[mythtv-users] Audio on backend server/Change keys on frontend

[Jarod C. Wilson]

On Monday, Oct 6, 2003, at 14:01 US/Pacific, Shawn Kwang wrote:

>     On the backend, I have noticed that I can't do anything with sound 
> on
> my system because mythtv then complains about /dev/dsp being used.  
> That
> obviously makes sense but since the backend machine uses a PVR-250 I 
> had
> the impression, from the HOWTO, that /dev/dsp could be used by another
> application (say xmms) and mythbackend would still be fine.

Are you using ALSA or OSS sound drivers? OSS doesn't work too well in 
some instances, where ALSA works just fine. I use ALSA w/my Audigy, and 
I can play mp3s with xmms and watch live TV at the same time on my 
system without a problem (I tried just for kicks).

>     Regardless, the backend machine is a "workstation" as well as a
> mythbackend server.   I would like to still be able to do work on it, 
> and
> have sound work as well.  Is there a way I can acommodate this?  [One
> possible solution may be to install a separate sound card in the 
> machine.
> The machine has an NVIDIA nForce2 MB with onboard sound capability.  
> If I
> install a second card, perhaps mythbackend could use one and my normal
> user programs (like xmms) could use the other.]

I don't know much about support for nForce2 on-board audio support in 
either ALSA or OSS... But yes, you can have multiple sound cards and 
segregate functionality. I enabled my motherboard audio to use the line 
in for my secondary capture card (though not for the same reasons you'd 
be doing it).

>     On the frontend, I would like to change the keyboard configuration 
> of
> mythtv.  For example, having "PgUp" control the volume up instead.  Is
> there a way to change this?

If I'm not mistaken, I believe it is hard-coded. There has been 
discussion about creating a way to customize these settings from within 
the frontend setup section, but I think the only current way to 
customize them is to edit the source before compiling. (Not one of the 
higher-priority items, so not much done on it yet).

>     If it matters, mythbackend starts automatically using the 
> contributed
> /etc/init.d/ script.  The user which starts mythbackend is "m3user" 
> which
> I created to run mythtv on both systems.  m3user also (automatically)
> starts mythfrontend on the Pundit upon boot.

What distro? Red Hat has issues if you try to start the backend as a 
particular user, due to the way Red Hat handles ownership of /dev 
entries... So if you're using Red Hat, you have to use root as the user 
to launch mythbackend from an init script.

--Jarod

-- 
Jarod C. Wilson, RHCE

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