> > Is there anywhere I can refer to for an easy way to replace OSS with
> > alsa?
>
> apt-get install alsa-oss alsa-base alsa-utils alsa-modules-2.4-386
> kernel-image-2.4-386
>
> Make sure that the OSS driver is not in /etc/modules, and that you don't
> have any alias sound-slot-0 entry in /etc/modutils/*. Unload the OSS
> driver (or reboot), login at the command line, and run alsaconf (if you
> use discover, this is probably not necessary, it will load the driver
> automaticallc). Run alsamixer to adjust the volume. That should be all.

Thank you very much, Andreas. Yes, that's all it takes to replace OSS with alsa. Just for the archive, here are all that I did:

$ lsmod | grep _audio
via82cxxx_audio        17404   0

$ grep -i via /etc/modules || echo no
no

$ grep sound-slot /etc/modutils/* || echo no
no

debfoster alsa-oss alsa-base alsa-utils alsa-modules-2.4-k7 kernel-image-2.4-k7

rmmod via82cxxx_audio

then reboot. (I have discover1, in this case, running alsaconf will give me: No supported PnP or PCI card found.)

Thanks again Andreas!

T

> > Thank you very much, Andreas. Yes, that's all it takes to replace OSS
> > with alsa...
>
> I tested with "play a.wav", but all else seem to need more twisting:
>
> $ ogg123 b.ogg
> Audio Device:   OSS audio driver output
> Error: Cannot open device oss.

The oss device is /dev/dsp. What are its permissions? What happens if you tell ogg123 to use the alsa playback method instead of the default (which seems to be oss)?

> xmms -- no card found.

What is your xmms output plugin? If it's not alsa, try using that one.

> mplayer -- Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.

try some of the other output plugins that mplayer -vo help provides. Check your .mplayer/config file, to see what you specify as the default.

> So, any system wide setting I need to twist? Or I should tackle each tool
> individually?

Oh, and don't forget to check to make sure that the sound device isn't locked by a sound daemon, such as arts or esd. If it is, you have the option of either killing the sound daemon, or specifically using it. I believe xmms and mplayer have options for both, but I don't know about ogg123.

Justin Guerin

> xmms -- no card found.
>
> mplayer -- Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.

Given that you have the -oss modules loaded this is surprising. Perhaps the permissions on the device files are not set correctly.

Here are other things to try.

Reconfigure these programs to output to ALSA. E.g., in xmms, go to

Options|Preferences|Audio I/O Plugins|Output Plugin

and select "ALSA output plugin".

If you are running esd then you should select "eSound output plugin" here instead.

If this does not work for some reason then select "OSS Driver" and re-run OSS using the aoss program loader (in the alsa-oss package):

aoss xmms

aoss emulates the OSS interface in a userspace library.

Thomas Hood