Version:           2.6 (using KDE KDE 3.5.1)
Installed from:    Gentoo Packages
Compiler:          g++ (GCC) 3.3.6 (Gentoo 3.3.6, ssp-3.3.6-1.0, pie-8.7.8)
OS:                Linux

KMix currently tries to open 20 devices and records the ones where it successfully detects a soundcard. While it does not pose a severe problem, this could be circumvented (at least for the ALSA backend) by the following code (found in alsactl and slightly modified):

<code>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <alsa/asoundlib.h>

int main() {
        int card, first = 1;
        int counter = 0;

        card = -1;
        /* find each installed soundcards */
        while (1) {
                if (snd_card_next(&card) < 0)
                        break;
                if (card < 0) {
                        if (first) {
                                fprintf(stderr,"No soundcards found...");
                                return -ENODEV;
                        }
                        break;
                }
                first = 0;
                counter++;
        }
        printf("%d card(s) found\n", counter);
}
</code>

A similar approach might be useful for other backends. It is probably not too difficult to implement, but the mixer interface needs to be extended. I am sure how to best do that, so I provided this wish.