Bug#600336: rhythmbox: Claims audio device all for itself

[Manuel Bilderbeek]

Package: rhythmbox
Version: 0.12.8-2
Severity: important

Without Rhythmbox playing, I can do:

play /usr/share/sounds/pop.wav 

without any problems. (I can hear the pop!)

As soon as I press play on the Music Applet and Rhythmbox starts
playing, I get this error when I do the same thing:

$ play /usr/share/sounds/pop.wav 
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
play FAIL formats: can't open output file `default': snd_pcm_open error: Device or resource busy

When I stop Rhythmbox by pressing PAUSE on the Music Applet, it takes a
few seconds, but then I can play the pop again without problems.

Similar thing, if I'm playing music with some application other than
Rhythmbox (e.g. Iceweasel with flash or so) and I press Play on the
Music Applet, nothing happens. It doesn't start to play and the song is
stuck at 0:00. As soon as the other app is stopped, it suddenly starts
playing. This particular example may be caused by the flash plugin, I
don't know.

But for the first mentioned effect, I have no web browser or
flash thingie running.

Strangely enough, I've used sound fine for years, doing daily
dist-upgrades with testing, on this same hardware. Nothing changed. I
don't see recent updates of Rhythmbox, so I am not sure it's caused by
Rhythmbox itself.

If there's anything I can do to provide more info, please let me know.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages rhythmbox depends on:
ii  dbus                    1.2.24-3         simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  gconf2                  2.28.1-4         GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnome-icon-theme        2.30.3-1         GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gstreamer0.10-alsa [gst 0.10.30-1        GStreamer plugin for ALSA
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-b 0.10.19-2+b2     GStreamer plugins from the "bad" s
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-b 0.10.30-1        GStreamer plugins from the "base" 
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-g 0.10.24-1        GStreamer plugins from the "good" 
ii  gstreamer0.10-pulseaudi 0.10.24-1        GStreamer plugin for PulseAudio
ii  gstreamer0.10-x         0.10.30-1        GStreamer plugins for X11 and Pang
ii  libatk1.0-0             1.30.0-1         The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-6         Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcairo2               1.8.10-6         The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libdbus-1-3             1.2.24-3         simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2        0.88-2           simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libfontconfig1          2.8.0-2.1        generic font configuration library
ii  libfreetype6            2.4.2-1          FreeType 2 font engine, shared lib
ii  libgconf2-4             2.28.1-4         GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0            2.24.2-1         The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-media0         2.30.0-1         runtime libraries for the GNOME me
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-ba 0.10.30-1        GStreamer libraries from the "base
ii  libgstreamer0.10-0      0.10.30-1        Core GStreamer libraries and eleme
ii  libgtk2.0-0             2.20.1-1+b1      The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libgudev-1.0-0          160-1            GObject-based wrapper library for 
ii  libice6                 2:1.0.6-1        X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libnotify1 [libnotify1- 0.5.0-2          sends desktop notifications to a n
ii  libpango1.0-0           1.28.1-1         Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpython2.6            2.6.6-3          Shared Python runtime library (ver
ii  libsm6                  2:1.1.1-1        X11 Session Management library
ii  libsoup-gnome2.4-1      2.30.2-1         an HTTP library implementation in 
ii  libsoup2.4-1            2.30.2-1         an HTTP library implementation in 
ii  libtotem-plparser17     2.30.2-1         Totem Playlist Parser library - ru
ii  libxml2                 2.7.7.dfsg-4     GNOME XML library
ii  media-player-info       6-1              Media player identification files
ii  python-gnome2           2.28.1-1         Python bindings for the GNOME desk
ii  python-gst0.10          0.10.19-1        generic media-playing framework (P
ii  python-gtk2             2.17.0-4         Python bindings for the GTK+ widge
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages rhythmbox recommends:
ii  avahi-daemon             0.6.27-2        Avahi mDNS/DNS-SD daemon
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-ug 0.10.15-1       GStreamer plugins from the "ugly" 
ii  gvfs-backends            1.6.4-2         userspace virtual filesystem - bac
ii  notification-daemon      0.5.0-2         daemon to displays passive pop-up 
ii  rhythmbox-plugins        0.12.8-2        plugins for rhythmbox music player
ii  yelp                     2.30.1+webkit-1 Help browser for GNOME

Versions of packages rhythmbox suggests:
pn  gnome-codec-install         <none>       (no description available)
ii  gnome-control-center        1:2.30.1-2   utilities to configure the GNOME d
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad   0.10.19-2+b2 GStreamer plugins from the "bad" s
pn  rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder <none>       (no description available)
pn  rhythmbox-plugin-coherence  <none>       (no description available)

-- no debconf information