It's 2008, and while Linux audio is getting better for desktop users, I still occasionally find myself running into a situation where one application is tying up my soundcard. Sometimes I'll try to run jackd through qjackctl and it'll fail because Firefox has a flash video loaded in it or something like that.Anyways, to figure out what's using your soundcard on Linux, you can run:sudo fuser -v /dev/dsp*sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*The first command above will list all the OSS applications using your sound hardware, and the latter will tackle ALSA applications.For example, if I run those commands with nothing running:gamegod@home:~/$ sudo fuser -v /dev/dsp*gamegod@home:~/$ sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/* USER PID ACCESS COMMAND/dev/snd/controlC0: gamegod 6236 F.... mixer_applet2The...