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wiki:troubleshooting_exclusive_sound_card_access [2009/09/20 12:32] – created raboofwiki:troubleshooting_exclusive_sound_card_access [2013/06/02 15:45] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 If some application accesses the sound card though one of the lower audio layers (see [[audio layers overview]]), the sound card might become inaccessible and other applications might fail to open the sound card, or even hang. If some application accesses the sound card though one of the lower audio layers (see [[audio layers overview]]), the sound card might become inaccessible and other applications might fail to open the sound card, or even hang.
 +
 +===== Finding out which application is holding your sound card =====
  
 ==== OSS ==== ==== OSS ====
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 You can see which applications are using OSS (or the ALSA OSS Emulation layer) with: You can see which applications are using OSS (or the ALSA OSS Emulation layer) with:
  
-<pre> +  $ sudo fuser /dev/dsp*
-$ sudo fuser /dev/dsp* +
-</pre>+
  
 ==== ALSA ==== ==== ALSA ====
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 You can see which applications are using ALSA with: You can see which applications are using ALSA with:
  
-<pre> +  $ sudo fuser /dev/snd/pcm*  
-$ sudo fuser /dev/snd/pcm*  + 
-</pre>+===== Resolving the problem ===== 
 + 
 +==== Stopping the application holding the card ==== 
 + 
 +In most cases you can simply close or kill the application that is using your sound card. 
 + 
 +=== PulseAudio === 
 + 
 +If [[apps:all:PulseAudio]] is holding your sound card, you can stop it with 'pulseaudio -k'. 
 + 
 +=== TiMiDity++ === 
 + 
 +Some distributions start [[apps:all:timidity]] on startup. It can generally be stopped with 'sudo /etc/init.d/timidity stop' 
 + 
 +==== Using Dmix ==== 
 + 
 +[[apps:all:ALSA]] has a [[http://alsa.opensrc.org/DmixPlugin|Dmix plugin]] that allows multiple applications to use the sound card. 
 + 
 +Using [[http://alsa.opensrc.org/DmixPlugin|Dmix]] is not recommended for audio work, as it might increase latencies and reduce quality because of resampling. 
 + 
 +==== Using a sound server ==== 
 + 
 +For audio work, use [[apps:all:JACK]].
  
 +For desktop audio, you might want to consider [[apps:all:PulseAudio]] or use the [[http://alsa.opensrc.org/DmixPlugin|Dmix plugin]] mentioned above.
wiki/troubleshooting_exclusive_sound_card_access.1253442728.txt.gz · Last modified: 2009/09/20 12:32 by raboof