Well, WMS has replied to my email saying that unfortunately he cannot spend time to fix this in cgoban.

So, I programmed an extension to java itself to make KGS audio work again (it implements the mixer that cgoban is looking for, and just passes everything through to another mixer).

Warning: THIS IS A HUGE UGLY HACK. IF YOU IMPLEMENT THIS WORKAROUND IT COULD MEAN OTHER JAVA APPLICATIONS CANNOT PLAY SOUND OR WORSE COMPLETELY STOP WORKING. IT MAY OPEN YOU TO SECURITY VULNERABILITIES OR OTHERWISE CAUSE YOU HARM. IT IS NOT AT ALL GUARANTEED TO WORK FOR YOU. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

All I can say is that it has solved the problem for me.

How to implement? First, open the zip file and look through the source code for any malware or security vulnerabilties. If you are satisfied, and willing to use this at your own risk, rename the file to .jar and place it under lib/ext in your java home directory. For me this was /usr/lib/jvm/jre/lib/ext. For you it may be C:\Program Files\Oracle\Java1.7.0\lib\ext.

After that, you should be able to hear stone click sounds on KGS. Please let me know if you experience any problems. I expect there will be bugs at first, and I can only fix them if you tell me about them.

Here is a solution that comes to us via email that should work for the Java Web Start client (but not the applet):

Edit the shortcut or command that starts CGoban and add
-J-Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false"
after javaws.

For example, if your command was javaws cgoban.jnlp change it to javaws -J-Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false" cgoban.jnlp


Some of you please try this, and post the results here.

For those of you who use the "java" command instead of the "javaws", remove the "-J" For example,
java -Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false" -jar cgoban.jar

Thank you, person that sent the email.
(I guess he wishes to remain anonymous, since he did not post that here himself.)

Edit 25 October, 2012: The admins have been told that the switch to use the old audio engine is only for Java 1.6.0_30 to 1.6.0_43. It is not available in Java 1.7, and Java older than 1.6.0_30.

This did not work for me on two MacBookPro (both 10.6.8), with latest Java updates.

So far, I only tried the java webstart, and not java directly.

No stone clicks, no pass dings, but I get PM rings and lecture audio.

oops... nevermind : File -> Preferences -> sound for: "All games" <-- must remember to turn this on first

Yay for having other people who fix your *\o/* for you. Instead of continuously forcing people to reverse engineer it, maybe the cgoban-client source code could just be released officially so the community can do all the work more efficiently, saving some of their members' own time too -> everyone is happy and KGS becomes that more awesome.
(Disclaimer: If I sound a bit annoyed it's simply because I like KGS that much and want its development to take the best possible future course. And I'm extremely tired of a LONG time with the same old sound bugs.)

Also, the biguglyhack actually fixed missing stone-clacking sfx and missing lesson audio stream on Archlinux w/ OpenJDK6 (32b) for me, got full sound now. Yay!
Nice work, Nick23.

Thanks for people in this topic!
Special thanks for Nick23 !!!

I tried both 2 methods above. The results are:

1. biguglyhack.jar
Works.

2. Add "-J-Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false" into Shortcut
Not works.

Java 1.7.0_05
Windows 7 x86

@Nick23,

If there's something wrong and want to restore Java environment, I guess I just need to remove biguglyhack.jar from lib/ext directory, right?
Correct me if I'm wrong, please!

Hello world!

I experienced too many missing sounds, and some heavy slowdowns while running games in blitz (few seconds, but very handicaping in such situations).

So, I decided to develop a very small Batch script for Windows XP/Vista/7. Its principle is quite simple: it goes in the regitry to find the exact location of de JRE6, then runs Java WebStart to load cgoban.jnlp, which can be located locally or not ()by default, the script goes to KGS in order to retrieve it.

The download link is here (virus free, I promise ) --> https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqztjp5gapw4c1w/CGoban.bat

Patrice

No programming knowledge whatsoever, so please excuse the newbie questions, but...

by renaming the file .jar, you mean renaming the folder .jar?
There are many files in the folder... so I'm kinda at a loss

He means: rename the zip file to jar (example: test.zip -> test.jar)

I guess you are using windows:
if you see a folder instead of the zip file, then that means windows opens it for you. In that case install winrar and then it will be shown as a file.

Install WinRar? That's rather OTT. I suspect Sumatakyo' problem is Windows is hiding the extensions of files. You can show them with a setting, precisely where it is depends on what version of Windows but it's probably something like in Windows explorer go to Tools menu, Folder Options, and in View tab uncheck Hide extensions.

I just lost my stone sound when I "upgraded" to java 1.6 build 33. I must say that this sort of thing (software not working properly, having to fiddle with something that you don't know how to do that might break something else) sucks.

That said, would somebody help me try to implement this solution:




How do I edit the shortcut? When I right click the shortcut and select properties, this is what is in target: C:\WINDOWS\system32\javaws.exe -localfile "C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\daal\Anwendungsdaten\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\54\21086f76-71eccf2c"

Is this where I'm supposed to add something? I tried inserting -J-Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false" right after javaws.exe, but it didn't work.

What a bother.

Edit: btw, I am using windows xp, and this is making me angrier by the minute.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

1. First make sure "File extensions" can be seen on your Windows machine. Open "Windows Explorer" (find it in Start or use 'WindowsKey' and 'E').
Press 'Alt' and 'v'. In pull-down menu, choose 'Folder options'. Click the tab 'View'. Uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".
2. Right-click on your desktop. "New", "text document", name it 'j31cgoban'
3. Paste this line into it:

"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_31\bin\java.exe" -jar "%homedrive%%homepath%\Desktop\cgoban.jar"

4. Now get cgoban.jar from http://files.gokgs.com/javaBin/cgoban.jar ... Choose "Save As" and save on your desktop.
5. Find the cgoban.zip or cgoban.jar file. Rename from cgoban.jar to cgoban.zip . Ignore Unuseable warning
6. Find the j31cgoban.txt file and rename it j31cgoban.bat. Ignore unuseable warning.
7. If you prefer to 'hide known extensions' repeat 1. but check 'Hide extensions' instead of uncheck.
8. You can play on KGS by double-clicking on j31cgoban (or j31cgoban.bat)
- you can check the stone sound by -inside the cgoban program- go to Preferences, set sound to "All games" not just "My games", enter a game, wait for a player to play.

Improvements:
- You can make a shortcut by copying another shortcut (click the shortcut once, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, look for "Copy of" on your desktop). Rightclick, 'Properties', and then change 'Target' to
"C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_31\bin\javaw.exe" -jar "%homedrive%%homepath%\Desktop\cgoban.jar"
- You can also change the location of the cgoban.jar file to anywhere you like. Just change "%homedrive%%...etc." to "C:\MyCGobanPlace\cgoban.jar"

Problems:
- The java 1.6.0_031 maybe installed at another location , look for it, and change the path
- On a new installation java 1.6.0_031 may not be installed, look for it here http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/ ... 31-oth-JPR

Best regards, teralaser

Teralaser -

Thank you for your clear and detailed description of that workaround.

My rough understanding of what it does is that it makes cgoban use the older version of java - is this correct?

Nonetheless, this solution is different than the solutions recommended by KGS (see https://www.gokgs.com/help/Java.html ).

I personally have now downgraded java to version 31. but since this is not a very good permanent solution, I would still like someone to explain how to implement UnclMartin's solution.

He writes:



Command? To start KGS, I click an icon, which I assume is what is meant by shortcut. Where in my shortcut is this "javaws" ? Like I said, in properties I found javaws.exe, but putting something before the .exe seems not to make sense. Please remember, we're not all born typing code.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

Thanks for the help!

Unfortunately... I'm still not getting any sound...
I think I'll try going over everything one more time tomorrow... hopefully it works then

I really can't stand not knowing when the other player has placed a stone on the board... Run out of time fast ><
So I think I'll just play my Tygem account until I can resolve this...

When I right click on the KGS icon on my desktop [edit: and then left click on "properties"], I see this...

The original line under "Target" here is:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\javaws.exe -localfile "C:\Users\dave\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\54\21086f76-54db9c90"

After I modify it following UnclMartin's instructions it looks like this:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\javaws.exe -J-Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false" "C:\Users\dave\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\cache\6.0\54\21086f76-54db9c90"

This is all under Windows 7 Home Edition 64-bit and it works for me. Note that the absence of -localfile in the edited "Target" line did not do anything bad for me.

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

Hello Daal, yes the javaws -J-Dsun.sound.useNewAudioEngine="false" cgoban.jnlp solution also works on my machine.
I've heard the "big ugly hack" one also works (but for ordinary users it might be tricky to find the right java version, I suspect), but I have no time to test for a while (travelling).

My solution is a basic downgrade, yes.

Also, my solution gets around the "not signed" problem with gokgs: some users can not even get the java web start to work *at all*.

(I think some of this security change is very warranted, on one of my machines the S.M.A.R.T. hdd virus did attach to the gokgs.jnlp or .jar - deleting the jnlp cache and loading it again solved it - again not easy for non-coder users)

Biguglyhack worked for me, as of this weekend. Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I had almost resorted to running it in Ubuntu or XP through virtualbox...though I'm not sure it would have worked.

Thanks, Dave.

_________________
Patience, grasshopper.

Glad to be able to help. I assume that this fix will break every time we update Java because those updates keep changing the directory structure. So keep this thread handy!

_________________
Dave Sigaty
"Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and rememberer and the remembered..."
- Marcus Aurelius; Meditations, VIII 21

- Well, I tried the "biguglyfile" trick... didn't work.
- Tried the altered extension with AudioEngine="false" extension... didn't work.
- Cleared Java cache. Uninstalled all Java. Only installed version 6.31 of Java. (Tried same with 6.30.) Still didn't work...

(Oh and I did a "system recovery" but that didn't help either...)

Any Java geniuses have an idea of what to try next?

Really don't want to give up on KGS. Worse comes to worse I'll buy the Android app to play on my tablet, which I've thinking of getting anyways, but I'd still like to play with sound on my computer.