[plug] Alsa problems

[John Knight]

>Whats the deal with Alsa? It seems all modern linux systems use it, and
>on changing to alsa today from OSS (for a test), I found it has less
>capabilities, just not as nice and easy to work with.

Less capabilities? What about particularly important features like surround 
sound?  What about the fact that when I bring up a mixer I've got a plethora 
of options that never existed with OSS? If you look at something like kmix 
when it's built from source to be sued with alsa instead of OSS, the two are 
completely different and yo uwouldn't get back to OSS any day!

>The sound card im
>using is a 'es1371' one, a vibra or something. A single application can
>make sound no problems, but multiple applications cannot whereas they
>could when using OSS.

It's probably something to do with a primitive, partially implemented or 
simply buggy driver. My SBLive work a treat and I run several apps all the 
time and the card handles 'em all. Ever run MPlayer and xine accidentally at 
the same time? There's a good test, works great for me.

>With OSS though, one (or more) program(s) could use SDL output while the
>actual /dev/dsp device was in use by another application. Under alsa,
>none of this works, and not to mention that its impossible to compile a
>32 bit mplayer on a 64 bit system with ALSA (64 bit) support, hence my
>mplayer (32 bit so I can use win32 dlls) cannot use ALSA either, though
>can still use that OSS compatibility. Also, no two applications
>supporting ALSA can make sound at the same time. This just seems
>primitive from where I'm standing.

A 32 bit OSS compatability probably...

>Obviously the above cant be the same for everyone. Surely if it was then
>nobody would use ALSA, so what am I missing here?

Aye, probably. Don't worry, I'm not being nasty, just responding in the same 
manner as the email was written. I take it you're using a source built ALSA, 
and hte latest from the site? If not, do so. If you are, try the binary 
instead. If you have really old ALSA, like 0.5, then the obvious thing to do 
is to upgrade. I ca ndo all of the things you describe, so I'd say it's 
eithe rthe card or the driver if your ALSA's reasonably new.