No sound in games using sdl-mixer

No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Alex Kost]

Hello, I have tried several games that use sdl-mixer (wesnoth, pingus,
gnujump, extremetuxracer) and I didn't get any sound from them.  Does
anyone have this issue?

My audio system is OK, I can play various formats using "aplay", "mpv",
etc., I just don't have sound in those games.

It's just my guess that "sdl-mixer" is the problem, actually I'm
absolutely clueless how to debug it.

I also compiled a simple demo program¹ using our sdl-mixer package, and
the result was the same — no sound.

[1] http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/docs/SDL_mixer_demos.tar.gz

-- 
Alex

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[宋文武]

Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:

> Hello, I have tried several games that use sdl-mixer (wesnoth, pingus,
> gnujump, extremetuxracer) and I didn't get any sound from them.  Does
> anyone have this issue?
>
> My audio system is OK, I can play various formats using "aplay", "mpv",
> etc., I just don't have sound in those games.
>
> It's just my guess that "sdl-mixer" is the problem, actually I'm
> absolutely clueless how to debug it.
I have no issue with sound on GuixSD.

You can launch those games with 'SDL_AUDIODRIVER',
set to 'alsa' or 'pulse'.

Hope it helps.

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Alex Kost]

宋文武 (2015-10-03 06:33 +0300) wrote:

> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Hello, I have tried several games that use sdl-mixer (wesnoth, pingus,
>> gnujump, extremetuxracer) and I didn't get any sound from them.  Does
>> anyone have this issue?
>>
>> My audio system is OK, I can play various formats using "aplay", "mpv",
>> etc., I just don't have sound in those games.
>>
>> It's just my guess that "sdl-mixer" is the problem, actually I'm
>> absolutely clueless how to debug it.
> I have no issue with sound on GuixSD.
>
> You can launch those games with 'SDL_AUDIODRIVER',
> set to 'alsa' or 'pulse'.
>
> Hope it helps.

Wow!  This is it, thank you very much!!  Now I'm happy :-)

(I'm also on GuixSD) So I didn't get it: do you also use SDL_AUDIODRIVER
or does it just work for you?

If "no sound" is the default, I think we should probably do something
about it.

-- 
Alex

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[宋文武]

Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:

> 宋文武 (2015-10-03 06:33 +0300) wrote:
>
>> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> Hello, I have tried several games that use sdl-mixer (wesnoth, pingus,
>>> gnujump, extremetuxracer) and I didn't get any sound from them.  Does
>>> anyone have this issue?
>>>
>>> My audio system is OK, I can play various formats using "aplay", "mpv",
>>> etc., I just don't have sound in those games.
>>>
>>> It's just my guess that "sdl-mixer" is the problem, actually I'm
>>> absolutely clueless how to debug it.
>> I have no issue with sound on GuixSD.
>>
>> You can launch those games with 'SDL_AUDIODRIVER',
>> set to 'alsa' or 'pulse'.
>>
>> Hope it helps.
>
> Wow!  This is it, thank you very much!!  Now I'm happy :-)
>
> (I'm also on GuixSD) So I didn't get it: do you also use SDL_AUDIODRIVER
> or does it just work for you?
No, it just work for me.
>
> If "no sound" is the default, I think we should probably do something
> about it.
What values of 'SDL_AUDIODRIVER' work for you?

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Alex Kost]

宋文武 (2015-10-04 05:49 +0300) wrote:

> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> 宋文武 (2015-10-03 06:33 +0300) wrote:
>>
>>> Alex Kost <alezost@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> Hello, I have tried several games that use sdl-mixer (wesnoth, pingus,
>>>> gnujump, extremetuxracer) and I didn't get any sound from them.  Does
>>>> anyone have this issue?
>>>>
>>>> My audio system is OK, I can play various formats using "aplay", "mpv",
>>>> etc., I just don't have sound in those games.
>>>>
>>>> It's just my guess that "sdl-mixer" is the problem, actually I'm
>>>> absolutely clueless how to debug it.
>>> I have no issue with sound on GuixSD.
>>>
>>> You can launch those games with 'SDL_AUDIODRIVER',
>>> set to 'alsa' or 'pulse'.
>>>
>>> Hope it helps.
>>
>> Wow!  This is it, thank you very much!!  Now I'm happy :-)
>>
>> (I'm also on GuixSD) So I didn't get it: do you also use SDL_AUDIODRIVER
>> or does it just work for you?
> No, it just work for me.

Hm, interesting.

>> If "no sound" is the default, I think we should probably do something
>> about it.
> What values of 'SDL_AUDIODRIVER' work for you?

I don't use pulseaudio, so all I did is "export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa",
and the sound appeared.

-- 
Alex

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Ludovic Courtès]

FWIW I just tried ExtremeTuxRacer and it works out of the box for me (on
GuixSD).

I do use PulseAudio though.  To allow ETR’s sound output to mix with
other things that may be playing sound already, I have this in my
~/.asoundrc:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
pcm.!default {
    type pulse
}
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Should we add it to the account skeletons?

Ludo’.

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Alex Kost]

Ludovic Courtès (2015-10-04 15:45 +0300) wrote:

> FWIW I just tried ExtremeTuxRacer and it works out of the box for me (on
> GuixSD).
>
> I do use PulseAudio though.  To allow ETR’s sound output to mix with
> other things that may be playing sound already, I have this in my
> ~/.asoundrc:
>
>
> pcm.!default {
>     type pulse
> }
>
> Should we add it to the account skeletons?

Hm, wouldn't this break a sound somehow if a user doesn't have
pulseaudio installed?

BTW, I have never had problems with simultaneous sound from different
programs with ALSA.

-- 
Alex

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:

> FWIW I just tried ExtremeTuxRacer and it works out of the box for me (on
> GuixSD).
>
> I do use PulseAudio though.  To allow ETR’s sound output to mix with
> other things that may be playing sound already, I have this in my
> ~/.asoundrc:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> pcm.!default {
>     type pulse
> }
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>
> Should we add it to the account skeletons?

I don’t think that’s a good idea.  This means that the ALSA library will
always try to output to the “pulse” backend, which may not exist.  For
example, I do not use PulseAudio, so I do not have the “pulse” backend,
so this ~/.asoundrc setting would not work in my case.  (I don’t know if
it would do harm, to be fair.)

Is there a better way to make sdl-mixer output to the ALSA backend by
default?  I think outputing to ALSA is a safe default choice, as most
applications do not directly output to PulseAudio but to ALSA.

~~ Ricardo

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Alex Kost]

Ricardo Wurmus (2015-10-04 22:46 +0300) wrote:

> Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> FWIW I just tried ExtremeTuxRacer and it works out of the box for me (on
>> GuixSD).
>>
>> I do use PulseAudio though.  To allow ETR’s sound output to mix with
>> other things that may be playing sound already, I have this in my
>> ~/.asoundrc:
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> pcm.!default {
>>     type pulse
>> }
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Should we add it to the account skeletons?
>
> I don’t think that’s a good idea.  This means that the ALSA library will
> always try to output to the “pulse” backend, which may not exist.  For
> example, I do not use PulseAudio, so I do not have the “pulse” backend,
> so this ~/.asoundrc setting would not work in my case.  (I don’t know if
> it would do harm, to be fair.)

Oh, hey!  We both use dvorak and don't use PulseAudio! :-)

> Is there a better way to make sdl-mixer output to the ALSA backend by
> default?  I think outputing to ALSA is a safe default choice, as most
> applications do not directly output to PulseAudio but to ALSA.

So you also don't have a sound from sdl-mixer programs (games), right?

Perhaps we can just add “export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa” to /etc/profile,
but then it would probably not be a pleasant default for pulseaudio
people.

BTW I also have “export AUDIODRIVER=alsa” in my ~/.bash_profile.
Without it 'play' command (from 'sox' package) also tries to use
pulseaudio.

-- 
Alex

Re: No sound in games using sdl-mixer

[Ludovic Courtès]

Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net> skribis:

> Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> writes:
>
>> FWIW I just tried ExtremeTuxRacer and it works out of the box for me (on
>> GuixSD).
>>
>> I do use PulseAudio though.  To allow ETR’s sound output to mix with
>> other things that may be playing sound already, I have this in my
>> ~/.asoundrc:
>>
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
>> pcm.!default {
>>     type pulse
>> }
>> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---
>>
>> Should we add it to the account skeletons?
>
> I don’t think that’s a good idea.  This means that the ALSA library will
> always try to output to the “pulse” backend, which may not exist.  For
> example, I do not use PulseAudio, so I do not have the “pulse” backend,
> so this ~/.asoundrc setting would not work in my case.  (I don’t know if
> it would do harm, to be fair.)

OK, makes sense (I was expecting some push back, just wanted to make
sure.  ;-))

Ludo’.