An audio problem

[Hynek Hanke]

Lars Bjørndal wrote:
> If I as root start speech-dispatcher, then do an mplayer command to
> listen to an audio stream as a regular user, mplayer exits with:
>      [AO_ALSA] Playback open error: Permission denied
> If I then, as root, start mplayer, it plays, and subsequent starts of
> the mplayer command as the first regular user again, it also works. Is that a
> known problem?
>   
Yes, this is a known bug with ALSA dmix. With some versions of ALSA,
dmix can't handle mixing audio comming from different users.  I believe
the problem was already fixed (but maybe not with all drivers), so try
to upgrade your ALSA or ask the ALSA developers for assistance.

Have a nice day,
Hynek