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#1 2013-02-12 04:19:40

inkdinky
Member
Registered: 2011-12-08
Posts: 66

[SOLVED] Sound in IceWM, had to add user to audio group

I wasn't getting any sound in IceWM despite having it in the terminal before starting IceWM.
I got alsa to work by adding my user to the audio group.
I'm a little confused as reading the wiki for alsa states:https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Advanced_Linux_Sound_Architecture#Troubleshooting

Users with a local login (at a virtual terminal or a display manager) have permission to play audio and change mixer levels. To allow this for a remote login, the user has to be added to the audio group. Membership in the audio group also allows direct access to devices, which can lead to applications grabbing exclusive output (breaking software mixing) and breaks fast-user-switching, and multiseat. Therefore, adding a user to the audio group is not recommended, unless you specifically need to[1].

Did I do something wrong at install? Or does using IceWM push me into the 'remote  login' category?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by inkdinky (2013-02-14 03:05:10)

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#2 2013-02-12 08:37:31

olive
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2008-06-22
Posts: 1,490

Re: [SOLVED] Sound in IceWM, had to add user to audio group

I am not sure by what you mean exactly by "sound in icewm". Icewm is a window manager and have nothing to do with sound (well, there has been a project to add sound events to icewm, but I don't think it is active anymore). Applications are normally able to play sounds. Permissions to play sounds is given by the login manager (or the login program if you log in in text console) for local users only (in reality, the process is a little more complicated than that, but that's the idea) and normaly this should works without any further setup. Try to launch alsamixer as you (regular user) and see if you see the controls. If that does not work, do it as root to see if it is a permission problem. In a normal setup (you log in locally and play sounds locally), you don't need to add yourself to the audio group.

Last edited by olive (2013-02-12 08:38:41)

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#3 2013-02-13 02:39:28

inkdinky
Member
Registered: 2011-12-08
Posts: 66

Re: [SOLVED] Sound in IceWM, had to add user to audio group

After login I would be placed in tty1. I could run the speaker-tests as outlined in the sound guide.  Upon launching icewm via xinit, I would open a terminal and execute the same speaker-test commands only to have no sounds being produced. Launching vlc would display errors stating that no snd0 was found.
That is what was happening.
If more details are required I could remove myself from the audio group to reproduce the error output and post it.

Thanks.

edit: And I can launch alsamixer but I believe that it is because I'm in the audio group now. Previously I would have to run 'sudo alsamixer' otherwise I would get an error.

Last edited by inkdinky (2013-02-13 02:41:07)

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#4 2013-02-13 08:02:51

olive
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2008-06-22
Posts: 1,490

Re: [SOLVED] Sound in IceWM, had to add user to audio group

Try to launch the X session with startx instead of xinit (it takes care of registering your session, which might be needed). You normally don't need to be in the audio group.

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#5 2013-02-14 03:04:07

inkdinky
Member
Registered: 2011-12-08
Posts: 66

Re: [SOLVED] Sound in IceWM, had to add user to audio group

That did it.
Thanks much!

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