[Openal] Problems with ALSA and the Sample implementation

[Chris Robinson]

On Thursday 26 July 2007 05:36:53 pm Troy Yee wrote:
> alcOpenDevice(NULL) fails.  If I have no
> .openalrc file, I get no informational messages.  If I have
> .openalrc with (define devices '(alsa)) and (define alsa-out-
> device "plug:dmix") I get the following from ALSA
>    ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:868:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave.

Sorry for the triple reply, but gmail makes it impossible to reply to your own 
messages. But actually, this is consistent behavior. Opening NULL should open 
the implementation-specific default device. The default device is ALSA when 
it's enabled, so with or without an .openalrc with '(alsa) set, will select 
ALSA. It sounds like ALSA can't open your sound card for some reason.

Using the define I gave you before:
(define devices '(alsa oss sdl))
should allow it to fall back to OSS or SDL, however as a general rule, you 
should only define one device there (whatever you want the default to be), 
and fix the program to be able to select alternate devices.