[linux-audio-user] skype vs audigy 2 vs onboard audio problem

[Gene Heskett]

Greetings all;

I have a setup I hope to make work, one way or the other, but jurassic 
software seems to be a problem.

/dev/dsp & /dev/mixer are attached, either to an SBLive Value, or to an 
SB Audigy 2 Value card, I've been swapping them back and forth.

/dev/dsp1 & mixer1 *should* be attached to skype if its running.

Currently running kernel 2.6.15 and forceably installed alsa stuffs, 
version 1.0.11rc2.  kmix, from kde is a bit long in the tooth at 
kde-3.3.0, built some time back with konstruct and it works so well I 
hate to play with that.

Anyway, here is the problem:
When the Audigy 2 card is installed, kmix's input tab & screens for this 
card are blanked out.  When the SBLive Value card is installed, all of 
this "snd-card-0" works nominally.  I can get tvtime audio thru it, and 
xmms seems to work, as does grip now, thru both cards depending on 
which is installed.  But kmix's blank input tab is confoosin :)

But skype seems tethered to the use of /dev/mixer only for its transmit 
functions even if I can switch the echo123 audio from snd-card-1 to 
snd-card-0 by selecting /dev/dsp instead of /dev/dsp1 in the headset 
menu.  When its set for /dev/dsp1, and I can hear echo123 in the 
headset, the audio thats actually sent comes from whatever might be 
coming thru the SBLive or Audigy 2 cards at the time.

Now if, by reverseing the aliases in my modprobe.conf and rebooting, the 
cards are interchanged, then skype will work correctly because the 
motherboard audio is now /dev/mixer, but then kde, tvtime, xmms et all 
doesn't seem to be able to find /dev/mixer1 which would be snd-card-1 
or snd-slot-1 in that scenario.

Whats the fix, other than scrapping skype, which I'm not convinced isn't 
a broadband pipe into the heart of the machine on port 0 or 443 since 
vz (spit) has 80 blocked.  But I'd like to make it work just to prove 
it can be done.  So how can I 'alias' the skype call to open /dev/mixer 
to actually access /dev/mixer1?

I have 'skype_dsp_hijacker' here, but its not the /dev/dsp I need to 
'hijack' as thats settable from the skype menu, but the mixer, which 
isn't settable.  And that puppies docs, the README is a bit cryptic to 
this old fart.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
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