[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#814757: alsa-base: dmix/software mixing doesn't work

[Andoru]

Package: alsa-base
Version: 1.0.27+1
Severity: normal

So I've been trying to fix this problem for a while now, but I can't seem
to set up ALSA in a way to enable multiple sound sources at once (2 or more
apps/programs to use the soundcard simultaneously). Despite having a dmix
entry in /etc/asound.conf, it still refuses to work the way I intend it to.
And speaking of which, here's how my asound.conf looked like:

_____________________________________________________________________________

    pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card PCH
    }

    ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card PCH
    }

    pcm.dsp {
        type plug
        slave.pcm "dmix"
    }

defaults.pcm.rate_converter "speexrate_medium"

____________________________________________________________________________

And here's what 'aplay -l' gives me:

____________________________________________________________________________

    **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
    card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
      Subdevices: 1/1
      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
      Subdevices: 1/1
      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
      Subdevices: 1/1
      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
    card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD
Analog]
      Subdevices: 1/1
      Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

____________________________________________________________________________

As you probably guessed, I'm using an integrated soundcard (that's on a
Intel B85 chipset), and I've set it to use the jack plug output instead of
the HDMI one.

Another issue that I'm having is that the sounds/music/etc that are
supposed to be outputted by Firefox, don't get played at all (like for
example add-ons that notify me when I get an e-mail, or HTML5 audio and/or
video players, or other such stuff). Curiously the flash player seems to be
unaffected by this issue, probably because it's stand-alone to the browser
itself.

Before attempting to submit this bug request, I tried asking for help on
the alsa user mailing list (
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.user/39409), and out of that I
tried those asound.conf configurations:

#1:
____________________________________________________________________________
pcm.PCH {
  type asym
  playback.pcm {
    type plug
    slave {
          pcm {
            type dmix
            ipc_key 9175930
            ipc_key_add_uid true
            slave {
              pcm "hw:PCH"
            }
          }
      }
  }
  capture.pcm "hw:PCH"
}
____________________________________________________________________________


Which doesn't change anything, still can't use multiple sound sources, and
the FF issue isn't fixed. 'aplay', however works, and plays files nicely.
If I pass it the -Dplug:dmix parameter, it gives me an error (see below)

#2:
____________________________________________________________________________

defaults.pcm.card PCH
defaults.ctl.card PCH

____________________________________________________________________________

This one causes sound to no longer work, and none of the soundcards
get listed at all, either in the mixer, or in 'aplay -l'


#3:

____________________________________________________________________________

pcm.!default {
     type plug
     slave.pcm "dmix"
}
ctl.!default {
     type hw
     card 1
}

_____________________________________________________________________________

Which again, unfortunately doesn't fix anything, but instead whether I use
aplay stand-alone, or with '-Dplug:dmix', I get this same message:

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1029:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
aplay: main:722: audio open error: No such file or directory

Which leads me to think this might be a bug, as the package I got might be
missing components. I apologise in advance in case this is actually not a
bug, but rather a configuration issue. All I remember is that I didn't have
this much trouble setting up dmix on any other previous PCs I owned.
Also, just in case someone might suggest a PulseAudio fix, I'm not using
it. Just straight-up ALSA.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.4-1.dmz.1-liquorix-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages alsa-base depends on:
ii  dpkg  1.18.4
ii  kmod  22-1

alsa-base recommends no packages.

alsa-base suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information
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