Flash 9 Ubuntu audio problem solved

[Joshua Zeidner]

Bill,

  I am aware of the sound sync problem with Ubuntu... but Flash 9
worked out of the box for me.  Sound tends to be quite troublesome for
Linux in general.

-jmz


On 1/29/07, Bill Jonas <bill at billjonas.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Just wanted to share a solution to a problem with you.  I actually
> hadn't asked the list for help on this, but I figured that it would be
> good to share, since Google didn't know the answer to my question.  PLUG
> should have enough Google juice for this. :-)
>
> Situation
> =========
> Sound in Flash 7 was out of sync (I think that part of the
> problem is ALSA vs. OSS.), and nothing I'd tried worked.  I was really
> excited, therefore about the Flash 9 beta, but audio didn't work at
> *all*, period.  If I ran gflashplayer from an xterm, it would go for a
> while, and then I'd get these three error messages repeated over and
> over, in sequence (taken from the final release, but the beta was very
> similar):
>
> ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:187:(make_local_socket) socket failed: Too many open files
> ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:894:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to connect client
> ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1355:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
>
> I figured it was a problem with the beta and that it would be sorted out
> in the final release, but the final release exhibited the same problem.
>
> Also, mpg321 had started acting up.  The sound was distorted: The pitch
> was a few notes too high, and the tempo was too fast.  I didn't realize
> that these problems were related.  mpg123 still worked fine, though, so
> I just made do with that.
>
> Environment
> ===========
> Sound card: SoundBlaster Live! value (emu10k1 chipset, snd_emu10k1 ALSA
> module)
> Distribution: Ubuntu Edgy, upgraded from Dapper (Kubuntu desktop,
> actually).  I can't recall how far back I'd originally installed this
> system, if it was Breezy, Hoary, or Warty.  It could've been as far back
> as Warty.
> Kernel: The latest Ubuntu-packaged kernel, 2.6.17-10-386.
>
> There is an on-board audio controller on my motherboard (I think), but
> it is disabled in the BIOS.
>
> Solution
> ========
> Delete /etc/asound.conf.  (Well, what I actually did was 'mv
> /etc/asound.conf /etc/asound.conf.bak', but you get the idea.)
>
> I haven't yet noticed any ill effects.  I think that asound.conf isn't
> too terribly important if you have just one sound card.
>
> I suspect that some upgraded version of ALSA changed subtly between the
> original installation of my system and this version, causing breakage.
> (A friend of mine who did a fresh install of Edgy reported no problems
> with the new Flash 9.) Also, /etc/asound.conf isn't owned by any
> package, so I'm not sure what generates it.  The string 'asound.conf' is
> mentioned in the postrm script for alsa-utils, and there's a
> /usr/share/gnome/help/desktopguide/sample/asound.conf_configuresoundproperly
> that belongs to ubuntu-docs.list.
>
> But it's working great for me now without the file, so YMMV.
>
> I hope this helps someone else out.
>
> --
> Bill Jonas    *    bill at billjonas.com    *    http://www.billjonas.com/
> "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door.  You step
> into the Road,  and if you don't keep your feet,  there  is  no knowing
> where you might be swept off to."  --  Bilbo Baggins
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-- 
.0000. communication.
.0001. development.
.0010. strategy.
.0100. appeal.

JOSHUA M. ZEIDNER
IT Consultant

$wisdom{'mcluhan'} = "Publication is a self-invasion of privacy.";
( 602 ) 490 8006
jjzeidner at gmail.com