Re: [TCLUG:7412] Linux sound output

[Phil Mendelsohn <mend0070@tc.umn.edu>]

Peter Lukas wrote:

> You may want to see what process owns the sound card whenever you launch
> Mathematica.  KDE uses a sound manager (kwmsound), so you'll need to see
> if it is allowing access from the Mathematica app.  There's probably a
> standby or suspend switch for it that you'll need to toggle before
> launching Mathematica (or hope the folks at Wolfram want to make it
> ksound(or sound daemon)-aware).

Thanks for the suggestion.  Unfortunately, I found out what the case
is.  All Linux versions of Mathematica (v3.0, 4.0) do *not* support
sound output.  No doubt this is due to Wolfram's perception that sound
card support is too non-standard -- is a given install a kernel module
or not, if so, which module, if not, is it OSS, blah blah blah.  

I can understand this from their P.O.V., but what bums me is that I
don't really have a stronger argument for telling them to support OSS
than to say "because it's the one *I* use."  Anyone know if there's been
any sort of consensus on sound drivers or if we're moving towards one? 
Any idea if contacting OSS might get them to help put a little pressure
on Wolfram, vis a vis feedback?

Even more of a bummer -- they don't support Linux on the Alpha, only
i386, which makes my dream of a proc. upgrade somewhat of a pyrrhic
victory from the outset.

Where's that darned grassroots movement when you need it?!<g>

Cheers,

Phil Mendelsohn
"The more I see of men,
the better I like my dog."
-- Blaise Pascal