Hi there

Apologizes if such a thread already exists.
I consider this issue as being weird since it happens on specific conditions only. I googled it a bit but I don't know how to describe it shortly.

The issue is :
I can get sound in Amarok only if it is the only app that uses sound.
Right now I have Firefox started, some tabs use sound (ie Youtube, Flash applets...) and I also have a video game that uses sound. I can hear the sound from these apps. If I read a file of any kind in Amarok, I don't hear anything, the track goes, Amarok doesn't warn about any problem.
Right now, I can run many other music software like VLC, Xine itself, MPlayer.. I configured these to use the Default Alsa output that works very fine.
To get sound back, I have to close Amarok, Firefox and that game. Restart Amarok and then I have sound.
I guess the problem is about Phonon. I would like to force it to use the Alsa default.
To me it looks like when there is already an app using the alsa output, phonon cannot add its stream to the output.
When I mouse over the first device in the Audio Outputs of the Phonon Configuration, the 2 first elements are :
1: AlSA x-phonon CARD=0, DEV=0
2: AlSA plughw CARD=0, DEV=0
3:OSS etc...

Voila...
I would like to see if I can configure phonon precisely?
conf files for Amarok... ?
Any help is welcome!

Merci!

Simon from France

Do you have Pulseaudio installed? This definitely seems like Pulseaudio behaviour.

Also, what versions of KDE and Amarok do you have installed ( both viewable inside Amarok itself, Help > About... )

Hello and thanks for your answer.

I have Amarok 2.3.2 installed, I compiled it.
Before, I had the default Amarok version on my Slackware 13.1 and I had the same problem.
It uses KDE 4.4.3.

I just installed pulseaudio, nothing changed in Amarok but if I launch pulseaudio from the commandline, it misses a "libpulsecore"
I will try to deal with this later.

Simon

Pulseaudio shouldn't be needed. Please ensure that DMix is correctly configured in ALSA, and that no other sound server is in use.

I have the same issue. Amarok only plays if it is the only thing playing audio.

I have both ubuntu-desktop and kde-desktop packages installed.

When Amarok is playing music, and I open a video with VLC or play video with firefox and flash then, only Amarok's sound is heard.

This is only Phonon and Pulseaudio related, Amarok is not responsible for sound output. Moving to the correct forum.

As previously stated, if you are using Pulseaudio, then all applications must use it. As of KDE 4.5, integration is shipped with it which makes the integration seamless, so you may not be aware it is in use.

I are back ! Now on Debian Squeeze with KDE 4.4.5
I have the same issues.
Looks like Phonon monopolizes the sound output.
I can play several files on several players like xine (graphical) and aplay (command line) simultaneously.What these players have in common is the precise audio configuration, I can set the audio driver in Xine, I selected Alsa.
I think there is some configuration of Phonon I need to do.
Amarok, JuK and Dragon Player seem to rely on it for audio output and these softwares are causing problems.

I do not have pulseaudio installed.

Phonon itself does not monopolise on sound output. The backend Phonon is using, usually GStreamer or Xine is monopolising. I suggest you check that the appropriate backend is installed, and it is configured appropriately ( ie. has the needed decoders and outputs of it's own installed )