Looking to see if it's possible (or if the devs are able to implement) sound on/off option in the config file, as is I can't play vendetta if the sound device is in use.

I have been told about a plugin to alsa called dmix which helps in some situations, though it's a bit of a pain for the newbies and... well... i personaly can't be bothered using it :P (least i'm honest)

Had a look in the config and it doesn't seem like there is an option to start the game without using the sound device, any ideas if such an option can/will be implimented? This could be in the suggestions section, but it's more linux related since linux sound is pretty sad.

Run an application that plays sound while you start vendetta. I used to start xmms hit play and start vendetta after that. The disadvantage is that you get no sound at all from the game.
Or does that only work with the oss driver?

Setting up dmix isn't that hard, though.

Usally all you have to do is create /etc/asound.conf that looks like this:

pcm.dsp0 {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm "dmixer"
}

pcm.dmixer {
type dmix
ipc_key 1234
slave {
pcm "hw:0,0"
period_size 1024
buffer_size 16384
periods 4
}
}

Note: period_size buffer_size and periods are pretty high for me resulting quite laggy sound. Most cards can probably use lower values.

I'm currently using alsa, if the sound device is being used by another app (e.g mplayer, xine, xmms) than vendetta won't load. I could setup dmix, but it'd rather only do that if i absoultely have to. :(

And if you tell it to use the oss driver?

Blasphemy! OSS is depricated, stick with the times old man :P I'd rather use alsa unless i had not other choice, yes i could use OSS, yues i could use dmix, yes i could put in other sound card and mix... but all this can be avoided by the simple config option to disable sound. I guess that's what i'm trying to drive at, a lot of people won't bothered to; swap sound drivers, install a alsa patch and configure+test... I will, don't get me wrong, if there's no other option in sight then i'll end up installing dmix and getting the ball rolling, though i would like to see an option in the config file to disable sound (as with ut2k4 and other games).

No .. what I meant was to tell the game to use the oss driver (or oss emulation in alsa).