Realplayer "cannot open audio device".

[Peter L. Peres]

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004, Walter Dnes wrote:

>
>   I'm running Debian GNU/Linux 3.0, and I get the above error with all 3
> options (Native linux sound driver, OSS, and ESD).  XMMS works, so it
> looks like it's something to do with RealPlayer.  I installed it as
> local user (not as root), if that helps.

I remember I had a similar problem. I think it tries to open a
non-standard audio device. Check permissions on /dev/dsp and try to find
out what it really tries to open (strace >log.txt 2>&1 realplayer, then
look for 'open('). Then make a symlink to the device name it does not find
from /dev/dsp and/or check permissions.

You can check /dev/dsp by doing /dev/dsp </some/where/sound.au after
booting. Keep the volume down in case you get artifacts (from the .au
header).

Peter
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