dosbox uses SDL for pcm and what SDL uses eventually for outputting could be alsa or oss.

oh, I see.

So, is there a possibility to pass an argument to the SDL sound driver? Like -ao sdl:esd in mplayer?

bye, duke42.

SDL is generally controlled at runtime via SDL_FOO environment variables. Your SDL could have been compiled with support for different types of sound drivers, and if it has support for more than one, you can hint as to which you sould like it to use with such environmental varaibles.

http://www.libsdl.org/faq.php?action=listentries&category=9

The SDL FAQ does not indicate a SDL_AUDIODRIVER option for alsa. The FAQ may be out of date or it may not actually support it. I certainly don't know, but look aroudn libsdl.org for more information.

I'd love to hear how this is working out for you. I use Gentoo+ALSA too and couldn't get MIDI with Timidity and sound effects working from Dosbox at the same time. Recompiling libsdl and messing with the config didn't help. It's been a few weeks since though, so I don't remember any details.

I have gentoo and alsa and dosbox seems ok here. I have master of magic playing music and digital sound effects, anyway. It's a little patchy, but ok otherwise

What'd be a good test for midi files under dosbox?

USE="-opengl -alsa -arts" emerge -av sdl-ttf sdl-net sdl-mixer sdl-image sdl-gfx libsdl sdl-perl --oneshot

That fixed it for me.
Now dosbox is running, i don't know if i have sound.