Rdesktop & Sound

Hey all,

So I've been thinking about replacing my gigantic Dell Inspiron 9400 with my Acer when on the road using rdesktop to get back into the Inspiron when I need it. Enabled Terminal Services in Vista and can connect without issue from my Acer using the following command:

Code:

rdesktop -u vistausername -p vistapassword -f vistaip

Only thing is, I can't seem to get sound from the Vista machine. I tried:

Code:

rdesktop -u vistausername -p vistapassword -f -r sound:local vistaip

but not a peep comes out. Now I know that the Vista machine is sending sound as the sound output device in Vista is being successfully sent to the RDP output.

I read that rdesktop uses OSS and therefore you need to 'fool' it into using ALSA using the ALSA-OSS package so I installed that and tried:

Code:

aoss rdesktop -u vistausername -p vistapassword -f -r sound:local vistaip

Still no sound. Also tried explicitly setting the driver:

Code:

aoss rdesktop -u vistausername -p vistapassword -f -r sound:local:oss vistaip

still with no sound.

Now the only thing I haven't done is explicitly set the device in the rdesktop command (it seems it uses /dev/dsp as default) so I'm thinking that maybe this is the issue. Problem is, I don't know how to refer to the output sound device on the Acer.

Anyone have any idea how I should refer to it?

 

Have you tried ... sound:remote

Cheers.

 

Hey rbil,

From what I saw when I simply entered the command rdesktop it seemed to me that I would use sound:remote if I wanted to output the sound from the Inspiron's speakers rather than directing it to the Acer. If I use sound:remote with aoss or without I still get no sound out of the Acer but I do get sound out of the Vista machine as expected.

I am still convinced I need to explicity set the device. When I use skype I have to explicitly set the input source for the internal mic.

 

It has been quite some time since I used rdesktop, so you are probably right. I can't remember whether I was trying to hear the sound from the XP box or the Linux box. In any case, have you tried this ...

-r sound:local:alsa

since your Linpus system is using alsa?

If that doesn't work then maybe install: alsa-plugins-oss and continue trying with the oss device?

Cheers.

 

Thanks for the suggestions.

Well according to the documentation, only the OSS driver is supported so changing it to ALSA shouldn't help - tried anyway and sure enough, got a sound output error. Installed alsa-plugins-oss but made no difference either. Still thinking it's down to specifying the device name in the command.

While its not a critical issue I really would like to get this working.

 

Latest update on this is that I uninstalled rdesktop, downloaded and compiled from source with the alsa support configuration switch and still no sound. I'm about out of ideas on this one

 

Re: Rdesktop & Sound - Solved

Well, just when I had given up on this along comes the solution via a guy called Tony S from the Irish Linux Users mailing list. Adding -r disk:Z/mnt to the command gives local sound on my Acer from my Vista machine. So the command I use to launch now looks like:

Code:

rdesktop -u vistausername -p vistapassword -r sound:local -a 16 -r disk:Z/mnt VistaIP

Shame the sound quality on the Acer isn't a bit better but I certianly am happy not to have to employ sherpers to lug my Inspiron round with me anymore.