Dsp

To create your /dev/dsp in linux if it doesn't exist:

$ grep snd_pcm_oss /proc/modules
$

not found.. so we'll add it:

# modprobe snd_pcm_oss 
# grep snd_pcm_oss /proc/modules
snd_pcm_oss 54528 0 - Live 0xf04a2000 
snd_mixer_oss 20032 1 snd_pcm_oss, Live 0xf048b000
snd_pcm 95016 3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec, Live 0xf01dd000
snd 58980 8    
snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer, Live 0xf01b1000

okay it's there now. The drivers will be different based on your soundcard. Now to make it take affect next reboot, we will add it to /etc/modules

# echo snd_pcm_oss >> /etc/modules

dsp already in use

Sometimes you will have two applications trying to access your audio device. The culprit can be discovered with lsof assuming your audio device is /dev/dsp like it is on BSD:

$ lsof | grep dsp
firefox-b 14905 frank    1w  VCHR       30,3        0t0     38 /dev/dsp0.0
firefox-b 14905 frank    1w  VCHR       30,3        0t0     38 /dev/dsp0.0
firefox-b 14905 frank    1w  VCHR       30,3        0t0     38 /dev/dsp0.0
firefox-b 14905 frank    1w  VCHR       30,3        0t0     38 /dev/dsp0.0

as you can see, one of the websites I am viewing with firefox has claimed access to my dsp first. I must now close that tab in firefox, and restart xmms, and all is well.

Stop embedded audio in Firefox

vi ~/.mozilla/firefox/0wt4rci4.default/chrome/userContent.css

and add these lines (creating the file if it doesn't already exist)

/* block embedded sounds */
embed[src*=.mid] { display: none !important }
embed[src*=.mp2] { display: none !important }
embed[src*=.mp3] { display: none !important }
embed[src*=.mp4] { display: none !important }
embed[src*=.wav] { display: none !important }
embed[src*=.wma] { display: none !important }

Stop embedded audio in flash

Not a highly recommended hack, but I opened

vi ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

and did a

/dsp

which found /dev/dsp which I replaced with /dev/xxx in order to stop flash from accessing my /dev/dsp, as it never released it properly.

Once you have audio working, you may want to try listening to an online streaming radio station such as our recommend streaming stations.