Comment 18 for bug 14333

Hi Jaime,

(In reply to comment #17)
> I'm sorry, but I don't understand your previous response. Do you mean that in a
> _correctly_ working (bugfree) system, logging into gdm (and therefore starting
> esd?) means that aplay _should_ always lock-up/hang? (Incidentally, I don't
> think that aplay ever hanged/hung in warty.)

In a functional default Ubuntu install, esd is enabled, and because esd is configured to use
ALSA's OSS emulation (/dev/dsp), aplay will block (it will appear to hang); the default device is
already in use.

If you pkill esd, you will be able to use aplay.

> I guess what I'm trying to find out is whether I should be able to use aplay
> (from the command line) while I'm logged in graphically. I've always used aplay
> as a diagnostic tool in the past, because it's so low-level (and depends on very
> little else). Unfortunately, I understand very little about the inner-workings
> of alsa/linux media in general...

You can use aplay if dmix is configured or if esd has released /dev/dsp.