alsa -- no sound

mcubednyc · 2004-03-18 17:13:13

I've read just about every post that mentions "alsa," followed the instructions on the ArchWiki, and still I'm stuck. I made it through installation, XFree86 setup, WM setup, and fstab config (partly, anyway) without asking for help, but my streak has ended. I ask, I beg ... I want some music!

I'm using Arch 0.6 with the IDE 2.6 kernal. Installed alsa-lib and alsa-utils. Sound is on-board, nothing fancy. Output of

# aplay -l
****List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices****
card 0: I82801DBICH4 [Intel 82801DB-ICH4], device 4: Intel ICH - IEC958 [Intel 82801DB - ICH4 - IEC958

# lsmod shows (in part):

snd_pcm_oss     50468    0
snd_mixer_oss     18176    1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_intel8x0     31272   0
snd_ac97_codec     61444   1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm     92192   2 snd_pmc_oss,snd_intel8x0
 ...
snd     49124   9 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

Being unfamiliar with the above, I'm not really sure what to make of it.

Modules in rc.conf:

MODULES=(!usbserial !ide-scsi eepro100 snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm-oss)

Everything in alsamixer is muted except Master and PCM. Actually, everything shows as "[off]" except those two items, Video, Capture, Mix, and Mix Mono. I read in other posts about needing to mute something called "Exchange," but I don't have that in alsamixer.

I added the following entries to /etc/devfsd.conf --

REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.sound 660
REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.sound 660

I created the group "sound" and added my username to it. /etc/group shows:

sound:!:101:myusername

When I try to play a .wav file with aplay, I get no errors and no audio. I've done this both as root and user. When I try to play an MP3 in XMMS, it appears to be playing, but again I get no audio.

I'm using Fluxbox, not KDE or Gnome. I've installed no media players (or media-related software) other that what i've mentioned. I'm stuck. Being pretty inexperienced with Linux, I've been feeling my way through most of this stuff and relying a great deal on the questions answered in these forums to get me as far along as I am. (I'd still be trying to figure out how to get online were it not for posts in the Arch forums ) But nothing I can find here suggests to me what else I might do get audio, uh, audible.

Xentac · 2004-03-18 17:31:18

It sounds like you have the wrong combination of channels muted.

I have an intel-8x0 on my laptop and my mixer settings go something like this:

Master, Bass, Treble, 3D Control - Wide, PCM, IE958 Mute, IE958 Playback, Capture, Mix, and Mix Mono are all unmuted. Everything else is.

There is usually an ALSA wiki page with information about your card, find it. Also try playing around with your levels, some of them need to be high, others low.

mcubednyc · 2004-03-18 18:48:23

Xentac wrote:

It sounds like you have the wrong combination of channels muted.

How the #@!!*$ did you know that!? You know, it's times like this past week as I sit here struggling with just about anything I'm trying to do that I feel like everybody else was born knowing things that I don't. :?

Anyway, I started unmuting things and cranking up the volume. It was, of all things, "Headphones" that did it. Boom, instant sound. Not quite sure yet about the quality of the output ... I need to listen to some music I know very well ... so maybe more tweaking is in store. But at least the silence is broken.

Thanks for suggestion ... I don't get it, but I appreciate it.

Dusty · 2004-03-18 20:02:35

mcubednyc wrote:

Xentac wrote:
It sounds like you have the wrong combination of channels muted.
How the #@!!*$ did you know that!? You know, it's times like this past week as I sit here struggling with just about anything I'm trying to do that I feel like everybody else was born knowing things that I don't. :?
.

The thing you have to understand about Xentac is that he used to sleep in a computer case instead of a crib.

He wasn't born knowing things that you don't, but he picked it up quite early (pre-speech). It's an interesting story...

Arch Linux

#1 2004-03-18 17:13:13

alsa -- no sound

#2 2004-03-18 17:31:18

Re: alsa -- no sound

#3 2004-03-18 18:48:23

Re: alsa -- no sound

#4 2004-03-18 20:02:35

Re: alsa -- no sound

Board footer