Linux ubuntu sound on one thing at a time wtf?

right linux is abit crackly on xmms sometimes on some formats.and i cant hear sound from more than one thing at a time.for instance i wont here IM sounds on amsn whilst playing music in xmms... so how do i sort this because otherwise its pathetic to only allow one sound a time!
cheers

 

Sounds like a channel problem. Have you checked that your soundcard is fully supported on the kernel?

(and wait for Glider to give you further support)

 

sounds like ALSA isn't set up correctly.

I'd google for ALSA, you'll find plenty of guides, they should sort you out.

Sam

 

Try looking at the documentation for aRTS.

 

I used to have real trouble with this. ALSA (the advanced linux sound srchitecture) will only allow one program access to the sound card, unless there are drivers available for your sound hardware to allow hardware mixing. The workaround is software mixing using dmix. Recent versions of ALSA are supposed to handle this automatically.
The Gentoo ALSA guide might be of use, just skip the installation bits.

aRTS is KDE only so it doesn't concern you on ubuntu.

 

Sounds like you are either
a. missing a sound daemon
b. dont have alsa setup properly, might need to configure your ~/.asoundrc

Need to know specifics on what sound card you're running

I know that with my soundcard (audiophile 24/96) you can only use 1 app at a time until its properly configured with .asoundrc

 

Xmms has been masked by Gentoo developers, reason: Buggy

I'd recommend you check:
ALSA working correctly (sounds like the source of the problem)
Install something else then XMMS, like Amarok (<== HIGHLY recommend this)