Re: aRts crashes playing streams
On Tuesday 16 May 2006 08:54, Derek Broughton wrote:
> Sorry, you're right arts _is_ the ALSA selection - but any _other_ options
> I try end up with something getting exclusive access to the sound card.
> Which leaves your assertion, that arts is awful and ALSA works,
> incomprehensible to me.
> --
> derek
I believe the history is that arts dates from when the kernel used the OSS
module as its sound system. OSS was very basic and couldn't handle multiple
streams. arts was written as a wrapper layer to allow the sound system to
actually have modern functionality. arts also allowed portability to
non-Linux systems, eg, *BSD.
Then, in 2.6 the kernel switched to the ALSA module as its main sound system,
and was able of being a modern and proper sound system on its own.
Meanwhile, the arts maintainer wandered off to Neverneverland, and various
other similar and better maintained systems cropped up (gstreamer, improved
support directly in xine, etc.). So now arts is years out of date, and
everyone else has caught up and moved forward.
Then plan is to fix it in KDE 4 by rm -rf-ing arts and replacing it with
Phonon, which will be a thin wrapper for the backend of the user's choice
(gstreamer, xine, yadda yadda) while still giving developers and easy
KDE-esque API.
Until then, play with the "engine" select boxes until you find a combination
that works, because it makes little sense beyond that. :-)
At least that's my understanding of the history involved. IANAKD (I Am Not A
KDE Developer).
--
Larry Garfield AIM: LOLG42
larry@garfieldtech.com ICQ: 6817012
"If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of
exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea,
which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to
himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession
of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it." -- Thomas
Jefferson
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