`Walk-though' using the Y Sound Server
Now hopefully you have atleast one working preset Y Audio Mode and
are ready to hear it work.
Starting the YIFF Sound Server
You can start the YIFF Sound Server as the user with the lowest
permissions, YIFF only needs access to the devices and locations
specified in the yiffrc configuration file.
To start the YIFF Sound Server, just type (modify paths as needed):
/usr/sbin/yiff /etc/yiff/yiffrc
The above command should have started
the YIFF Sound Server and print any warnings or errors encountered.
Some typical errors you might encounter are:
/etc/yiff/yiffrc: No such file. This means that the
path to the configuration file is incorrect. Please specify the correct
path to the configuration file and make sure that
/usr/sbin/yiff has permission to check for its existance and
open it.
- Cannot bind network listening port. The port number that
/usr/sbin/yiff listens to for incoming Y client connections
(default number is 9433) is already in user by another server or is not
allowed to be binded with the current permissions on
/usr/sbin/yiff. You may need to increase the permissions on
/usr/sbin/yiff or reduce the permissions on (give access
to) the network port number in question.
/dev/dsp: Cannot open for playing. This may indicate
another non-Y compliant sound application is already trying to use the
digital sound processor device, check if any other programs are currently
running (type ps aux) that might be using
/dev/dsp. Also check if the sound driver is installed and
loaded properly (type modprobe sound).
Note that the YIFF Sound Server will automatically run in the background,
if however you want to run YIFF in the foreground then add
--foreground to the command, for example:
/usr/sbin/yiff /etc/yiff/yiffrc --foreground
To get a list of command line arguments for YIFF, type:
You can type the above regardless if YIFF running or not.
To formally start YIFF you should run:
This is a script file that calls YIFF and sets up additional resources
(such as yhosts).
Is the YIFF Sound Server running?
There are two ways to check that:
ps aux|grep yiff
yrecinfo
The first command will basically check the complete list of processes
and show you the line (if any) for the pid of the YIFF Sound Server.
The second line is a more Y specific way of checking,
yrecinfo will print the status of the YIFF Sound Server
if it was able to connect to it or an error message if it was not able
to connect. A typical successful output from yrecinfo
would look like:
recorder: 127.0.0.1:9433
version: 2.11
cycle load: 3.4%
maximum protocol statement: 30000 bytes
cycle set: 2
cycle: 30959 microseconds
compensated cycle: 30959 microseconds
write ahead: 46438 microseconds
cumulative latency: 0 microseconds
sample rate: 11025 Hz
channels: 1
sample size: 8 bits
bytes per second: 11025 bytes
allow sound buffer fragments: yes
sound buffer fragments: 2
sound buffer size: 512 bytes
flip stereo: no
direction: 0
By default yrecinfo connects to port 9433 on the
computer it is running on, to specify an particular address and port,
type:
yrecinfo --recorder 127.0.0.1:9433
The above is the same as running yrecinfo without any
arguments but as you can see, you can get a different address by simply
changing 127.0.0.1 to a different address.
For a different port just change 9433 to the port number
you want. You should note that all Y compliant applications will handle
the --recorder <address>:<port> argument.
As always to get a full list of arguments available, run with the
argument --help, for example:
Playing something
If everything looks good so far, then its time to check if the YIFF
Sound Server can play something. Select a reasonably lengthed (1 MB or so)
wav, voc, or raw sound file and type:
yplay -v -m /home/me/mysound.wav
Replace /home/me/mysound.wav with the full path to
the sound file in question. Remember that if you pass a relative path,
the file will be searched through the Y Sound Paths list and if it is
not found yplay will return stating an error (the current
working directory is not checked). The -v and -m
arguments specify verbose and automatically change Audio values as needed
(respectivly). Typically the -m argument is discuraged
because changing the Audio mode as needed will cause any other Y client
application's sound objects to be killed. You can press
ctrl+c at any time during yplay's playback
to stop it.
Next try and see if you can play a MIDI sound object, it's the same
procedure with yplay except that you tell it to play a midi
file, for example:
yplay -v -m /home/me/mysound.mid
This might produce an error if your MIDI player program is not set up
properly. Run yiffconfig or edit /etc/yiff/yiffrc
to change the MIDIPlayCommand parameter as needed.
Changing the Y Audio Mode manually
You can easilly switch preset Y Audio Modes or set specific Audio modes
using yset. This is a very powerful command, as it allows
you to manipulate many aspects of the YIFF Sound Server at run time.
For example, to switch preset Y Audio Modes first type:
This will print the YIFF Sound server status and a list of available Y Audio
Modes. Make note of a particular Y Audio Mode name you like to switch to
and type:
yset audio PlayStereo11025
Replace PlayStereo11025 with the Y Audio Mode you want to
switch to (make sure it appeared in the yrecinfo list).
You may hear a 'click' as the Audio values are updated.
There are many options to yset, again to get a list of
arguments type:
Shell out
One additional feature that should be pointed out at this time is that the
YIFF Sound
Server can shell out, what this means is that the YIFF Sound Server
will continue to; run normally, handle Y client connections, and play
sound... or so it seems. What its really doing is everything except play
sound. It will still communicate with the Y client programs connected to
it and 'lie' to them when they request to play a sound (it will
pretend its playing the sound but not actually play it). This is similar
in principal as a GUI switching to full screen mode to allow a non-GUI
program to run (old MS-Windows users should know what we mean here).
So basically YIFF will stop using the digital sound processor device
specified by the configuration parameter DSPDevice so other
non-Y applications can use it. So to shell out type:
You should get a message indicating the Y server has been shelled out, now
type:
yplay -v /home/me/mysound.wav
Do not specify the -m argument above (you'll see why
in a moment). When you press enter you will see that it appears the sound
is playing normally but you will hear nothing comming from the speakers.
Now press ctrl+c and type:
Any preset Y Audio Mode or Audio values will do, this will unshell and
bring YIFF back to running normally (make sure no other non-Y applications
are ysing the digital sound processor device when you type this). To
conferm that sound is back, type:
yplay -v /home/me/mysound.wav
Note that if you had specified -m to yplay, it
would have changed the Audio and thus unshell.
Mixers
One thing that yset cannot manipulate are the Y mixers.
This is where a new command called ymixer is used, note that
not all sound cards have mixers and if even so not all mixer channels
exist (maybe not even vol, so double check your sound card
manual first before continuing on in this section).
First to get a list of all Y mixers, just type:
You should get a list of mixer channel names and their respective values
in percent.
To set a specific Y mixer value type:
This will set the mixer vol to left channel 70 percent
and right channel 40 percent. To verify type:
You may notice a slight different in output value as the YIFF server
adjusts to the internal values.
Note that the mixer device is specified in the
yiffrc configuration file by the parameter
MixerDevice. You can set this parameter's value to nothing
to indicate you have no mixer.
Your Y mixer settings are stored in a file
called /var/state/yiff/mixer this file is automatically loaded
when you run the YIFF Sound Server and rewritten when you shut down the
YIFF Sound Server.
Allowing foreign Y clients
Since Y Sound Systems is a network transparent system, it allows
Y clients from other computers to connect to the Y server, but not unless
you say so.
To allow a Y client on another computer to connect to a YIFF Sound Server
currently running on your computer type (on your comptuer):
This will add the host wolfpack.twu.net IP address to the
list of foreign yhosts (ip addresses) allowed to connect to the YIFF
Sound Server on your computer. Note that its better to specify an IP
address as it is more precise in security, for example:
To remove an address type:
Note the - character which specifies to remove the address
from the allowed list of addresses.
Remember that changes you make using yhost are not
permanent, they will be gone once you shut down your YIFF Sound Server. So
to preserve changes you should add the yhost to your
/etc/init.d/yiff script.
Beware, allowing programs from other computers to
control YIFF will allow them to do bad things, such as shutting down YIFF
or having it play a million sound objects at once. Only specify
yhost addresses of computers you trust!
Shutting down the YIFF Sound Server
To shut down the YIFF Sound Server type:
This will have YIFF stop all sound objects being played, destroy all sound
objects, close connections to any Y client applications
currently connected and then shut down.
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