Using PulseAudio for OSS Applications

In my previous post, I discussed how to use PulseAudio to enable sound for coLinux. This works fine for programs like MPlayer, but has issues with some programs e.g. Solfege.

The solution is simple: if the problematic applications have support for OSS, then emerge them with OSS USE flag on. In addition, PulseAudio should also be emerged with OSS USE flag (to enable the building of padsp, a PulseAudio OSS wrapper, which will be discussed below). Under Gentoo Linux, one way is to simply add OSS USE flag to /etc/make.conf. Alternative way is to enable the USE flag application by application. For example, to enable OSS USE flag for Solfege, type the following:

# echo "media-sound/solfege oss" >> /etc/portage/package.use

When running these applications, prefix the command line with padsp like the following:

$ padsp solfege

Note that you may need additional configurations in the application to use OSS for audio output.