asterisk users - Sep 2005 - chan_alsa.c blocking sound port - solution

If anyone else is trying to use asterisk with the sound port AND use 
something
else like mplayer my experience was asterisk BLOCKS the port.

I added a bug item this morning to suggest a parameter control in alsa.conf
and 1 line program change to chan_alsa.c of:

snd_pcm_nonblock(handle, 1);

Note this will always set NONBLOCK which is what I want at this time.
The paramter in alsa.conf is more flexible.

Took quite a while to find this (for me) hope it is valuable to others....

Jerry