Ubuntu

  1. Bug #76876
  2. Comment #0

Comment 0 for bug 76876

Revision history for this message
flickerfly (josiah-ritchie) wrote : /dev/dsp busy, but no program using it

Previously discussed at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=313755, this bug presents itself to Edgy Eft users, perhaps only ones who upgraded from Dapper.

These commands pretty much tell the story:

$ sudo fuser /dev/dsp
$ sudo lsof /dev/dsp
$ sudo cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp
bash: /dev/dsp: Device or resource busy
$

The result is that any program dependent on sound is unable to speak with the sound card. After a period of time it will reset itself and sound is restored until it next freezes up. It affects systems using OSS and ALSA.

If the user logs out and back in, sound is restored for a time.

The only thing I see related to sound in 'ps ax' when the /dev/dsp is busy is a couple esd lines:
$ ps ax|grep esd
 6322 ? Ss 0:00 /bin/sh -c /usr/bin/esd -terminate -nobeeps -as 1 -spawnfd 19
 6323 ? SL 0:06 /usr/bin/esd -terminate -nobeeps -as 1 -spawnfd 19