Sound / Alsa problems

mdirolf · 2004-05-21 22:38:08

Im using the 2.6 kernel and I followed the wiki Alsa install guide, but i cannot get any sound to play, even as root. XMMS doesnt give any errors and appears to be playing, but no sound comes out. There are also no errors listed on startup. I am new to arch and pretty new to linux as well so any help with this problem would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Mike

Dusty · 2004-05-21 22:49:01

sounds like a mixer problem.

run alsamixer and make sure the channels aren't muted (m at the top of the display). use the m key to unmute, I think.

If you've done that already, you may have to mute a certain channel to enable sound, I'm not sure why.

Dusty

mdirolf · 2004-05-21 23:01:06

Dusty,
Master and PCM arent muted and are at 100 %... the rest are muted but i didnt think these channels would have an effect... do they?

By the way... i dont know if this matters or not but the driver im using is snd-intel8x0 and this is the one i was told i needed by hwd.
Thanks, Mike

Dusty · 2004-05-21 23:24:33

mdirolf wrote:

Dusty,
the rest are muted but i didnt think these channels would have an effect... do they?

It's possible one of the ones with a strange name acts like a "switch" to enable the card.

By the way... i dont know if this matters or not but the driver im using is snd-intel8x0 and this is the one i was told i needed by hwd.
Thanks, Mike

Somebody might be able to tell you what channels are open for that driver. What is your sound card?

mdirolf · 2004-05-21 23:33:13

My soundcard is an integrated Intel 82801DB AC'97 Audio Controller (according to hwd)

lanrat · 2004-05-22 10:26:17

Try playing some wav file with aplay. Are you sure your configuration is ok? Please post output of lsmod and lspci. Is there anything unusual in dmesg output also? If you are completly sure your config is ok maybe try to install second kernel 2.4 (pacman -S kernel24 alsa-driver - it can safely coexist with your 2.6) and alsa-driver and check if your sound card will work then (this would mean there is something wrong with 2.6).

EDIT: is your amixer showing something like:

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Front Left: Playback 20 [65%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 20 [65%] [on]

Simple mixer control 'Wave',0
  Capabilities: pvolume cvolume cswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 100 Capture 0 - 100
  Front Left: Playback 100 [100%] Capture 0 [0%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 100 [100%] Capture 0 [0%] [on]

I'm using SB Live so your output may not be exactly the same.

mcubednyc · 2004-05-22 11:15:42

mdirolf wrote:

Dusty,
Master and PCM arent muted and are at 100 %... the rest are muted but i didnt think these channels would have an effect... do they?
By the way... i dont know if this matters or not but the driver im using is snd-intel8x0 and this is the one i was told i needed by hwd.
Thanks, Mike

I'm using the same driver and I had to unmute "Headphone" in alsamixer, in addition to Master and PCM. Don't ask me why, it doesn't make much sense to me ... but someone here (xentac, I think) suggested it and it worked.

mdirolf · 2004-05-22 14:33:31

when i try to play a wav file with aplay it returns
aplay: test_wavefile:686: can't play not PCM-coded WAVE-files
any idea what this could mean?

the output of lsmod is
Module Size Used by
snd_pcm_oss 51748 0
snd_mixer_oss 18304 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_intel8x0 31912 1
snd_ac97_codec 63364 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm 91168 2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0
snd_timer 23300 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 9348 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
gameport 3968 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_mpu401_uart 7040 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_rawmidi 21408 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 6920 1 snd_rawmidi
snd 48996 11 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore 8160 1 snd
eepro100 27788 0
mii 4864 1 eepro100

and lspci:
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio (rev 01)

Nothing unusual in dmesg

Heres something though, my amixer shows section similar to yours for PCM, lanrat, however it has no section for Sample mixer control 'WAVE'.

Any ideas what I'm doing wrong??

Also i did try unmuting headphone and this didnt change my lack of sound

mdirolf · 2004-05-22 15:03:12

Correction... XMMS will now play mp3s (i think it was unmuting headphone afterall) but aplay will still not play WAVs so im not sure all is well. Also only one sound source will play at a time (ie GAIM wont make a sound when XMMS is playing an mp3)

Dusty · 2004-05-22 16:08:57

It's just the type of wav file. Try a different test wav. Aplay can't play it, but I bet xmms could play that wav.

The test wavs in /opt/openoffice/share/gallery/sounds work with aplay, if you have openoffice installed...

Dusty

mdirolf · 2004-05-22 16:20:04

right you are dusty. the only problem im still having is that sound is only played from one source at a time. for example if gaim and xmms are both open at the same time i will only hear the sounds from XMMS until i close it, and then all the sounds that gaim was supposed to be making will play one after another.

Thank you all for the help!

dp · 2004-05-22 18:19:26

mdirolf wrote:

the only problem im still having is that sound is only played from one source at a time.

gaim is using esd for sound, right? (i'm not sure)

then you can make xmms use "eSound Output Plugin" to use esd too ... this way, both should work at the same time

lanrat · 2004-05-22 23:32:26

Sorry that I couldn't comeback to this thread ealier but I'm glad that you solved your sound problem already :-)

Ability to play simultaneous sounds depends on the soundcard type and/or sound deamon. If you know nothing about it read any documentation available from the web about esd (gnome) and arts (kde). Your AC97 card is very simple (as many others) and can't play two or more sounds at the same time without some kind of software support (sound deamon). If you want hardware support for this you will have to buy a better soundcard like sound blaster live - this will give you less troubles with configuration (usually :-), great alsa support and better sound quality. So now you have to do your homework :-) (learn how to configure sound deamons for different programs - it may be hell :twisted:)

mdirolf · 2004-05-24 22:30:46

Thanks to all the people who helped with my sound problems! I just tried for the 4th time to switch from windows to linux and this time im sure im off it for good. Arch Linux is by far the best distro ive tried - fast , not bloated, and really simple (pacman) once you get the hardware worked out.

punkass · 2004-05-24 23:38:29

Not sure if you got multiple sounds working or not. But for me to get them working i had to go here http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=DmixPlugin
and get the code at the bottom. You create a hidden file called .asoundrc in your home directory and stick that code in there. And that seemed to fix the problem for me. I am using some onboard Cmedia sound..

Here is the code:

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
 
pcm.dsp0 {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "dmixer"
}
 
pcm.dmixer  {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1024
    slave {
        pcm "hw:0,0"
        period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 8192
        #periods 128
        rate 44100
    }
    bindings {
        0 0
        1 1
    }
}
 
ctl.mixer0 {
    type hw
    card 0
}

Hope that helps.

matsche · 2004-06-28 13:20:35

hi, after reading als threats aboud sound. i will post my problem:

Xmms is playing all sound files well. But my Realplayer9 says The sound devices is busy! But xmms is not running.

Kernel 2.6.7
lsmod

pciehp                 94468  0
pci_hotplug            11524  1 pciehp
via_rhine              19592  0
mii                     4864  1 via_rhine
crc32                   4352  1 via_rhine
snd_via82xx            26020  0
snd_ac97_codec         68356  1 snd_via82xx
snd_pcm                91780  1 snd_via82xx
snd_timer              23556  1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          9480  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
gameport                3968  1 snd_via82xx
snd_mpu401_uart         7040  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            21540  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          6920  1 snd_rawmidi
snd                    50276  7 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               8160  1 snd
lp                      9608  0
parport_pc             22976  1
parport                36808  2 lp,parport_pc
usblp                  11520  0

Any suggestions? THX! matsche :twisted:

lanrat · 2004-06-28 14:30:57

Are you using any sound daemon (esd, arts) ? Your onboard card can't play two or more sounds at the same time only via alsa. Can you hear two sounds played at the same time from other applications (like xmms and aplay)? What window manager are you using?
If it is about sound daemon just read latest posts about sound issues on the forums again :-) If not maybe this will help you http://www.google.com/search?q=realplay … ice%20busy

Arch Linux

#1 2004-05-21 22:38:08

Sound / Alsa problems

#2 2004-05-21 22:49:01

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#3 2004-05-21 23:01:06

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#4 2004-05-21 23:24:33

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#5 2004-05-21 23:33:13

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#6 2004-05-22 10:26:17

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#7 2004-05-22 11:15:42

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#8 2004-05-22 14:33:31

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#9 2004-05-22 15:03:12

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#10 2004-05-22 16:08:57

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#11 2004-05-22 16:20:04

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#12 2004-05-22 18:19:26

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#13 2004-05-22 23:32:26

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#14 2004-05-24 22:30:46

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#15 2004-05-24 23:38:29

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#16 2004-06-28 13:20:35

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

#17 2004-06-28 14:30:57

Re: Sound / Alsa problems

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