[SOLVED] Virtualbox host audio not responding

[JerryP]

This may or may not be possible to handle.  I have audio in my host PCLOS.  If I start an XP Pro virtualbox guest I have audio. BUT if the audio is working with the guest the host audio doesn't work. If I close the guest the host audio comes back on.  This means I can't use both audios at the same time yet I thought I had in the past and I would like to do it now. Anyone have experience with this.  The virtualbox manual gives me the idea that there is a setting that says it should be able to share the audio but I can't see one. I have guest additions installed.

[menotu]

You could try changing the VB Host Audio Driver and/or Audio Controller (from VB Settings > Audio) and see if that helps.

[JerryP]

I've tried the different settings.  The only one that works for me is OSS Audio Driver and ICH A97.  When I start guest the guest has audio and the host doesn't. I close guest and the host gets audio back. 

[djohnston]

The manual doesn't say whether it's possible or not.

[JerryP]

The manual suggests to me that it should as follows;
"The "Audio" section in a virtual machine's Settings window determines whether the VM will see a sound card connected, and whether the audio output should be heard on the host system."

But I think it can be read 2 ways although I can't fathom why it would be mentioned at all if not possible.  It seems obvious that you would be able to hear the guest on the host machine if the guest were making noise.

What I THINK I'm lacking is some setting ability in ""The "Audio" section in a virtual machine's Settings window".  I can either enable it or not and if it isn't enabled it doesn't make any sounds.

[AS]

For the record, I'm using virtualbox 4.1.8 on PClinuxOS host, XP as guest, audio configured as ALSA/ICH AC97, with guest-additions installed, and can play sounds simultaneously from host and guest (mixed).

AS

[JerryP]

Same version of VB but when I try ALSA I get;

"The virtual machine execution may run into an error condition as described below. We suggest that you take an appropriate action to avert the error.
No audio devices could be opened. Selecting the NULL audio backend with the consequence that no sound is audible.
Error ID: HostAudioNotResponding
Severity: Warning"

But since it works for you then it must be my hardware although it must have worked for me in the past becasue I have used it before and didn't find this to be a problem.

btw, what I'm trying to do is run NetFlix and this seems to work except for the guest audio blanking the host.

[Just17]

I've tried the different settings.  The only one that works for me is OSS Audio Driver and ICH A97.  When I start guest the guest has audio and the host doesn't. I close guest and the host gets audio back. 

IIRC, OSS does not allow sharing of the audio ........

[ThirdOfSix]

You have not said what your audio interface is.

I use a bunch of different audio devices.

I have a 7 channel USB audio interface that I use when watching movies because I need to have a graphic equalizer to compensate for my hearing and offset some of the noise added to movies these days by people who think that because they can create extra sounds on movie sound tracks that they should.

Anyway, my really good interface does not have a linux driver that will access all of its functions.

Since I watch movies on NetFlix running on virtual XP running on VirtualBox,
I have loaded the windows drivers for this USB devices into my virtual XP.

This allows me to use all of the functions of the device including its very comprehensive equalizer.

The only catch is that each time I start the virtual XP, I have to go into the menu in virtualbox and tell it to enable that particular external USB device.

What I am getting at is that you can connect any cheap external USB sound device and have VirtualBox use it if you can not get your existing sound card to work with both the host and the guest.

[Just17]

Just now checked my setup ......  because I have Pulse Audio installed on the host the guests use the PulseAudio driver and in my case an ICH AC97 controller.

Pavucontrol shows the guest as one sound stream whose volume etc can be adjusted like any other.

Multiple streams can be played to the one set of speakers/headphones/whatever, and their relative volumes can be adjusted.

Of course if you have more than one set of audio sinks attached then each stream can be sent to different attached devices (speakers/headphones/whatever).

At this time I would find it difficult to do without PulseAudio .......  I was a long time waiting for something like it .....

[JerryP]

Moving right along.... I installed everything I thought might be useful from PulseAudio in Synaptic. Now I have good audio on the host and S-L-O-W audio on the guest BUT they do both work simultaneously.  Ain't progress wonderful - back to truing different guest audio settings .....

[JerryP]

SOLVED! I hate it when people solve something and don't say what they did but my problem is that I took the "shotgun approach" and did so many things that "something" fixed it.
With the good advice of you all...
I decided to zero in on ALSA and AC97.  What I THINK handled it was installing the host PulseAudio and then uninstalling the guest AC97 and letting it reinstall itself.
Netflix here I come..... 
Thanks all....

[Just17]

   Glad to see all is well