[linux-audio-user] skype vs audigy 2 vs onboard audio problem

From: Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu Jan 12 2006 - 15:54:04 EET

Greetings all;

I have a setup I hope to make work, one way or the other, but jurassic
software seems to be a problem.

/dev/dsp & /dev/mixer are attached, either to an SBLive Value, or to an
SB Audigy 2 Value card, I've been swapping them back and forth.

/dev/dsp1 & mixer1 *should* be attached to skype if its running.

Currently running kernel 2.6.15 and forceably installed alsa stuffs,
version 1.0.11rc2. kmix, from kde is a bit long in the tooth at
kde-3.3.0, built some time back with konstruct and it works so well I
hate to play with that.

Anyway, here is the problem:
When the Audigy 2 card is installed, kmix's input tab & screens for this
card are blanked out. When the SBLive Value card is installed, all of
this "snd-card-0" works nominally. I can get tvtime audio thru it, and
xmms seems to work, as does grip now, thru both cards depending on
which is installed. But kmix's blank input tab is confoosin :)

But skype seems tethered to the use of /dev/mixer only for its transmit
functions even if I can switch the echo123 audio from snd-card-1 to
snd-card-0 by selecting /dev/dsp instead of /dev/dsp1 in the headset
menu. When its set for /dev/dsp1, and I can hear echo123 in the
headset, the audio thats actually sent comes from whatever might be
coming thru the SBLive or Audigy 2 cards at the time.

Now if, by reverseing the aliases in my modprobe.conf and rebooting, the
cards are interchanged, then skype will work correctly because the
motherboard audio is now /dev/mixer, but then kde, tvtime, xmms et all
doesn't seem to be able to find /dev/mixer1 which would be snd-card-1
or snd-slot-1 in that scenario.

Whats the fix, other than scrapping skype, which I'm not convinced isn't
a broadband pipe into the heart of the machine on port 0 or 443 since
vz (spit) has 80 blocked. But I'd like to make it work just to prove
it can be done. So how can I 'alias' the skype call to open /dev/mixer
to actually access /dev/mixer1?

I have 'skype_dsp_hijacker' here, but its not the /dev/dsp I need to
'hijack' as thats settable from the skype menu, but the mixer, which
isn't settable. And that puppies docs, the README is a bit cryptic to
this old fart.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's
stupid bounce rules.  I do use spamassassin too. :-)
Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above
message by Gene Heskett are:
Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
Received on Thu Jan 12 16:15:10 2006

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