Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. :)

Just got a few random questions. I recently got my new TV going (Samsung 1080i CRT RPTV) and my PC connected to it via DVI. I was running Kubuntu 9.04 but the poor integration of KDE didn't allow the rendering of some apps (Gnome based) to play nice with my TV. So I wiped (again :D ) and installed Ubuntu 9.04. So far, things are going good, but I have a few questions for the brains:

1 - I am using the latest version of XBMC from the Launchpad PPA (which appears to have VDPAU support for MPEG-2 now YAY!) but sometimes randomly it will drop out of full screen and I have to click the desktop, then the XBMC window to get it back. What's up with that?

2 - I have a screen saver set to come on after 3 minutes idle time to prevent burn in on the CRT's. How do I tell Ubuntu that watching a movie with XBMC is NOT idle time? The screen saver comes on in the background when a movie is playing.

3 - how do I set all sounds to come out of the IEC958 optical port on my sound card? XBMC plays movies fine (but not music), Banshee plays music fine. Otherwise, I can't get any sound output either from system sounds, or Flash media in my browser, etc.

4 - this one's very minor. I accidentally deleted the Banshee tray icon from the panel. This is the icon that appears after banshee is started, not the launcher icon that opens the program. If you hover the mouse over the tray icon, it will show the song info and you can start/stop/rewind/fast forward/etc by right clicking the tray icon. Any way to get it back? I tried disabling and then re-enabling the tray icon plugin with no dice.

I think that's it. ;)

Thanks in advance everyone!

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. :)

1 - I am using the latest version of XBMC from the Launchpad PPA (which appears to have VDPAU support for MPEG-2 now YAY!) but sometimes randomly it will drop out of full screen and I have to click the desktop, then the XBMC window to get it back. What's up with that?



Something to try - System->Preferences->Appearance->Visual Effects - set to "None". I've noticed some window maximizing funniness with effects turned on that go away when I switch it to none. Just a wild guess but something simple to try that might "fix" it.

Drat. I like the compiz effects. I'm a sucker for eye candy. :D If if fixes XBMC, I'll sacrifice it though. I'll give that a shot this evening after work.

Thanks!

Perhaps "Normal" will make it go away too. I can't remember exactly what I have mine set to now. That will leave some eye-candy!

Normal is what it's set to now. :(

I'm not too worried about it if it fixes the issue. It's far more annoying when XBMC drops out of full screen when going forward/backward through chapters or when just watching a movie. Sucks too because I loose any functionality in XBMC all together until I click the desktop, then click the XBMC window. Then I can stop the movie and perform other functions. It's strange.

Thanks djb61230! Looks like you were right in turning off compiz. I watched a full movie last night and even went forward/backward a few chapters and all without a hitch.

One question down, 3 to go! :)

For sound, look over this thread and see if you find any help: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1095223

For Flash audio try: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6666169&postcount=176 (both the .asoundrc and setting the FLASH env vars)

Something to try - System->Preferences->Appearance->Visual Effects - set to "None". I've noticed some window maximizing funniness with effects turned on that go away when I switch it to none. Just a wild guess but something simple to try that might "fix" it.Thank you! That has been driving me nuts.

Now if only I could get Ubuntu to stay connected to my Windows network fro more than 10 minutes at a time...

Now if only I could get Ubuntu to stay connected to my Windows network fro more than 10 minutes at a time...

Sounds like survival instinct to me :D

Shane,

I did some checking on your fullscreen problem and there is a way to have some effects and fullscreen.

1) Install "Compiz configuration settings manager"
2) In General settings uncheck "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows"
3) In Utility/Workarounds check "Legacy Fullscreen Support"

I'm writing some Java code where I'm using translucent windows and I need to have "Normal" effects on. But "Normal" breaks full screen for some apps (YouTube video for example). These changes make everything work at the same time.

Doug

Sweet! Thanks!

And zim2dive, I haven't had a chance to even boot the PC. But as soon as I get one, I will try what you suggested and report back. :)

For Flash audio try: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=6666169&postcount=176 (both the .asoundrc and setting the FLASH env vars)

Mkay, I created the .asoundrc file and copied the text from your post (changing the device to match my card, of course) and I got sound everywhere! Even flash!!! Even XBMC started making it's little menu sounds!!! But there's a downside I went to play a movie in XBMC and got an error that XBMC could not access audio device. :( So I either have sound in everything but movies, or just movies and Banshee. :confused:

Mkay, I created the .asoundrc file and copied the text from your post (changing the device to match my card, of course) and I got sound everywhere! Even flash!!! Even XBMC started making it's little menu sounds!!! But there's a downside I went to play a movie in XBMC and got an error that XBMC could not access audio device. :( So I either have sound in everything but movies, or just movies and Banshee. :confused:

Welcome to linux audio :D

Someone else will have to take over.. I only know enough to get you pointed in one possibly right direction. I've got sound on mine working, mostly (I don't get the login riff anymore, but all else works)...

I suppose one of *nix greatest strengths is also one of it's greatest weakness at the same time: wide software choice.

Why is there several different sound systems? ALSA, Pulse audio, esound, thisthatandtheother sound, etc. X11 seems to be the standard for the GUI base. Why isn't ALSA the standard for sound if it just works?

I tried a while ago to remove pulse from Ubuntu and revert to ALSA. That didn't go over well...probably because I'm still a n00b.

I suppose one of *nix greatest strengths is also one of it's greatest weakness at the same time: wide software choice.

Why is there several different sound systems? ALSA, Pulse audio, esound, thisthatandtheother sound, etc. X11 seems to be the standard for the GUI base. Why isn't ALSA the standard for sound if it just works?

I tried a while ago to remove pulse from Ubuntu and revert to ALSA. That didn't go over well...probably because I'm still a n00b.

ALSA is not a sound server, ALSA is the kernel driver framework for sound in Linux.

ALSA is all you need, most soundservers like pulse, esound, arts just introduce more problems than useful features, better disable them.
The main problem is that most distros these days install pulse by default and configure all apps to use pulse by default, which makes it hard to get completely rid of pulse audio.

The only soundserver that can be useful is Jack, but that's for studio (audio production) use, not for a HTPC.

What's the difference between the kernel driver framework, and a sound server? Both produce sound, correct? I'm assuming all of the sound servers run on top of ALSA. What is the point of them? If ALSA produces sound and just works, why do I need sounds server?

What's the difference between the kernel driver framework, and a sound server? Both produce sound, correct? I'm assuming all of the sound servers run on top of ALSA. What is the point of them? If ALSA produces sound and just works, why do I need sounds server?

The purpose of a sound server is to mix and redirect sound, also with some sound servers you can tune the volume per application rather than per physical output.

but your last question is exactly right, what's the point?
Given that most sound servers introduce all sort of problems, those small benefits I listed above are not worth it IMHO, so for me sound servers are useless.
Alsa already supports several concurrent apps using one physical output, so even the sound server software mixing is unnecessary.

"I see!" Said the blind man. :)

Have you successfully disabled pulse and the others in Mandriva?

"I see!" Said the blind man. :)

Have you successfully disabled pulse and the others in Mandriva?

Yes, it's not possible to uninstall all pulse packages due to dependencies, but it's completely disabled, therefore can't do any harm anymore. :)

It's actually fairly easy to disable in Mandriva, there is an option in the MCC (mandriva control center), in the audio section, that allows you to turn Pulseaudio on or off.
In addition to that there is still some further config changes needed, as many apps are set up to use pulse by default and some don't automatically fall back to alsa when pulse is disabled, so in some apps the sound config needs to be changed to alsa manually too.

You know, I still feel drawn to Mandriva. I'm running Ubuntu now and the only thing that stops me from running Mandriva (since I used to love Mandrake and I have a soft spot for KDE) is XBMC with VDPAU. Mandriva just seems "put-together" better than Ubuntu. It seems to all work together better, especially with the MCC. I heart the MCC.

Just sems all of the devel focus is on Ubuntu, unfortunately.

I suppose one of *nix greatest strengths is also one of it's greatest weakness at the same time: wide software choice.

Why is there several different sound systems? ALSA, Pulse audio, esound, thisthatandtheother sound, etc. X11 seems to be the standard for the GUI base. Why isn't ALSA the standard for sound if it just works?

I tried a while ago to remove pulse from Ubuntu and revert to ALSA. That didn't go over well...probably because I'm still a n00b.

I thought I would add a link to a Linux Weekly News (http://lwn.net) article that covers some of the history of sound in Linux.

LPC: The past, present, and future of Linux audio (http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/355542/b5a4454f4ce71f6f/).

Hopefully the link works for everyone. LWN is a terrific site but new articles are for subscribers only for a week or two. Being a subscriber I think I can share articles like this but I'm not sure how long the link will live. Enjoy!