This is a regression since RH7.0. The problem is kind of hard to describe, but essentially the XMMS frequency analyzer display has become very "jumpy". The frequency analyzer is the series of little bars which appear in the default XMMS setup. It is as if the bars are only working properly for a brief time every 250ms or so. They sync to the music and then drop of until the next 250ms "beat". I am not sure if this is an XMMS bug or a kernel bug. However, I know the cause of this issue - namely the upgrade to the 2.4 kernel. RH7.0 also exhibited this problem when I manually installed and booted on a 2.4 kernel. If it matters, I am using the OSS driver for my AWE32 card. "sndconfig" detects it fine.
You *are* using the OSS output module, not the esound one, correct?
Ah, spot on Bill. Switched to the OSS output plugin and the display is fine. But the default install would seem to go for the esound plugin, which has the bug as described.
It's something to do with the interaction of the 2.4 driver re: fragment size (I think) and esound. A lot of drivers have it (cs46xx is another).
Thanks for the bug report. However, Red Hat no longer maintains this version of the product. Please upgrade to the latest version and open a new bug if the problem persists. The Fedora Legacy project (http://fedoralegacy.org/) maintains some older releases, and if you believe this bug is interesting to them, please report the problem in the bug tracker at: http://bugzilla.fedora.us/