Fix For "[ao_alsa] Playback Open Error: Device Or Resource Busy&q

Hey guys,

Have you ever had that error when trying to play sound from terminal

[AO_ALSA] Playback open error: Device or resource busy

Or oustide terminal while loading software such as Amarok you get something like

xine engine unable to load sound drivers

Well there is a super simple fix for that.

First, just to make sure the fix will do what it's meant for (fixing!), type the following in terminal

lsof /dev/snd/{whatever your device name is, similar to "pcmC0D1p"}

You can get the device name in terminal when you type the following and get the sound error which is the subject of this post

mplayer filename.movie

It will show something like

[AO_ALSA] alsa-lib: pcm_hw.c:1099:(snd_pcm_hw_open) open /dev/snd/pcmC0D1p failed: Device or resource busy

Then go back to the step about the lsof command. Check if you have anything showing. If the lsof command lists nothing, then your problem is something else and look elsewhere. But if lsof lists something, it means those things are using the sound device, and most probably in an exclusive manner which means nothing else can start the device.

The culprit? The stupid "Sound File preview" function in KDE!!
You can uncheck that option from 2 places:

-right-click desktop
-choose behavior
-file icon tab
-uncheck "sound files"

The other way is through kcontrol, this first one is a lot easier though.

Then reboot (restarting X is enough, I think).
And then do another lsof typing. And nothing will show!! Now start Amarok or anything else.

That problem happened to me when I tried to force all sounds through SPDIF. Analog I had no problem, but through SPDIF it was always busy until I found that workaround.

Ha, this is weird, I could not find the EDIT button. Anyways, just to say that this fix is ONE of the possible causes, cuz there could be a lot more.