Can't share audio in ALSA

[Basil Chupin]

On 25/08/2010 02:04, Gerardo wrote:
> I'm using Kubuntu 10.04 Lucid 64-bit and I'm having a problem that is
> driving me insane.  If I'm playing music on Amarok, or something in
> mplayer and another application uses the audio (i.e., KDE notification
> bell, flash video in firefox, etc...) the music stops.  The timer in
> Amarok/mplayer keeps running as if the song is still playing, but I
> can't get the audio back unless I stop playback and restart it again.
> Pausing and unpausing doesn't work.
>
> The same thing works backwards.  If I'm watching a video in firefox and
> start Amarok, then the sound in firefox goes out and I have to reload
> the page for it to come back.  I didn't have any problems in Hardy.  It
> works fine on my kids computer.
>
> I installed installed pulseaudio on this computer and later removed it
> and went back to ALSA.  I don't know if doing this fudged something.
>
> Lou
>    

I believe the reason why pulseaudio was 'created' is because it can 
share sound from a number of sources - unlike alsa, which is what you 
are now experiencing.

The only thing I can suggest is to uninstall both alsa and pulse and 
re-install them. Someone else may have a more elegant solution.

There is one more thing about pulseaudio: if you have to configure alsa 
then use the terminal mode and run "alsamixer" to see all the settings; 
if you run "alsamixergui" you will only see about 4 settings.

BC

-- 
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inverse proportion to its desirability.