Audio device cannot be accessed by Ekiga when certain sound events are enabled in GNOME Sound Prefs

[Jeff Sereno]

When you have the "Select check box" and "Click on command button" sound events in GNOME assigned to anything other than "No sound" in System->Preferences->Sound->Sounds, Ekiga cannot access the audio device and fails with the following error: "Failed to open device. Impossible to open the selected audio device (Default) for playing. Please check your audio setup, the permissions and that the device is not busy".

Observed under Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 and Ubuntu Hardy 8.04.1. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions tested with identical results.

Steps to reproduce:
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Phase 1 - Confirm normal operation
- Vanilla Ubuntu has no sounds set in System->Preferences->Sound->Sounds by default except for the login/logout events.
- Load Ekiga and go to Edit->Configuration Druid.
- Click Forward until you get to the "Audio Devices - 7/10" page.
- Leave audio output & input options as "Default".
- Click on the "Test Settings" button. Test window will appear and will record and playback audio as expected.
- Close Ekiga.

Phase 2 - Reproduce the bug
- Go to System->Preferences->Sound->Sounds.
- Assign a sound file to the "Select check box" event.
- Log out of Gnome and back in again so the change takes effect.
- Load Ekiga and go to Edit->Configuration Druid.
- Click Forward until you get to the "Audio Devices - 7/10" page.
- Leave audio output & input options as "Default".
- Click on the "Test Settings" button. Test window will NOT appear and you get an error dialog saying "Failed to open device".
- Close Ekiga.

Phase 3 - correct the bug
- Go back to System->Preferences->Sound->Sounds.
- Assign "No sound" to the "Select check box" event.
- Log out of Gnome and back in again so the change takes effect.
- Load Ekiga and go to Edit->Configuration Druid.
- Click Forward until you get to the "Audio Devices - 7/10" page.
- Leave audio output & input options as "Default".
- Click on the "Test Settings" button. Test window will appear and will record and playback audio as expected.
- Close Ekiga.

Phase 4 - reproduce the second bug
- Go to System->Preferences->Sound->Sounds.
- Assign a sound file to the "Click on command button" event.
- Log out of Gnome and back in again so the change takes effect.
- Load Ekiga and go to Edit->Configuration Druid.
- Click Forward until you get to the "Audio Devices - 7/10" page.
- Leave audio output & input options as "Default".
- Click on the "Test Settings" button. Test window will NOT appear and you get an error dialog saying "Failed to open device".
- Close Ekiga.

Phase 5 - prove that the other events do not impact Ekiga
- Go to System->Preferences->Sound->Sounds.
- Assign a sound file to EVERY event EXCEPT for the "Select check box" and "Click on command button" events.
- Log out of Gnome and back in again so the change takes effect.
- Load Ekiga and go to Edit->Configuration Druid.
- Click Forward until you get to the "Audio Devices - 7/10" page.
- Leave audio output & input options as "Default".
- Click on the "Test Settings" button. Test window will appear and will record and playback audio as expected.
- Close Ekiga.

I'm guessing that the audio device is indeed being kept busy under those two sound events, so the bug is likely to be in the GNOME Sound Prefs app rather than Ekiga.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Intrepid Ibex. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to New. Thanks again!.

[wotamuckinfuddle (fireflyslightatnight)]

im also having problems with this bug, im a little confused as to what information you need to to look at this bug

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

Hello,

Can you try this:
- Assign a sound file to the "Select check box" event.
- Start Ekiga like this:
$ pasuspender -- ekiga

[wotamuckinfuddle (fireflyslightatnight)]

--- On Sat, 28/2/09, Yannick Defais <email address hidden> wrote:
From: Yannick Defais <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Bug 246996] Re: Audio device cannot be accessed by Ekiga when certain sound events are enabled in GNOME Sound Prefs
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Saturday, 28 February, 2009, 5:51 PM

Hello,

Can you try this:
- Assign a sound file to the "Select check box" event.
- Start Ekiga like this:
$ pasuspender -- ekiga

--
Audio device cannot be accessed by Ekiga when certain sound events are enabled
in GNOME Sound Prefs
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/246996
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Hi :)
I selected a sound for "select check box" event, i logged out for changes to take effect.
i then ran:
$ pasuspender -- ekiga
im getting the message: "bash: pasuspender: command not found"
Many Thanx. Shane

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

Hi,

Is this issue still valid using Ubuntu Jaunty? (It ships with Ekiga 3.2.0)

Best regards,
Yannick

[Jeff Sereno (jsereno)]

Yannick, this no longer appears to be a problem in Jaunty. I conducted the following test:

- Vanilla installation of Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 64-bit with all updates to today installed.
- Went to System->Preferences->Sound and then clicked on the Sounds tab.
- Enabled the "Play sound effects when buttons are clicked" checkbox.
- Confirmed that the default beep sound plays for the "Toggle button clicked" sound event in the Sound Preferences tool (but clicking on the triangle play button).
- Changed the "Toggle button clicked" sound event to another sound (in this case, the "question.wav" file).
- Confirmed that the new sound plays by clicking on the triangle play button.
- Closed the Sound Preferences.
- Logged out and then back in again.
- Launched Ekiga (v3.2.0 as bundled with Jaunty).
- Setup an account. Noted that the new question.wav sound did indeed play when I clicked on checkbox buttons.
- Setup a Logitech Communicator STX webcam which includes a built-in mic. Ekiga automatically detected and setup the device for me.
- Conducted an Echo Test call. I could hear the echo tester and was able to successfully record and hear back my own voice.
- Further random changes in Sound Preferences did not appear to affect Ekiga.

Repeated the above test with a Ubuntu Jaunty 32-bit installation in a Virtualbox VM with the same results, ie: no problems.

As a side note, starting Ekiga with "pasuspender" appears to work fine as well.

Conclusion: The problem that was originally raised by me with Hardy has been resolved in Jaunty (I never actually tested in Intrepid because I switched to Skype at that time).

[Yannick Defais (sevmek)]

Thank you very much. Tagging this as fix released.

Best regards,
Yannick