Linux Debian support - Killing ESD at boot up time

Author

Killing ESD at boot up time

jamiil

2007-05-23, 1:14 am

When my Debian-Etch boots up it starts the esd daemon. Having said
that, when I start XMMS or Audacity have problems playing sound files,
Totem plays the videos but without sound.
Using 'System Monitor 2.14.5, I kill esd and the other programs work
all hunky dory, but then I loose the system's sounds, you know the
ones that play every time you close or minimize a applications.
There are two things that I can do, either remove the esd daemon using
'apt-get remove' or prevent the daemon from running at start up. So,
my question to you, being more seasoned Linux users, is, what is the
best solutions?

I don't want to loose the systems sounds, but I don't want to loose
the ability to play my favorite songs.

Thanks folks, you have been very helpful in the past and I have much
to thank you for all the help you have given me.

Michael Fierro

2007-05-23, 1:13 pm

On 2007-05-23, jamiil <jalqadir@gmail.com> rambled on thusly:

> When my Debian-Etch boots up it starts the esd daemon. Having said
> that, when I start XMMS or Audacity have problems playing sound files,
> Totem plays the videos but without sound.

I am pretty sure that XMMS has an esd plugin. You should install that and
have XMMS use that for its output. For Audacity, apparently version 1.2.6
resolves the issue. You may have to set Audacity to use alsa instead of
oss.

> Using 'System Monitor 2.14.5, I kill esd and the other programs work
> all hunky dory, but then I loose the system's sounds, you know the

loose = less tight
lose = loss

> There are two things that I can do, either remove the esd daemon using
> 'apt-get remove' or prevent the daemon from running at start up. So,
> my question to you, being more seasoned Linux users, is, what is the
> best solutions?

Try this fix (from Ubuntu, but if you are using Gnome, it should still
work):

Daniel T Chen said on 2005-09-07: (permalink)
Audacity requires exclusive /dev/dsp access, and esd is still
configured to grab ALSA's OSS emulation nodes. Disable sound server
start up in System> Preferences> Sound, and change System> Preferences>
Multimedia Systems Selector> Default Audio Sink> customsink>
alsasink device=plug:dmix

> I don't want to loose the systems sounds, but I don't want to loose
> the ability to play my favorite songs.

Lose, not loose, please.

--
Michael Fierro (aka Biffster) biffster@NOSPAM-REALLYgmail.com
http://apt-get.biffster.org Y!: miguelito_fierro AIM: mfierro1

sk8-365

2007-05-23, 7:14 pm

Michael Fierro said:
<snip>
>
> Daniel T Chen said on 2005-09-07: (permalink)
> Audacity requires exclusive /dev/dsp access, and esd is still
> configured to grab ALSA's OSS emulation nodes. Disable sound server
> start up in System> Preferences> Sound, and change System> Preferences>
> Multimedia Systems Selector> Default Audio Sink> customsink>
> alsasink device=plug:dmix

Does he mean the kitchen or bathroom "sink"? (LOL)

I know, it's correct but somehow still wrong. They should have made
it "sync", yes?
--
sk8-365

John Hasler

2007-05-23, 7:14 pm

sk8-365 writes:
> I know, it's correct but somehow still wrong. They should have made it
> "sync", yes?

No. "Audio sink": where the sound goes. Compare "source".
--
John Hasler

AJackson

2007-05-24, 1:14 am

On May 23, 3:47 am, jamiil <jalqa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> When my Debian-Etch boots up it starts the esd daemon. Having said
> that, when I start XMMS or Audacity have problems playing sound files,
> Totem plays the videos but without sound.
> Using 'System Monitor 2.14.5, I kill esd and the other programs work
> all hunky dory, but then I loose the system's sounds, you know the
> ones that play every time you close or minimize a applications.
> There are two things that I can do, either remove the esd daemon using
> 'apt-get remove' or prevent the daemon from running at start up. So,
> my question to you, being more seasoned Linux users, is, what is the
> best solutions?
>
> I don't want to loose the systems sounds, but I don't want to loose
> the ability to play my favorite songs.
>
> Thanks folks, you have been very helpful in the past and I have much
> to thank you for all the help you have given me.

Are you using ALSA and not OSS sound device drivers? Install libesd-
alsa0 (or something like it), log out and in again.
It should work. OSS doesn't allow mixing sound in hardware. ALSA
does.

jamiil

2007-05-25, 1:18 am

On May 23, 8:28 pm, AJackson <anders.jack...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 23, 3:47 am, jamiil <jalqa...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Are you using ALSA and not OSS sound device drivers? Install libesd-
> alsa0 (or something like it), log out and in again.
> It should work. OSS doesn't allow mixing sound in hardware. ALSA
> does.

First of all, thanks Michael for helping me not only with my technical
short comings, but also with my spelling ones. Really! there are times
when not even I understand I post, hahahhah, but you folks are
amazingly cunning and are able to discern what I try to convey. Thanks
folks, specially you John, I did not know you for your sense of humor,
but I see that it is just as good as your helping hand, and boy do I
know that... more than once you have got me out of the mud, thanks
man, keep up the good work.
Back to the task at hand, I, believe it or not, have already done
what "Daniel T Chen said on 2005-09-07...". However, I have
something new to add to this research.
Under "Desktop->Preferences->Sound->Sound tab" there is a check box to
enables the Software Sound Mixer (ESD).
When this box is checked the system sounds are enabled, you know the
sounds that the system makes when a window is minimized or when
logging in or out of the system. However, when selected, the ESD
blocks all the applications that play sound files. Now that I have
unchecked the box all the system sounds are disabled, which is not
what I wanted. Is there a way I can have the system sounds working
with ALSA?

Thanks.

AJackson

2007-05-29, 1:13 am

On May 25, 4:25 am, jamiil <jalqa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On May 23, 8:28 pm, AJackson <anders.jack...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> First of all, thanks Michael for helping me not only with my technical
> short comings, but also with my spelling ones. Really! there are times
> when not even I understand I post, hahahhah, but you folks are
> amazingly cunning and are able to discern what I try to convey. Thanks
> folks, specially you John, I did not know you for your sense of humor,
> but I see that it is just as good as your helping hand, and boy do I
> know that... more than once you have got me out of the mud, thanks
> man, keep up the good work.
> Back to the task at hand, I, believe it or not, have already done
> what "Daniel T Chen said on 2005-09-07...". However, I have
> something new to add to this research.
> Under "Desktop->Preferences->Sound->Sound tab" there is a check box to
> enables the Software Sound Mixer (ESD).
> When this box is checked the system sounds are enabled, you know the
> sounds that the system makes when a window is minimized or when
> logging in or out of the system. However, when selected, the ESD
> blocks all the applications that play sound files. Now that I have
> unchecked the box all the system sounds are disabled, which is not
> what I wanted. Is there a way I can have the system sounds working
> with ALSA?
>
> Thanks.

It works as it should.

But to solve your "problem", have you installed package libesd-
alsa0 ?
You should NOT have plain libesd package installed, becouse that uses
OSS sound driver.

THEN if it doesn't work after you log out, you could try to use
alsasink=device plug:dmix in you multimedia sound output set up (as
told in an earlier post).

Notice that esd (sound mixed) is NOT started when you boot. It only
start when you log in to your account into your graphical environment.