Audio sharing with other X apps

[twokay]

Does anyone have any tips on how I can get eclient to share audio on linux, so I can play mp3s in xmms at the same time? It works on Windows for me, but I'd prefer not to have to reboot just to do that.

[Blogmul]

I may be wrong here or might be an easier way but...

I guess that if you run an audio server, the server gets the exclusive access to your hardware and the applications connect to the server, allowing shared usage.

For GNOME the sound server is esd, for KDE I think it's arts. Lacking better recommendation, try the one that fits your desktop manager and/or read some on the web about sound servers for your Desktop Manager.

I hope you get it working. It does work for me ;)

[twokay]

I run enlightenment to avoid the bloat, and it doesn't come with a sound server. (Guess some bloat is useful then ;-) )

I'll try and figure out which one (arts or esd) is easier to install standalone.

[Blogmul]

Enlightened Sound Daemon (ESD or EsounD) is the sound server for Enlightenment and GNOME. It mixes several sound streams into one for output. It can also manage network-transparent audio. ESD is largely considered a defunct project, as it has not been developed since 2000. Alternative sound daemons include JACK Audio Connection Kit (which does not provide network transparency), aRtsd and PulseAudio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightened_Sound_Daemon

So, seems esd is the one for you. From the reading I did, seems also that if your system would be supporting ALSA 100% you wouldn't need the server. But if you can have it around, even if "dead"...