is bypassed by using a sound server such as aRts, which will use the CPU to mix all the inputs into one output and send only one stream to ALSA. However, it consumes RAM and CPU time to do it, so I keep it disabled (my Audigy supports some hundred simultanious sounds).

I think the same is true for Windows. Using the kernel driver limits you to however many sounds your card has, but Directsound will take of you. It depends, in both cases, on what the app wants to use. If you have aRts under Linuesand an app "steals" the single sound stream, you are still screwed.