OSS Problem

FunkNapkin · 2009-06-04 23:06:08

I recently re-installed Arch Linux with OSS instead of ALSA because I had problems with ALSA. OSS seems to detect everything fine, and osstest outputs sound through my speakers and headphones.
The problem is that I can't get any other app to play sound. It's my first time using OSS ans ossxmix, so I'm confused when I see the buttons. I tried many random things but none make sound come out.

$ ossinfo
Version info: OSS 4.1 (b 1052b/200905261644) (0x00040100) GPL
Platform: Linux/x86_64 2.6.29-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed May 20 06:42:43 UTC 2009 (simon-archlinux)

Number of audio devices:    10
Number of audio engines:    14
Number of mixer devices:    1


Device objects
 0: osscore0 OSS core services
 1: oss_hdaudio0 Intel HD Audio interrupts=170715 (170715)
    HD Audio controller Intel HD Audio
    Vendor ID    0x8086284b
    Subvendor ID 0x107b0690
     Codec  1: Unknown (0x11c11040)
     Codec  2: Unknown (0x111d76b0/0x107b0692)
 2: oss_usb0 USB audio core services


Mixer devices
 0: High Definition Audio 0x111d76b (Mixer 0 of device object 1)

Audio devices
HD Audio play pcm14               /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0  (device index 0)
HD Audio play pcm15               /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm1  (device index 1)
HD Audio play pcm1                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm2  (device index 2)
HD Audio play pcm2                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm3  (device index 3)
HD Audio play pcm3                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm4  (device index 4)
HD Audio play pcm4                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm5  (device index 5)
HD Audio play pcm5                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm6  (device index 6)
HD Audio play pcm6                /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm7  (device index 7)
HD Audio rec select3              /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin0  (device index 8)
HD Audio rec select4              /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcmin1  (device index 9)

  /dev/dsp -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_in -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_out -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_mmap -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0
  /dev/dsp_multich -> /dev/oss/oss_hdaudio0/pcm0

A screenshot of my ossxmix: Linky
Note: You can see that MPD is working properly, but no sound come out.

Another thing I noticed when doing more tests, it that osstest doesn't always output sound. What I mean is that I run it 2 or 3 times in a row, and it will play sound randomly with no apparent reason. The text output is the same, too... The first time I ran it (after installing and before rebooting), it always worked and switched the sound outpout when I plugged my headphones.
It seems the reboot broke my sound
Any help appreciated.

Update:
I rebooted again and watched if OSS gave any error message. Apparently, I didn't saw he complained about "Unknown HDA Codec". Where can I get the exact error? What am I missing?

Last edited by FunkNapkin (2009-06-05 01:23:29)

Kerek · 2009-06-05 07:32:50

You can get exact the error with

dmesg |grep HDA

If you're using KDE4 with OSS, you'll have to install the gstreamer backend.

Although the randomness of osstest is odd, having other applications not work with OSS out of the box is common. Try following this guidehttp://www.opensound.com/wiki/index.php … _for_OSSv4.

FunkNapkin · 2009-06-05 13:09:43

$ dmesg | grep HDA
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x11c11040
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x111d76b0
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x11c11040
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x111d76b0

I guess I'll have to google those errors and see what I can find.

Also, I don't think I'll have to configure the apps to work with OSS, because all my apps show up correctly at the bottom of ossxmix. And I'm not using KDE, so that isn't the problem.

Edit: Some more info

$ sudo ossdetect -v
Detected Intel High Definition Audio (ICH8)
USB support available in the system, adding USB driver
Detected Generic USB audio/MIDI device (BETA)

$ dmesg
[some stuff]
oss_hdaudio 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A disabled
oss_hdaudio 0000:00:1b.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x11c11040
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x111d76b0
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x11c11040
oss_hdaudio: Too many output endpoints for codec 1 (12)
oss_hdaudio: Unknown HDA codec 0x111d76b0
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 8 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 9 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 10 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 11 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 0 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 1 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 2 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 3 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 4 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 5 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 6 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 7 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 8 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 9 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 10 ignored.
Too many output endpoints. Endpoint 11 ignored.
usbcore: registered new interface driver oss_usb

Edit 2:
While googling, I found this mailing list which describe a similar problem, and there is a (posible) fix on the second message. Problem is, I don't know how to try it...

Last edited by FunkNapkin (2009-06-05 13:28:35)

FunkNapkin · 2009-06-05 16:51:27

I googled some more and re-read ossinfo. It seems there are 2 codecs loaded, and both are unknown...
How do I know which codec I need, and how do I choose it? I don't know a thing when it comes to this. I'm not even sure I know what a codec is

Kerek · 2009-06-05 22:13:10

While you certainly could try to apply the patch in that mailing list, I'm not sure if I'd advise it since it's from Feb of '08. It might work but it's likely that, if that was a problem, it would be fixed in the new versions of OSS. If you really DID want to apply the patch, you could save the code in that post to a file and use the "patch" command (man patch or google for more info) to apply it to the OSS source code. Then you would have to recompile OSS. Again, though, I doubt that a patch from Feb '08 will fix all your problems: it's likely something else is the culprit.

I do suggest that you try the following:
1)Most of my googling has ended up at the OSS forum (http://www.4front-tech.com/forum). Try posting your problem on the OSS linux forum; It's more likely there will be people there who are aware of specific issues with OSS etc.
2) Update OSS. If there are no newer versions in the arch repos / AUR, you would have to get a newer version and compile it yourself. See:http://www.opensound.com/)
3) If everything fails with OSS, try and get ALSA working.

I hope you get this solved. Sound is a lovely thing to have .

Last edited by Kerek (2009-06-05 22:15:44)

FunkNapkin · 2009-06-05 23:48:03

I'll try asking the OSS forums. Like you said, they are more likely to know the cause and fix to this problem. It's annoying to (kinda) be able to have sound with osstest, but nothing else works.

Thanks for the help!

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-04 23:06:08

OSS Problem

#2 2009-06-05 07:32:50

Re: OSS Problem

#3 2009-06-05 13:09:43

Re: OSS Problem

#4 2009-06-05 16:51:27

Re: OSS Problem

#5 2009-06-05 22:13:10

Re: OSS Problem

#6 2009-06-05 23:48:03

Re: OSS Problem

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