Re: Getting sound online in GNU Emacs

[tpeplt <tpeplt@gmail.com>]

Davin Pearson <davin.pearson@gmail.com> writes:

> I am having trouble installing sound driver support on my home copy of GNU
> Emacs.
>
> Here are the sequence of commands that I execute to install GNU Emacs:
>
> (1)  cd ~/Downloads/emacs-29.1/ && tar fvx      ... OK
> (2a) cd ~/Downloads/emacs-29.1/ && ./configure --with-x-toolkit=no
> --with-xpm=ifavailable --with-jpeg=ifavailable --with-png=ifavailable
> --with-gif=ifavailable --with-tiff=ifavailable --with-gnutls=ifavailable
> ... OK
> (4)  cd ~/Downloads/emacs-29.1/ && make         ... OK
> (5)  cd ~/Downloads/emacs-29.1/ && make check   ... OK
>
> When I execute the following command inside of Emacs:
>
> (play-sound (list 'sound :file "amiga--trick-crazy-mode.wav"))
>
> It comes back with the following error message:
>
> play-sound: No usable sound device driver found
>

1. I was able to download your attached file to my home directory and
   play it using the following expression:

  (play-sound (list 'sound
                    :file (expand-file-name "amiga--trick-crazy-mode.wav" "~")))

  (The sound emitted was about 1/2 second of static.)

2. The ‘play-sound’ function is documented in the Emacs Lisp manual.
   Evaluate the following expression in Emacs to read the "Sound Output"
   section of the "Operating System Interface" chapter:

   (info "(elisp) Sound Output")

   The section begins with the paragraph:

   "To play sound using Emacs, use the function ‘play-sound’.  Only certain
    systems are supported; if you call ‘play-sound’ on a system which cannot
    really do the job, it gives an error."

   So it is possible that your system is not supported.

3. The function ‘report-emacs-bug’ generates a report about the
   configuration of Emacs when it was built.  Among the information listed
   is a section titled "Configured features:".  For my Emacs, this section
   includes "SOUND" as one of the configured features.  You could run
   ‘report-emacs-bug’ to get that listing and check to see whether your
   Emacs was configured to include support for sound.  (Rather than send
   the email with a bug report, simply kill the *mail* buffer after you
   have looked up the information.)

   If "SOUND" is not included in your list of configured features, then
   you likely need to investigate the configuration options to add sound.

   If "SOUND" is included, then your system might not be supported.

Someone who is knowledgeable about configuring and building recent
versions of Emacs may be able to provide more insight.

-- 
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parliament of Birds.