sound from thin clients playing on server speakers

dbclinton dbclin at gmail.com
Sun Mar 9 18:23:44 GMT 2008


On Sun, 2008-03-09 at 10:39 +0000, Gavin McCullagh wrote:
> > My server has been experiencing trouble with alsamixer (it won't load
> > and returns "PULSEAUDIO: Unable to connect: Connection refused
> > alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: Connection
> > refused"). Sound Recorder similarly doesn't load. And don't even think
> > about Skype. Weirdly, the clients can load Sound Recorder (though it
> > won't actually record).
> 
> Microphone sound (ie sending sound from client back to application
> on server) is not, as yet, supported.  This does stop sound recorder,
> skype, etc. from being useful.

That would certainly explain it. I actually have a telephone->USB
adapter (plugged into the server) that I had hoped would allow a client
to access the Skype software as though he's on the server and talk via
the cordless phone but I haven't got Edubuntu to work properly with the
device yet - it recognizes the device (i.e., it's an option in Volume
Control/Change Device) but there's no sound to or from the device.
That's another thing: why does my Volume Control (from the panel) work
even though alsamixer doesn't load from terminal?
> 
> > However, the problem I'm focusing on now is the misdirection of thin
> > client sound. As I type this, the many (and strange) sounds from my
> > kid's session of Scratch on his client are coming through my (server's)
> > speakers - and not through his!
> 
> What applications are we talking about here?

Scratch is a bit unusual (scratch.mit.edu/ - it's a programming
environment for kids) in that it's really a Windows executable running
in Linux under Squeak (see
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?pid=275). I think there was
something else being misdirected but can't remember right now.

>    Can you try some of the
> known working ones (Movie Player, Rhythmbox) and tell us how they work?

Movie Player and Rhythmbox (not to mention Audacity minus the recording
feature) are working fine.

>   If
> you run 
> 	echo $ESPEAKER
> in a shell on the thin client, what do you see?

I get: 
192.168.0.245:16001

Thanks so much,
David




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