Getting Pulseaudio and alsa to share one sound card

Georg Chini georg at chini.tk
Fri May 10 05:26:58 UTC 2024


Hi,

when you are changing default.pa anyway, you can comment out the lines
loading module-udev-detect and module-detect near the top of the file. 
Usually,
module-detect is not loaded anyway. Also, you can load module-alsa-sink and
module-alsa-source at the same place. If you take a look at default.pa, 
there are
some examples.

Regards
               Georg

On 08.05.24 19:02, Richard Reina wrote:
>
> 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 <http://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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