XFree Local Multi-User HOWTO
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# 7.1. Using independent sound cards

| Note
| In case you do not use devfs, you may need to create additional device files. Take a look at The Linux Sound HOWTO, for information on how to setup additional sound cards.

## 7.1.1. Using aRts daemon

We have to specify different sound devices for the different Xsessions/Displays. This is done by using the following options of aRts daemon (http://www.arts-project.org/):

- By OSS-free sound driver:

      -D /dev/dsp[n]

  where n is the number of the sound card.

- By Alsa sound driver:

      -a alsa -D hw:[n],0

  where n is sound card id.

Add these lines to your Window Manager start-up script (of course, with the proper arguments for your setup):

    real_display=`echo $DISPLAY | sed "s/://" | sed "s/\..*//"`
    case "$real_display" in
            0)
            artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -D /dev/dsp -s 5 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f &
            ;;
            1)
            artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -D /dev/dsp1 -s 5 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f &
            ;;
            2)
            artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -a alsa -D hw:4,0 -s 5 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f &
            ;;
    esac

And at the end of the file:

    artsshell -q terminate

Here is an example for `/usr/X11R6/bin/startenlightenment`:

    #!/bin/sh
    #   License: GPL

    real_display=`echo $DISPLAY | sed "s/://" | sed "s/\..*//"`
    case "$real_display" in
            0)
            artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -D /dev/dsp -s 5 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f &
            ;;
            1)
            artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -D /dev/dsp1 -s 5 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f &
            ;;
            2)
            artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -a alsa -D hw:2,0 -s 5 -m artsmessage -l 3 -f &
            ;;
    esac

    /usr/X11R6/bin/enlightenment
    artsshell -q terminate

This will start 3 aRts daemons for 3 X servers.

1. Daemon will use the first OSS sound device for the 1st X server.

2. Daemon will use the second OSS sound device for the 2nd X server.

3. Daemon will use the Alsa sound device for the 3rd X server (requires feedback).

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