[uomiarz]

I am happy with Ubuntu however some of the little things drives me (or more likely my family) crazy.

Whenever I start switching between MythTV and XBMC at some point sound just stops playing (stereo) in XBMC. Reboot fixes it.

Every now and then after reboot sound is muted.

I was wondering if there is other linux distro that people use without sound issues. I need pulse audio to work (or something else that will allow mixing different sound sources)

thx

XBMC 9.11 Camelot from PPA
Karmic Koala
Linux nexus 2.6.31-16-generic #53-Ubuntu SMP

[pashdown]

Remove pulse audio.

Do the ALSA setup in this thread.

Use this asound.conf:

Code:

pcm.!hdmi-remap {
type asym
playback.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "remap-surround71"
}
}

pcm.!remap-surround71 {
  type route
  slave.pcm "dmixer"
  ttable {
    0.0= 1
    1.1= 1
    2.4= 1
    3.5= 1
    4.2= 1
    5.3= 1
    6.6= 1
    7.7= 1
  }
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
pcm.dmixer {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    slave {
        pcm "hw:0,3"
        #period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 8192
        #periods 128
        rate 44100
     }
     bindings {
        0 0
        1 1
     }
}
ctl.mixer0 {
    type hw
    card 0
}

[graysky]

Try Arch if you're looking for another distro.

[blandoon]

If you really want to switch to another distro, you could also try Gentoo, and add -pulseaudio to your USE flags, thus causing XBMC to be built from source without PulseAudio support enabled.

(Disclaimer: I chose Gentoo because I'm used to it; if you have more experience on other distros there is a pretty steep learning curve.)

[uomiarz]

Remove pulse audio.

Do the ALSA setup in this thread.

Use this asound.conf:

Code:

pcm.!hdmi-remap {
type asym
playback.pcm {
type plug
slave.pcm "remap-surround71"
}
}

pcm.!remap-surround71 {
  type route
  slave.pcm "dmixer"
  ttable {
    0.0= 1
    1.1= 1
    2.4= 1
    3.5= 1
    4.2= 1
    5.3= 1
    6.6= 1
    7.7= 1
  }
}

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
pcm.dmixer {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    slave {
        pcm "hw:0,3"
        #period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 8192
        #periods 128
        rate 44100
     }
     bindings {
        0 0
        1 1
     }
}
ctl.mixer0 {
    type hw
    card 0
}

As I understand this will not let me mix different sounds sources together?
I need internet radio to work at the same time with XBMC (just an exmaple)
Besides setup is done for HDMI and I am on SPDIF

thx

[uomiarz]

Try Arch if you're looking for another distro.

Can you mix different sound sources together? XBMC is playing a movie and Skype is running in the back waiting for calls?

thx

[uomiarz]

If you really want to switch to another distro, you could also try Gentoo, and add -pulseaudio to your USE flags, thus causing XBMC to be built from source without PulseAudio support enabled.

(Disclaimer: I chose Gentoo because I'm used to it; if you have more experience on other distros there is a pretty steep learning curve.)

I need pulse audio (or equivalent) to work. The goal is to have two (or more) sound sources to be able to play together (XBMC+Skype is the best example)

thx

[rodercot]

HI,

How do you switch between the two myth and xbmc. Are you running Mythbuntu then or a full distro with myth added.

I have not used spdif in a long time but I use appswitch.pl linked to the LiveTV button on my remote. which will Kill All Mythfrontend.real when xbmc is running and vice versa.

here is a link.

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/communit...emote.html

When I started using this app my audio problems went away. If you are using pulse then this likely will not help you.

Regards,

Dave

[uomiarz]

I am using same script to switch between XBMC and MythTV (and I add Boxee to it)
It works perfect but sometimes I loose audio in XBMC (stereo in particular) and I need to reboot.

It is hard to believe that there is no linux distro without pulse audio working correctly (and XBMC using it)

[ion_man]

I am using same script to switch between XBMC and MythTV (and I add Boxee to it)
It works perfect but sometimes I loose audio in XBMC (stereo in particular) and I need to reboot.

It is hard to believe that there is no linux distro without pulse audio working correctly (and XBMC using it)

In Mandriva 2010.0 Pulseaudio seems to be working fine for almost everyone, for me it's the first distro release where I didn't uninstall Pulseaudio like I normally do.

[uomiarz]

In Mandriva 2010.0 Pulseaudio seems to be working fine for almost everyone, for me it's the first distro release where I didn't uninstall Pulseaudio like I normally do.

That sounds promising. And how about installing XBMC (from RPMs) or building from svn. Pretty straight forward ?
thx

EDIT: Just found your link to Camelot version. Beautiful. Didn't play with mandriva for a while ( i stopped sometime when it was still mandrake and switch to debian) but I will give it a try and post some report here.
thx again

[pashdown]

As I understand this will not let me mix different sounds sources together?
I need internet radio to work at the same time with XBMC (just an exmaple)
Besides setup is done for HDMI and I am on SPDIF

thx

No, it does allow you to mix. ALSA can handle mixing through "dmix". All this wailing about getting pulse-audio to work is pointless IMHO. You don't need pulse-audio to get software audio mixing. The only drawback is that it does analog mixing only, which is all pulse-audio does too.

[uomiarz]

No, it does allow you to mix. ALSA can handle mixing through "dmix". All this wailing about getting pulse-audio to work is pointless IMHO. You don't need pulse-audio to get software audio mixing. The only drawback is that it does analog mixing only, which is all pulse-audio does too.

Thanks for clarifying that. Would you know how my config file should look like to use dmix correctly? I am using SPIDF only to reciver.

I just updated alsa (using ubuntu forum alsa update script)

Code:

$ cat /proc/asound/version
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.22.1.
Compiled on Jan  5 2010 for kernel 2.6.31-16-generic (SMP).

Code:

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: VT1708B Analog [VT1708B Analog]
  Subdevices: 2/2
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: VT1708B Digital [VT1708B Digital]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code:

aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=Intel
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Intel,DEV=0
    HDA Intel, VT1708B Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

Only IEC958 is being used
thx

[pashdown]

Based on what you posted, you should take the asound.conf that I put up earlier and change pcm "hw:0,3" to either hw:0,0 or hw:0,1. I'm not sure, test both. Once that is done, the analog "default" output in the XBMC System/Audio config should play sound. Do the tests for left and right that are posted on that ALSA config page I mentioned.

[ion_man]

That sounds promising. And how about installing XBMC (from RPMs) or building from svn. Pretty straight forward ?
thx

EDIT: Just found your link to Camelot version. Beautiful. Didn't play with mandriva for a while ( i stopped sometime when it was still mandrake and switch to debian) but I will give it a try and post some report here.
thx again

The first post of the following thread should help you get going with Mandriva:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1193453