no audio even after following wiki instructions

sether · 2004-10-05 06:18:37

hi, i though i'd give arch linux a try yesterday. so far i'm enjoying it, but i've been having trouble setting up sound. i know my sound device will work under linux, because i've had it working under many other distros.

i followed these directions in the arch wiki word-for-word: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alsa%20setup

it was sort of promising when i got weird feedback from the speakers by boosting mic volume in alsamixer. but still no sound anywhere - xmms fails to open an audio device, other programs don't work, even though i see alsa start up successfully at boot, and i know it's running.

i have integrated CMedia 9739A audio. i'm using the "snd-via82xx" sound module because it worked under slack.

by the way, i get the same errors when logged in as root, so it has nothing to do with allowing regular user access to the sound device.

also, it seems to be looking for /dev/dsp, which doesn't exist. am i supposed to point it to the correct location? and if yes, how? and where exactly is the correct location?

thank you in advance.

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 07:05:32

What kernel are you using ?

Have you tried running alsaconf ?

Are channels unmuted ?

What modules have you loaded in rc.conf (modules="")

Have you searched forum ... for your sound device ?

HTH

sether · 2004-10-05 07:22:32

Mr Green wrote:

What kernel are you using ?
Have you tried running alsaconf ?
Are channels unmuted ?
What modules have you loaded in rc.conf (modules="")
Have you searched forum ... for your sound device ?
HTH

kernel version 2.6.3

yes, i've done alsaconf. it seemed to be successful.

yes, i unmuted channels, just like the wiki said.

here's the excerpt from rc.conf:

MODULES=(snd-via82xx snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss !usbserial !ide-scsi)

yes, i've searched the forums. snd-via82xx was all that was needed under slack in alsaconf. i'm pretty sure my problem has something to do with there not being a /dev/dsp. for example, running xmms from xterm and then playing a song returns a message in xterm, something about unable to find /dev/dsp.

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 07:37:13

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … hlight=dsp

HTH

(I had loads of problems with sound when I started so stick with it )

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 07:39:35

lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root         9 Oct  5 07:57 dsp -> sound/dsp

Have you got /dev/sound ?

sether · 2004-10-05 07:52:09

Mr Green wrote:

lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root         9 Oct  5 07:57 dsp -> sound/dsp

Have you got /dev/sound ?

yes, i have /dev/sound. it's empty though. /dev/snd has this:

[root@arch snd]# ls
controlC0  pcmC0D0c  pcmC0D0p  pcmC0D1c  pcmC0D1p  timer

i don't know if /dev/snd has anything to do with sound though. seems like it does.

should i try mkdir /dev/dsp and symlinking something there?

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 07:57:02

Are you using udev ?

sether · 2004-10-05 07:58:23

i don't think so, but how would i check?

edit: the alsa setup wiki says if i don't know, it's probably devfs. so that's what i'm assuming, and that's how i set it up - for devfs, not udev.

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 08:03:21

Take a look in /etc

look for /udev ...

Thing is if you are using udev then it may be a permissions thing ...

.....

sether · 2004-10-05 08:05:32

no, for sure i'm not using udev. not really sure what else it could be. it's gotta be a /dev/dsp thing. i had other weird problems with arch and /dev, where i had to make directories and such for certain things to work.

kth5 · 2004-10-05 08:27:20

i had a very similar problem w/ snd-via82xx in all 2.6.x kernels. it seems as if the mixer support is somewhat messed up since PCM and Master are not working at all for me. all i can do is switching them on and off, that's about it.
after i experimented for quite some time i found a way to raise my volume which is 0 at boottime. simply turn Master and PCM on and try "VIA DXS" and if u got more than one all of them. for me it did the trick.

btw, this is a solution for alsa not oss. the compatibility layer works tho.

phrakture · 2004-10-05 14:17:46

ok make sure you have the alsa driver selected for xmms...
in addition, make sure you set the proper permissions for the audio devices.... it's alot easier using udev, but you can do it in devfs too - check the wiki.... MrGreen's permissions are wrong, it should not have root.root ownership to be used by a user.... it should be root.sound or root.users...

also, if you do not have /dev/sound/* then oss emulation is not working.

please post your "lsmod" list...

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 14:42:09

phrakture wrote:

MrGreen's permissions are wrong

:cry: .....

phrakture · 2004-10-05 14:54:29

Mr Green wrote:

phrakture wrote:
MrGreen's permissions are wrong
:cry: .....

heh, I did phrase that poorly, didn't I - how about

the permissions Mr Green has set are not suggested, as it requires a root account to access the devices. It is recommended you allow the users group access but not ownership

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 15:14:31

phrakture wrote:

the permissions Mr Green has set are not suggested, as it requires a root account to access the devices. It is recommended you allow the users group access but not ownership

I do agree with you .. the above is linked to sound/dsp which shows

crw-rw----   1 root users 14, 3 Oct  5 07:57 dsp

I try to help people as much as I am able (some would rather I did not!) it took me along time to figure out sound when I first came over to Arch...

you seem to have far more knowledge of Linux than I which is great, for that I salute you.

I will be keeping my eye on you

phrakture · 2004-10-05 15:33:44

Ok, here's what I'll say about the sound - rmmod all your snd stuff (so we can start from scratch).
then modprobe your snd-via82xx module.
report your /dev/snd and /dev/sound (if either are available) here
then modprobe snd-pcm-oss and do the same
and finally snd-mixer-oss

now report your final "lsmod" output....
what i'm trying to see is whcih module produces what on your system (the oss modules should add a few new devices). The lsmod output should show how the modules are "joined" - to make sure they're related...

also, make sure this is done: from the wiki

Edit '/etc/devfsd.conf' and add these lines:
REGISTER sound/.* PERMISSIONS root.sound 660
REGISTER snd/.* PERMISSIONS root.sound 660

perhaps you could try th alsa-oss package from packman (which is nasty to setup)

or simply add these lines in /etc/modprobe.conf

alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

phrakture · 2004-10-05 15:35:03

actually, scratch that - I would SUGGEST trying alsa-oss - just pacman it and it may work right out of the box....

Mr Green · 2004-10-05 15:38:17

#
# Module to load at boot-up (in this order)
#   (prefix a module with a ! to disable it)
#
MODULES=( r8169 nvidia snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm-oss lp parport-pc it87 i2c-nforce2 i
2c-isa ohci-hcd !usbserial !ide-scsi rtc)

phrakture · 2004-10-05 16:13:43

mine is similar - nvidia, snd-intel8x0, snd-pcm-oss, 8139too, ndiswrapper

IIRC snd-mixer-oss is not necessary....

sether · 2004-10-05 17:55:58

ok, i got a little further by doing what was said in this thread: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=6985 but still no sound. now it doesn't give me an error message, and it appears to be playing music, but no sound. alsamixer volumes are all up.

here's lsmod:

Module                  Size  Used by
sr_mod                 15140  0
b44                    20996  0
snd_pcm_oss            50468  0
snd_mixer_oss          18176  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_via82xx            23712  1
snd_pcm                92192  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx
snd_timer              23428  1 snd_pcm
snd_ac97_codec         61444  1 snd_via82xx
gameport                4224  1 snd_via82xx
snd_page_alloc          9860  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart         7040  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            21280  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          6920  1 snd_rawmidi
snd                    49124  10 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               8160  1 snd
rtc                    11976  0

phrakture · 2004-10-05 18:07:28

hmmm...

are your speakers on? (ha!)
try cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp (be prepared for this one, it's fun) and see if you get noise...

also, even thought the alsamixer volumes are all the way up, the channels might still be muted (hit m when the channel is selected to unmute in alsamixer)

sether · 2004-10-05 18:17:22

haha, yes, my speakers are on, and i know they work because i can listen to the radio. all channels are unmuted, and "cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp" doesn't do anything, especially since there is no /dev/dsp.

phrakture · 2004-10-05 18:45:01

oh so you can listen to the radio.... hmmm make sure xmms output is configured right.... try both alsa and oss output.... run xmms from an xterm so you can see output.... try changing volume and see if you get errors

sether · 2004-10-05 18:53:39

yay! sound!

i said, "screw devfs" and i'm just using udev, now everything works. except i only have it working for root right now, but i should get it working for regular user. i may need some help with that, but i'm going to deal with that a little later.

thank you all for the help so far though!

Snowman · 2004-10-05 19:31:06

sether wrote:

yay! sound!
i said, "screw devfs" and i'm just using udev, now everything works. except i only have it working for root right now, but i should get it working for regular user. i may need some help with that, but i'm going to deal with that a little later.
thank you all for the help so far though!

That info is in the Alsa wiki:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alsa%20setup
section: Setup Permissions for uDev

Arch Linux

#1 2004-10-05 06:18:37

no audio even after following wiki instructions

#2 2004-10-05 07:05:32

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#3 2004-10-05 07:22:32

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#4 2004-10-05 07:37:13

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#5 2004-10-05 07:39:35

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#6 2004-10-05 07:52:09

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#7 2004-10-05 07:57:02

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#8 2004-10-05 07:58:23

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#9 2004-10-05 08:03:21

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#10 2004-10-05 08:05:32

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#11 2004-10-05 08:27:20

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#12 2004-10-05 14:17:46

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#13 2004-10-05 14:42:09

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#14 2004-10-05 14:54:29

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#15 2004-10-05 15:14:31

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#16 2004-10-05 15:33:44

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#17 2004-10-05 15:35:03

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#18 2004-10-05 15:38:17

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#19 2004-10-05 16:13:43

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#20 2004-10-05 17:55:58

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#21 2004-10-05 18:07:28

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#22 2004-10-05 18:17:22

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#23 2004-10-05 18:45:01

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#24 2004-10-05 18:53:39

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

#25 2004-10-05 19:31:06

Re: no audio even after following wiki instructions

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