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

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday 12 January 2006 09:04, Gene Heskett wrote:
>On Thursday 12 January 2006 08:54, Gene Heskett wrote:

Yeah, I'm an old fart & talk to myself frequently.

>>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.
>
>And I neglected to say that this is the onboard audio in an nforce2
>chipset.  Sorry.
>
>>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.

But I was able to get skype working with the use of skype_dsp_hijacker.

I'd already made an icon to run it, and changing the command from 
'usr/local/bin/skype' (note quotes) to skype_dsp_hijacker --2nd
without the quotes as they seemed to screw up the argument passing, that 
seems to be working now.  It seems that the hijacker actually functions 
as the skype launcher, something not noted in the README in large 
enough print to get my attention.

So the remaining problem is the fouled nest kmix seems to be living in 
when the Audigy 2 Value [SB0400] device is selected.  All controls are 
placed on the output tab, making its window about a foot wide.  Is 
there any cure for that other than upgrading kde to 3.5?

-- 
Cheers, Gene
People having trouble with vz bouncing email to me should add the word
'online' between the 'verizon', and the dot which bypasses vz's
stupid bounce rules.  I do use spamassassin too. :-)
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Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.