Getting Pulseaudio and alsa to share one sound card

Wed May 8 17:02:36 UTC 2024

Thanks for the idea George. I tried using dmix with the instructions in the
link that you provided above but it instructs to create a .pa file in the
directory: /etc/pulse/default.pa.d/ but this is a directory that does not
exist on the RPI. I have tried appending the lines:

unload-module module-udev-detect
unload-module module-detect
load-module module-alsa-sink device=dmix
load-module module-alsa-source device=dsnoop

to my /etc/pulse/default.pa but that causes aplay to give a busy error: aplay:
main:830: audio open error: Device or resource busy and Moode to also still
give one as well.

El mar, 7 may 2024 a las 14:59, Georg Chini (<georg at chini.tk>) escribió:

> Hi,
>
> mh, looks like you have a problem then. Pulseaudio exclusively opens the
> sound devices, so
> if the player cannot be configured to use the alsa default device, it will
> not work. You could
> try using dmix (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PulseAudio chapter
> 5.1.3, just used Google,
> did not check the content)
>
> The only other option left is to start the player with pasuspender, but
> then again ledfx won't
> work while the player is active.
>
> Regards
>                Georg
> On 07.05.24 21:50, Richard Reina wrote:
>
> $ aplay -L
> null
>     Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
> default
>     Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
> lavrate
>     Rate Converter Plugin Using Libav/FFmpeg Library
> samplerate
>     Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
> speexrate
>     Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
> jack
>     JACK Audio Connection Kit
> oss
>     Open Sound System
> pulse
>     PulseAudio Sound Server
> upmix
>     Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
> vdownmix
>     Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
> _audioout
> _audioout__
> alsaequal
> plug_alsaequal
> btstream
> camilladsp
> crossfeed
> plug_bs2b
> eqfa12p
> plug_eqfa12p
> invpolarity
> trx_send
> hw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
>     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0
>     Direct hardware device without any conversions
> plughw:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
>     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0
>     Hardware device with all software conversions
> sysdefault:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
>     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0
>     Default Audio Device
> dmix:CARD=sndrpihifiberry,DEV=0
>     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus, HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0
>     Direct sample mixing device
> usbstream:CARD=sndrpihifiberry
>     snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus
>     USB Stream Output
>
> El mar, 7 may 2024 a las 14:44, Georg Chini (<georg at chini.tk>) escribió:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> so what's the output of aplay -L?
>>
>> Regards
>>                Georg
>> On 07.05.24 21:12, Richard Reina wrote:
>>
>> Hello Georg, Thank you for the reply. Yes Moode accesses alsa directly
>> and unfortunately there is no option for making it use pulse.
>>
>> El mar, 7 may 2024 a las 13:33, Georg Chini (<georg at chini.tk>) escribió:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> maybe you don't have the alsa config for pulseaudio. Normally aplay -L
>>> shows that the default device points to pulse:
>>>
>>> null
>>>     Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
>>> default
>>>     Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>> pulse
>>>     PulseAudio Sound Server
>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>> I guess the Moode audio player tries to access the ALSA device directly
>>> and fails because the device is already in use by pulseaudio. There might
>>> also be a configuration option in the player to make it use pulse.
>>>
>>> Regards
>>>               Georg
>>> On 07.05.24 18:34, Richard Reina wrote:
>>>
>>> Yes it's a requirement. Setting the audio device to pulse in Ledfx is
>>> the only way it will work.
>>>
>>> El mar, 7 may 2024 a las 11:21, Mark Gaiser (<markg85 at gmail.com>)
>>> escribió:
>>>
>>>> Have you tried changing your device in ledfx to pulse?
>>>> https://ledfx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/directing_audio.html
>>>>
>>>> Again no idea if this works, I don't know nor use ledfx :) Just trying
>>>> to help out.
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, May 7, 2024 at 6:14 PM Richard Reina <gatorreina at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Mark,
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you for the reply.  paplay also works but there's no change.
>>>>> It's not the playing of the song that locks up the device and causes Moode
>>>>> audio not to be able to use it, it's the starting of ledfx. Once I do
>>>>> systemctl start ledfx the moode audio player can no longer use the output
>>>>> device regardless if I play a sound file with aplay, paplay or don't play a
>>>>> sound file at all. Moode audio can't use the device until I do systemctl
>>>>> stop ledfx.
>>>>>
>>>>> El mar, 7 may 2024 a las 10:48, Mark Gaiser (<markg85 at gmail.com>)
>>>>> escribió:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Can you use paplay instead?
>>>>>> That is the pulseaudio aplay drop-in replacement.
>>>>>> I'm guessing you won't have "device or resource busy" errors when
>>>>>> using paplay.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I did not test this! But do let us know if it works for you :)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Tue, May 7, 2024 at 3:24 PM Richard Reina <gatorreina at gmail.com>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I have a Raspberry Pi 3b with a Hifiberry Amp4/DAC hat runs Moode
>>>>>>> Audio OS.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If I pick Pulse as they audio device in LedFx and play a sound file
>>>>>>> with aplay sound_file.wav my leds react to the music.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The problem is that after aplay has finished playing the sound file
>>>>>>> if I then go try to use Moode audio player Moode audio won't play music and
>>>>>>> gives me the following error:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> MPD error Failed to open "ALSA Default" (alsa); Failed to open ALSA
>>>>>>> device "_audioout": Device or resource busy
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This persists until I stop Ledfx. Is there a way I can switch back
>>>>>>> and forth between aplay and Moode Audio player without having to stop and
>>>>>>> start Ledfx? I am not looking to get LedFx working with Moode I only want
>>>>>>> reactive lights when I play a song with aplay.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> $ aplay -l
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> card 0: sndrpihifiberry [snd_rpi_hifiberry_dacplus], device 0:
>>>>>>> HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0 [HiFiBerry DAC+ HiFi pcm512x-hifi-0]
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Subdevices: 0/1
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> $ amixer
>>>>>>> Simple mixer control 'Master',0
>>>>>>>   Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
>>>>>>>   Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
>>>>>>>   Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
>>>>>>>   Mono:
>>>>>>>   Front Left: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
>>>>>>>   Front Right: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
>>>>>>> Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
>>>>>>>   Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
>>>>>>>   Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
>>>>>>>   Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
>>>>>>>   Front Left: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]
>>>>>>>   Front Right: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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