Ekiga uses ALSA layer, but sound card is blocked by esd

[Pēteris Krišjānis]

GnomeMeeting 2.0, aka Ekiga uses (or gives only choice to use) ALSA for sound. However, default desktop uses ESD for sound and Gstreamer ESD output for Rhythmbox and other gst backend using apps. So, when I try to use First Time Wizard, I get error message when I try to test sound device for it.

[Bernhard Schmidt (berni)]

Same here. I'm not even sure whether this is supposed to happen, since ALSA should be able to mix several audio streams. E.g. it is possible to run several mplayer instances with direct ALSA output parallel, as is running mplayer and esd. But ekiga only works when NO other application accessing sound is running (I have to stop mplayer and kill esd before I can run ekiga reliable).

[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

I see this too, even when no other application using audio is started.

Upgrading severity, since having to issue a "killall esd" before starting ekiga makes ekiga unusable for most users.

[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

This *might* be similar to http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=329015

[Pēteris Krišjānis (pecisk-gmail)]

For additional reference, see also this
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330636

[Tero Karvinen (karvinen+launchpad)]

Ekiga "First Time Configuration Assistant" crashed when pressed "Test Settings" on "Audio Devices - page 7/10" and rhythmbox was running on the background. Using Dapper Flight 5 with latest updates.

[Lars Ljung (larslj)]

I had the same problem when using the device named after my soundcard, the "Default" device however works fine (this is with breezy and binaries from ekiga.org)

[Emmanuel Touzery (emmanuel-touzery)]

the upstream bug is:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330586

but it was closed at NOTGNOME, because it's an ESD bug.

so the bug to follow now is:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=334478
"when asked to standby, esd doesn't release the device fast enough"

additionally the following ubuntu bug about ESD was submitted related to this issue:
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/esound/+bug/34818

[Angelique Sauvant (angelique)]

If you use esddsp it's not solve the problem?

[depe (depe-ubuntu)]

I tried to kill esd daemon but I didn't succeed to let ekiga (2.0.1-0ubuntu3) run on my dapper beta + all updates.

Same kind of behavior occurs with wengphone (0.99+svn4511-4ubuntu2)

I remember that ekiga worked for a while with Dapper Flight 5

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

esd in Dapper automatically releases the sound device if it is not being used. Is anyone still experiencing a problem? If so, please check whether any of your applications are using esd.

[Brad Pitcher (bradpitcher)]

Yes, I am still experiencing a problem. I watched a movie trailer in firefox while at the same time listening to a podcast in Rhythmbox and that worked fine, but when I tried to make a call with Ekiga, there was an error opening the "audio in" stream.

[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

On 03/05/06 at 05:53 -0000, Brad Pitcher wrote:
> Yes, I am still experiencing a problem. I watched a movie trailer in
> firefox while at the same time listening to a podcast in Rhythmbox and
> that worked fine, but when I tried to make a call with Ekiga, there was
> an error opening the "audio in" stream.

Are you trying to do that at the same time (ekiga + listening to
podcast) ? If so, it's normal, since ekiga need exclusive access to the
audio device.

If you aren't doing this at the same time, do you wait for some time
after the device is released by both rhythmbox and firefox ? does ps x
|grep esd show esd running ?
--
| Lucas Nussbaum
| <email address hidden> http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
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[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

On 03/05/06 at 04:34 -0000, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> esd in Dapper automatically releases the sound device if it is not being
> used. Is anyone still experiencing a problem? If so, please check
> whether any of your applications are using esd.

Well, this problem could also come from bug #38244 (esd doesn't exit
automatically after log in).

I'm still seeing this.
--
| Lucas Nussbaum
| <email address hidden> http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
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[Brad Pitcher (bradpitcher)]

I guess I misunderstood what this bug was about. In that case, is there a
bug open for my problem? I hope I don't have to live with not being able to
receive a call when I'm listening to music. I mean, obviously I'm not going
to talk to someone while I listen to music because I wouldn't be able to
here them, I just want the call to go through without those error dialogs
popping up so I can pause the musice and take the call.

On 5/3/06, Lucas Nussbaum <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> On 03/05/06 at 05:53 -0000, Brad Pitcher wrote:
> > Yes, I am still experiencing a problem. I watched a movie trailer in
> > firefox while at the same time listening to a podcast in Rhythmbox and
> > that worked fine, but when I tried to make a call with Ekiga, there was
> > an error opening the "audio in" stream.
>
> Are you trying to do that at the same time (ekiga + listening to
> podcast) ? If so, it's normal, since ekiga need exclusive access to the
> audio device.
>
> If you aren't doing this at the same time, do you wait for some time
> after the device is released by both rhythmbox and firefox ? does ps x
> |grep esd show esd running ?
> --
> | Lucas Nussbaum
> | <email address hidden> http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
> | jabber: <email address hidden> GPG: 1024D/023B3F4F |
>
> ** Changed in: ekiga (Ubuntu)
> Status: Needs Info => Unconfirmed
>
> --
> Ekiga uses ALSA layer, but sound card is blocked by esd
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/30578
>

--
"Peace begins with a smile" -- Mother Theresa

[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

From my POV, this bug is about the fact that under some circumstances,
ekiga doesn't work at all because of esd (even if you are not listening
to music). So your problem is a seperate issue. Maybe you should file a
different bug for it, maybe in the gnome bugzilla, since it's clearly
not limited to Ubuntu.

Lucas

[Andreas Lloyd (lloydinho)]

I can confirm that Ekiga spouts an error message when you test the sound (see Lucas' related bug upstream).

But when I persisted in spite of the error message, Ekiga did work (with the test sound settings in step 7 of the Configuration Wizard): Both recording and playing of that recording.

[depe (depe-ubuntu)]

I solved my problem doing this:

rm .asoundrc*

Now both Ekiga and WengoPhone are working fine on my Dapper Beta + all updates.

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

Can everybody else try denon's suggestion?

[Guillermo Gutiérrez (capitanterrex)]

I don't have that file :S

terrex@belinda:~$ ls .asoundrc*
ls: .asoundrc*: No existe el fichero o el directorio
terrex@belinda:~$

[mr_elch (bugreport-gmx)]

Don't have that file too, but the same problem with ekiga v2.0.1+all ubuntu updates. Any other ideas?

[sam tygier (samtygier)]

This and #38244 link to the same upstream bug. are they dupes?

[Lucas Nussbaum (lucas)]

On 04/12/06 at 10:56 -0000, sam tygier wrote:
> This and #38244 link to the same upstream bug. are they dupes?

No they aren't. This one is an ekiga problem.
--
| Lucas Nussbaum
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[Jérôme Guelfucci (jerome-guelfucci-deactivatedaccount)]

Does this still happen with the latest release of Ubuntu ?

[depe (depe-ubuntu)]

I did try Ekiga with a clean ubuntu feisty, I didn't have this problem anymore

[Jérôme Guelfucci (jerome-guelfucci-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you, I will wait for more feedback and then mark as fixed.

[Bernhard Schmidt (berni)]

As far as I can tell, the bug is fixed in feisty (or before?)

[Jérôme Guelfucci (jerome-guelfucci-deactivatedaccount)]

Ok thank you I'm marking this as fixed.