/dev/dsp busy

[doug at safeport.com]

A suggestion from a Jan 2004 thread worked for me:

   Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 08:42:07 -0500 (EST)
   From: Stephen Martin <jyroscop at cotse.com>
   To: geert.hendrickx at ua.ac.be
   Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
   Subject: Re: /dev/dsp: Device busy

   Geert,

   I was having this specific problem when trying to use mplayer. What I did
   was change the "Autosuspend if idle for" setting. It can be found in
   Control Center -> Sounds & Multimedia -> Sound System -> aRTs tab (feels
   vaguely like describing a windows problem :). I set mine at 5 seconds.
   Your's will of coarse depend.

In my case a reboot was required after changing the setting. This thread was
describing FreeBSD 4.9 and kde 3.2. I am running 5.3R and kde 3.3.0. The /dev/dsp busy
condition seems to occur across a number of PCs and sound cards.

I had also added the following to /boot/device.hints:

     hint.pcm.0.at="isa"
     hint.pcm.0.irq="5"
     hint.pcm.0.drq="1"
     hint.pcm.0.flags="0x0"

I have since removed these statements and have no evidence they had any effect. Other
than the kde setting the only change related to sound is hw.snd.verbose=3 in
/etc/sysctl.conf.


On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 doug at safeport.com wrote:

> Alas no - thank you for the suggestion. Following your lead I tried a number of
> variations including turning ACPI off, any some other sysctl setting I found via
> google. All with the same result.
>
> Next I removed load command from loader.conf and rebooted. No kde, no X server.
> I then loaded and tried to unload the sound modules. sound.ko would not unload
> presenting as busy. Is this a problem? It was suggested to me interrupt problem
> at startup could cause this. I get the same result in single user mode.
>
> My commands:
>
> # kldstat
> Id Refs Address    Size     Name
>  1    7 0xc0400000 5cdad0   kernel
>  2   14 0xc09ce000 537f0    acpi.ko
>  3    1 0xc1675000 17000    linux.ko
>
> # kldload snd_maestro
> pcm0: <ESS Technology Maestro-2E> port 0x1400-0x14ff irq 5 at device 8.0 on pci0
>
> pcm0: <SigmaTel STAC9721/23 AC97 Codec>
> pcm0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
>
> root at mneme:~# kldunload snd_maestro
> pcm0: detached
> # kldunload sound
> kldunload: attempt to unload file that was loaded by the kernel
> kldunload: can't unload file: Device busy
>
>
> On Sun, 28 Nov 2004, Jeremy Faulkner wrote:
>
> > doug at safeport.com wrote:
> > > I need help in finding the reason for the /dev/dsp busy message. fstat does not
> > > show any process using /dev/dsp.
> > >
> > > I am running 5.3 with xorg, kde 3.3. When KDE starts, /dev/dsp tests busy which
> > > directs arts to /dev/null. There are no processes using /dev/dsp. I can play
> > > CDs using either kcd or 'cdcontrol -f /dev/acd0 play 1', so I think the sound
> > > card is setup okay.
> > >
> > > However something is wrong since 'cat filename > /dev/dsp' produces no sound.
>
> I am assuming that the above means this is not a KDE problem. Is this correct?
>
> > > My configuration:
> [cut]
> > > Thanks for any pointers.
> > >
> >
> > try as root:
> > sysctl -w hw.snd.maxautovchans=4
> >
> > --
> > Jeremy Faulkner	<gldisater at gldis.ca>
> > Resume:	http://www.gldis.ca/gldisater/resume.html
> >
>
> _____
> Douglas Denault
> http://www.safeport.com
> doug at safeport.com
> Voice: 301-469-8766
>   Fax: 301-469-0601
> _______________________________________________
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_____
Douglas Denault
http://www.safeport.com
doug at safeport.com
Voice: 301-469-8766
  Fax: 301-469-0601