bug#4208: 23.1; play-sound-file does not work

[Tom Tromey]

Please write in English if possible, because the Emacs maintainers
usually do not have translators to read other languages for them.

Your bug report will be posted to the bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org mailing list,
and to the gnu.emacs.bug news group.

Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug
and the precise symptoms of the bug:


I'm using Emacs 23 on Fedora 11.

play-sound-file reliably does not work for me.  When I try it I get this
error:

play-sound: No usable sound device driver found

I don't know why this fails.

I looked at the code a tiny bit.  I think one possible fix would be to
write a PulseAudio sound back end for Emacs.  PulseAudio seems to be the
current way of producing sounds on Fedora.


If Emacs crashed, and you have the Emacs process in the gdb debugger,
please include the output from the following gdb commands:
    `bt full' and `xbacktrace'.
If you would like to further debug the crash, please read the file
/usr/share/emacs/23.1/etc/DEBUG for instructions.


In GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (i386-redhat-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 2.16.5)
 of 2009-08-03 on x86-5.fedora.phx.redhat.com
Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.10601901
configured using `configure  '--build=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' 
'--host=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' '--target=i586-redhat-linux-gnu' 
'--program-prefix=' '--prefix=/usr' '--exec-prefix=/usr' '--bindir=/usr/bin' 
'--sbindir=/usr/sbin' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--datadir=/usr/share' 
'--includedir=/usr/include' '--libdir=/usr/lib' '--libexecdir=/usr/libexec' 
'--localstatedir=/var' '--sharedstatedir=/var/lib' '--mandir=/usr/share/man' 
'--infodir=/usr/share/info' '--with-dbus' '--with-gif' '--with-jpeg' 
'--with-png' '--with-rsvg' '--with-tiff' '--with-xft' '--with-xpm' 
'--with-x-toolkit=gtk' 'build_alias=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' 
'host_alias=i386-redhat-linux-gnu' 'target_alias=i586-redhat-linux-gnu' 
'CFLAGS=-DMAIL_USE_LOCKF -O2 -g -pipe -Wall -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 
-fexceptions -fstack-protector --param=ssp-buffer-size=4 -m32 -march=i586 
-mtune=generic -fasynchronous-unwind-tables''

Important settings:
  value of $LC_ALL: nil
  value of $LC_COLLATE: nil
  value of $LC_CTYPE: nil
  value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil
  value of $LC_MONETARY: nil
  value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil
  value of $LC_TIME: nil
  value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8
  value of $XMODIFIERS: nil
  locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix
  default-enable-multibyte-characters: t

Major mode: Group

Minor modes in effect:
  erc-list-mode: t
  erc-menu-mode: t
  erc-autojoin-mode: t
  erc-ring-mode: t
  erc-pcomplete-mode: t
  erc-track-mode: t
  erc-track-minor-mode: t
  erc-match-mode: t
  erc-button-mode: t
  erc-fill-mode: t
  erc-stamp-mode: t
  erc-netsplit-mode: t
  erc-spelling-mode: t
  erc-truncate-mode: t
  diff-auto-refine-mode: t
  shell-dirtrack-mode: t
  gnus-undo-mode: t
  highlight-changes-visible-mode: t
  erc-status-mode: t
  erc-services-mode: t
  erc-networks-mode: t
  erc-irccontrols-mode: t
  erc-noncommands-mode: t
  erc-move-to-prompt-mode: t
  erc-readonly-mode: t
  tooltip-mode: t
  mouse-wheel-mode: t
  file-name-shadow-mode: t
  global-font-lock-mode: t
  font-lock-mode: t
  global-auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-composition-mode: t
  auto-encryption-mode: t
  auto-compression-mode: t
  line-number-mode: t
  transient-mark-mode: t

Recent input:
o C-x C-v <return> C-x 1 C-s F A I L : C-x 4 f M-p 
M-p <M-backspace> <M-backspace> c d - v <backspace> 
<backspace> <backspace> m d - v <tab> <switch-frame> 
<switch-frame> M-b M-b C-k v a r - c <tab> m <tab> 
C-a C-e <return> C-s c r e a t e SPC g l o b a l C-w 
C-w <backspace> SPC a C-e C-p C-e C-u C-b C-x b <return> 
b C-/ C-c b C-x b <return> C-b C-b C-b C-SPC M-b M-b 
M-b C-b C-x r x i C-x b <return> C-f C-x r i i C-s 
c r e a t e SPC n u l l _ C-w C-s C-s C-p C-e C-b C-b 
C-b C-x r i i C-x C-g M-f C-u C-f C-f C-f C-d C-f C-f 
C-d C-x C-s C-x s n y y C-c a u p d M-/ . C-k C-x s 
y C-c b C-a n C-c b C-u C-SPC C-u C-SPC C-c a C-a C-k 
C-k C-k C-p C-e M-b M-b M-b M-b M-f C-M-k C-x s y n 
C-x 1 <f10> <f10> c C-g C-a C-k C-f C-c b <f10> <f10> 
<f10> <f10> C-z o E = M-v q s C-u C-u C-p C-u C-n SPC 
E q s C-z o <f10> <f10> C-z o C-v C-u C-n C-u C-n C-u 
C-n C-z o <f10> <f10> C-z o C-u C-n p SPC 5 0 <return> 
M-> C-z o <f10> <f10> C-z o C-p C-p SPC E S-SPC E C-z 
o C-x b 8 s c r C-g C-x C-f ~ / . e m <tab> a <tab> 
<return> C-s p l a y - C-b C-a M-m C-M-f C-x C-e C-z 
o q M-x r e p o r t - e m <tab> <return>

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Tom