[svlug] Gutsy problems with Audacity opening sound device

[Christian Einfeldt]

hi

I solved this problem, at least on my system.  I will be calling my friend
soon to find out if it works on his system.  Details in line below.

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 8:02 AM, Don Marti <dmarti at zgp.org> wrote:

> begin Christian Einfeldt quotation of Wed, May 14, 2008 at 07:17:27PM
> -0700:
>
> > I and a friend are both having problems using Audacity to edit music
> files.  In
> > my case, I am trying to edit an .ogg vorbis file, and in his case, he is
> trying
> > to edit a file that he recorded with Audacity.  He is a 69 year-old man,
> and I
> > am trying to assist him over the phone, so it is kind of hard to get
> complete
> > details from him, but, fortunately, I am having the same problem on my
> Gutsy
> > install with Audacity 1.3.3-beta.  Here is the exact error message that
> we are
> > getting:
> >
> > Error while opening sound device.  Please check the output device
> settings and
> > the project sample rate.
>
> Does he also have a browser or some other application
> running?  Audacity and the other application might
> be fighting over the sound device.  Also check GNOME
> settings and turn off ESD:
>
>
> http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php?title=Linux_Issues#Error_Initializing_or_Opening_Sound_Device
>

On my system, the problem was solved simply by switching the sound device to
ALSA default by doing this.  Open Audacity, the do Edit > Preferences >
Audio I/O.  In the upper left hand corner of the window, you will see a
section labelled, "Playback".  Click on the pull-down menu beside Devices
and choose "ALSA default."  It's that simple, at least on my system, which
is running Gutsy 32-bit with 4 GB of RAM on an AMD 3800 and a Realtek ALC883
or ALC889 sound device (can't be sure which, because my system is kinda new,
so lshw might not be reporting it correctly, or so I am told).

I found this thread to be helpful:

http://audacityteam.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4006

Thanks for your response!
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