Description of Problem: When using mpg123 to play mp3's at the console without X running, it does not accept the "-a" commandline option as documented in the manpage. It also forces the use of the esound daemon which IMHO is inherently wrong. It should not force the output device to anything. Some people may have esound running, others artsd, and others yet don't want to use either daemon, but rather force the output device to a particular sound card. The proper fix is to rip the code out that forces the use of esound, and replace it with code that *optionally* uses esound or artsd for sound output while defaulting to the stock mpg123's behaviour. I use mpg123 in scripts to notify me of build success/failure and tonnes of other uses. It only works sometimes and not others. I tracked it down to a conflict between esound and artsd, and other programs all trying to do stuff simultaneoudly. Rebuilding mpg123 stock without the esound stuff fixes the problem. How Reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. Run KDE desktop, run xmms, and a few other apps like mixers, etc. 2. With out anything actually playing sound, try having a ssh sesssion from another machine ssh in and fire off mpg123. 3. Play around with other sound apps on the machine. It sometimes will play an mp3, and other times will not. Using /dev/dsp seems to always work. (As long as nothing else is actually playing sound.) Expected Results: 1) /dev/dsp is the default output device 2) If /dev/dsp is not accessible, perhaps then use esd or artsd 3) At all times honour the -a commandline option so I people can use mpg123 more flexibly instead of being locked into esound. Especially useful for machines with multiple soundcards/dsp devices.
Since we've since shipped to mpg321, this probably won't be fixed.