[ILUG] solved: artsd chewing massive CPU

[Justin Mason]

Here's a commonly-reported problem with aRTs (or however it's capitalized
;) in KDE 3.2 -- I've just come across the fix.

If you're using it and seeing 50% CPU usage and skipping when playing MP3s
for example, check your kernel config.  If you are using ALSA instead of
OSS for sound, with "emulate OSS" set to true, and have the audio device
set to "Auto-detect" in the KDE control center's "Sound & Multimedia /
Sound System / Hardware" tab, then aRTs will detect the *emulated* OSS
interface first.

This emulation is CPU-intensive -- hence artsd hogging CPU.  To fix,
change the device in the "Hardware" tab to "Advanced Linux Sound
Architecture".

(I also had to set "use custom sampling rate" at 44100 Hz, set quality to
 High, and set the Sound Buffer on the General tab to 464 ms for it to
 work acceptably without skipping with my hardware on 2.6.3.)

--j.