How to disable alsa's dmix plugin?

[StarQuake]

Mariano Draghi wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm having lots of problem with the 5.1 analog output of my crappy 
> intel8x0 soundcard. Everything works just fine as regards stereo 
> streams, but whenever I try to play a 5.1 stream (like a DVD), 
> specifically with xine, I got a message telling me the audio device is 
> unavailable.
> 
> I asked about this in the xine-list, and someone suggested trying 
> disabling "dmix" in alsa, if I was using it. I didn't know if I was 
> using it, but after some googling, I came to the conclusion that this 
> has been enabled by default in the latest alsa-lib release (am I right?)
> 
> I'd like to try the suggestion I was given, that is, I'd like to disable 
> the dmix plugin. But I have no clue on how to do that, and I couldn't 
> undertand _anything_ from the zillion files that are installed in 
> /etc/alsa :(
> 
> The second issue would be: Assuming the problem is the dmix plugin, can 
> anybody explain to me why it works with stereo sound, and not with 5.1 
> sound? Can that be fixed tweaking some file?
> 
> If not, is there some alsa-voodoo to make the dmix enabling/disabling 
> application specific? (i.e., I'd like to turn it of when I run xine)
> 
> TIA,
> 
AFAIK dmix is enabled by default, but not used. To make my laptop use 
dmix (because it hasn't got hardware mixing) I had to make a file called 
~jan/.asoundrc.

Just look at my .asoundrc:

pcm.card0 {
type hw
card 0
}

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"

}


pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1024
ipc_perm 666
slave {
pcm "hw:0,0"
period_time 0
period_size 1024
buffer_size 4096
periods 128
rate 48000
}
bindings {
0 0
1 1
}
}

See how I explicitly have to turn it on?

Hopes it helps.

StarQuake

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