Re: [GnomeMeeting-list] Problems with ekiga.

[Hannes Ebner <dev stdout at>]

Damien Sandras wrote:
>>With libasound2 1.0.11 the sound is bad, no matter whether I use a
>>.asoundrc or not. Ekiga tends to crash or hang in addition to playing
>>bad sound.
> 
> Have you used the "DEFAULT" device defined in .asoundrc?

Yes. If I use the physical device for both input and output the sound is
ok, so it is definitely a DMIX/DSNOOP issue.

I tried configuring Ekiga with input set to the hardware device and
output set to default, but it's the same problem.

>>Other applications using DMIX through the default interface work fine.
>>(At least playback, I didn't try recording and playing at the same time.)
> 
> Which is the big difference.

I tried now X-Lite with wine, and Skype (...). Wine is configured to use
DMIX/DSNOOP, Skype uses artsdsp, arts uses alsa/default.

- X-Lite: sound quality was ok, but after ending the connection the
application just hung. I had to kill it, similar behavior to Ekiga, just
the sound was better.

- Skype: I called the echo service, the first call was ok, sound in both
directions and in good quality. I tried a second call but I couldn't
hear anything anymore. Could be a problem with artsdsp, but I tend to
blame DMIX.

No matter what I do, applications which use DMIX *and* DSNOOP become
unstable (occasionally with choppy sound, e.g. Ekiga). If an application
uses output only, everything is ok.

I'm sort of perplexed. The default DMIX does not work, neither does a
manually configured DMIX. DMIX broken with libasound2 1.0.11 and special
constellations of hardware? I'm using the module snd-intel8x0 with an
ICH4 chipset.

Perhaps I wait for the next libasound release and upgrade from 1.0.10 to
1.0.12 to try again.

Regards,
Hannes