Cannot change volume in xmms

[Clinton MacDonald]

Andrew:

Andrew wrote:
> On Sat, 2004-05-15 at 17:52, Clinton MacDonald wrote:
> you lost me... ;) I always though you were unable to listen to audio cds
> while MP3s/streams are ok..

Just trying to keep you on your toes!

> I suggested you to disable 'CD Audio Player' plugin, not ALL of them..
> (rolling eyes)

"In for a penny, in for a pound," that's my motto. Besides, the 
reductionist scientist in me always tries to minimize the variables. ;-)

> Ok great,now what about the output plugin setup?

Here goes (you asked for it): the OSS Driver 1.2.7 [libOSS.so] is the 
only one that works for me to hear the MP3 streams (I *love* NPR). This 
seems a little odd, since I always thought that the aRts driver system 
-- whatever that is -- was becoming the Linux "standard" (as if there 
really could be a "standard" for anything Linux).

Anyways, the OSS Driver lets me open a configure dialog: the Devices tab 
lets me see "Audio device," which has a selection box with "Default" as 
the only selection. A checkbox gives me the option to "Use alternate 
device," which shows (grayed out) "/dev/dsp." Is this something I want 
to play with?

Under "Mixer device" my choices are, again, "Default," or "Use alternate 
device" (grayed out "/dev/mixer"). A quick trip to the command line 
shows that there is an entry in /dev for each of these devices. Should I 
play with either of these?


>>I have been quite disappointed in sound support on both YDL and Mandrake 
>>[...]
> 
> I am both deceived and satisfied with My Linux Experience so far:

Well, I should learn to keep my negative opinions to myself. I could 
easily have made mistakes too numerous to know in configuring both my 
PowerBook and my Mandrake PC. Instead of taking responsibility for some 
of the weirdnesses on my dog's breakfast of a PowerBook, I prefer to 
blame society.

> It rock as it is FAST and FUN, I can compile the sources, has lots of
> tweeks to do all around the system instead of only those provided by the
> authors in some Preferences box.. Always a little something to learn
> from here and there... IMHO, Linux wear the Spirit Of Freedom!

Well, that's the way it's supposed to be (although "compiling from 
sources" never has sounded like fun). And that's why I stick with it. 
For what it is worth, installing Mandrake on my PC was as smooth as 
butter, and has always worked as advertised (well, except for the 
sound). I think we Yellow Dog users will always have it a little worse 
than the mainstream PC Linux folks because of the smaller size of our 
contributing community.

> Too many specifics, not enough consistency.

You said it, brother! That has long been my biggest complaint about the 
many Open Source applications. I am too old and my brain has grown too 
calcified to learn a new set of habits for every single new application.

But I do not want to turn this into an off-topic rant-fest (as much fun 
as that might be). I really just want to understand a little bit more 
about xmms (which I really, really like in all other ways) and sound 
control on my YDL PowerBook.

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>