On Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 02:33:27PM -0700, Buzzer wrote:
quoted text
> pO DANNYM RADIOPEREHWATA OT  2-Oct-2009 07:18, Paul de Weerd
> BYL ZAME^EN W \FIRE, NA ^ASTOTE misc, S TAKIM SOOB]ENIEM:
> 
> > | > > I need to play a few audio files simultaneously.
> > | >
> > | > > can't open /dev/audio: Device busy.
> > | >
> > | > man 1 aucat
> > |
> > | Could you be more verbose? What make you think that I did not read man
> > | aucat?
> > 
> > tried aucat. Mine seems to be misfunctioning too, can you share with
> > the list what problems you had with aucat in servermode ? Did it give
> > any errormessages ?
> 
> I ran aucat with '-l' key, then I try to play wav file with 'aucat
> file.wav' command or 'aucat -s deafault file.wav'.
> 
> aucat -s default send.wav
> aucat: can't open /dev/audio: Device busy
> aucat: send.wav: could not play
> 
> > You know, if you assume we can read your mind, we're going to make
> > some assumptions of our own...
> 
> I'm waiting for step by step advices. It would be good idea to make
> suitable issue in the FAQ.
> 

Here are the steps you asked for:

 * read sb(4) and notice that your hardware is not completely
   full-duplex in 16-bit mode:

     With a SoundBlaster 16 card the device is full duplex, but it can only
     sensibly handle a precision of 8 bits.  It does so by extending the out-
     put 8 bit samples to 16 bits and using the 8 bit DMA channel for input
     and the 16 bit channel for output.

 * read aucat(1) and figure out how to start it in
   play-only server mode 

     -l      Listen for incoming connections on Unix domain sockets.  This al-
             lows clients to use aucat instead of the regular audio(4) device
             for audio input and output in order to share the physical device
             with other clients.  The default socket name is default but other
             names can be used with the -s option.

     -m mode
             Set the server mode.  Valid modes are play, rec, and duplex, for
             play-only, record-only, and full-duplex, respectively.  The de-
             fault is duplex.

   Hint: you probably need ``-l -m play''

 * start it, and play any file to check that it worked,
   possibly read again aucat(1). Hint:

     -i file
             Add this file to the list of files to play.  If the option argu-
             ment is `-' then standard input will be used.


 * if it still doesn't work, search in the archives and
   see if anybody else has the solution of the same or
   related problems

 * if it still doesn't work, check whether related problems were
   solved in -CURRENT, possibly try -CURRENT

 * if it still doesn't work, send a *friendly* e-mail to the list
   showing that you've read the manual, that you understand
   the manual, that you have done what's explained in the
   manual.

 * possibly share the solution you've found, possibly improve the FAQ.

To summarize, just type:

	$ aucat -l -m play

and check that it works:

	$ aucat -i whatever.wav

-- Alexandre