So far I only found two ways:
ad.2. Pretty recent code (2010)
but does nothing, not sound at all.
ad.1. For example:
All I get is exception "Audio Device Unavailable". As this article (2008) -- lsof |grep snd — how to free a linux sound device -- explains Java has to get exclusive access to audio device.
However I cannot afford such condition. I use sound to notify myself on long running process (several hours), I cannot get rid of all sounds (including those forced via Flash ads) just to make Java comfy.
So for now I use total extreme -- I simply launch external program: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8370223/210342 . This is ugly as hell because well new program is launched just to make notification.
Is there currently a way to play a WAV file:
Java 1.6, openSUSE 11.4
So, thanks to AT answer I drifted from JMF to JMF problems, and that led me to VLC-J. And this is the answer -- in order to use multimedia in Java program simply don't use Java (pity, btw. that Java in year 2012 does not have reliable multimedia layer, gee.).
Marking as solved, because VLC-J allowed me to play audio without problem.
Main project site: http://code.google.com/p/vlcj/
Minimal playback program: http://code.google.com/p/vlcj/source/browse/trunk/vlcj/src/test/java/uk/co/caprica/vlcj/test/minimalmp3/Mp3Test.java