Problems with vlc 0.2.80

[Michael Flohr]

Hi Gildas,

I got the CVS version from Friday, 29.07.2001.
It compiled without any problems and the xvideo plugin
works now perfect! I did not encounter any strange
crashes anymore. If you still want me to run it through
gdb, let me know.

Another small issue is sound: Is it possible that
changing the channel (i.e. the language) opens
a new thread (or fifo?) without necessarily closing down
the old one before? Often enough, I then don't get
any sound at all. Also, the console messages of the
system tell me that vlc then tries to load kernel modules
    sound-slot-X
    sound-service-X-3
where X=1,2,3,
which on my system do not exist.

Moreover, as a KDE user I always
have the problem that the sound server of KDE, the
"artsd", blocks the sound device. Killing it before using
vlc is annoying and might confuse other sound applications.
So, I hacked the code a little to get around this problem.
To make this hack useful for general users, one certainly
should introduce a compile option in configure, but maybe
it is too dirty anyway:

In "./src/audio_output/aout_ext-dec.c" I only changed the following:
Introduce a new variable after line 52:
    int arts_status;
Within the first if statement, before line 67, I introduced the lines:
    while((arts_status = system("artsshell suspend\n")) != 0)
    {
        usleep(1000);
    }
Sorry that I give that in this unprofessional way. But maybe,
this might be helpful for other KDE useres as well. Upto release
vlc-0.2.73, one could simply say "artsshell suspend; vlc ..." since
vlc immediately opened the sound device and blocked it. In the
new release, vlc does open the sound device only when needed,
such that the "artsd" might again have grabbed the sound device
in the meantime (e.g. because you have sounds for window manager
actions enabled such as a window popping up, or changing the
focus to another window). Since the sound device might still be
buzzy (then artsshell returns "2"), I use the while loop. At least
for me, it works well.

Best wishes
Michael