issues after reinstall

slackhack · 2005-01-04 22:26:28

hey folks - i haven't been around much lately, mostly because arch runs so well and trouble free i haven't had any issues in months! i love this OS.

i recently had a hard drive crash though (shouldn't have tried moving it when it was on -- basically trashed a 10G partition with bad sectors ), so i switched to another hard drive and decided to just reinstall arch to get a fresh system.

the good news is that i fixed the bad fonts i was having. it was a hinting/aa problem b/c of having an LCD, i believe. the changes weren't working in /etc/fonts.conf, but putting them in ~/.fonts.conf did the trick! the config file is on my website if anyone has an LCD and wants to try it. the improvement is awesome.

i have some other issues i can't fix, though, maybe someone can help me out:

#1 - no CD-ROM access as user. i added user to the optical group, i changed the permissions on /dev/cdroms/* even to 777, changed the owner to the user -- nothing is working. fstab entry is:

/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cd iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0

yet when i try to load an audio cd in xmms, or add /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 and /mnt/cd in xmms libcdaudio.so settings, or do a "check drive," i get a "failed to open device, permission denied" error. audio works as user, and cd works as root, so i don't know what i'm missing.

#2 - recording: when i record something, it appears to make the recording, but then on playback it's just an empty null file. mic is on (to the point of feeding back, even), lines are on, everything is on. but no sound on playback. i've tried it with rec, and recording in audacity, with same results. i've played back with play, mpg321, and xmms -- nothing.

#3 - mozilla helper apps - i can't set images to open automatically with eog, it keeps defaulting to the gimp. i don't want to open the gimp everytime i click on an 8k gif file! but editing the helper app doesn't work -- it says "mozilla is set up to handle this internally," etc. and it won't default to my preference. the same thing for some media files that i want to open with different apps.

i went into about:config and turned off the entry that says "plugin: override internal types," but it didn't work. at least i usually get the d.box that lets me choose eog everytime (or save to disk, etc.), but the check box that says "do this automatically each time" is blanked out.

those are the main ones. sorry so trivial, but arch doesn't really seem to have many major problems to complain about. and i actually do need to be able to record and have access to my cd-rw, so i guess that's not so trivial. the mozilla thing is mostly an annoyance. thanks!

phrakture · 2005-01-04 23:14:32

you do not need to mount an audio CD to read audio from it... in fact that causes an error.... audio is read directly from the /dev node... if the CD is mounted, the node is in use anc can't be read...

mico · 2005-01-04 23:47:13

#1 - no CD-ROM access as user. i added user to the optical group, i changed the permissions on /dev/cdroms/* even to 777, changed the owner to the user -- nothing is working.

How did you change the permissions, with chmod or with editing the proper config file? Using chmod directly may not work for a dynamic /dev.
For burning you need to set some u+s bits, run k3b and it will tell you to what programs exactly, probably just cdrdao and cdrecord.

#2 - recording:

run gnome-alsamixer (or if you don't have it, then alsamixer) and check all settings. e.g. you might have checked "Mic as center/LFE", ...

sarah31 · 2005-01-05 01:07:54

#1- there was a posting awhile back about the addition of audio and optical groups. In that news release there were further instructions for udev users to add entries into their permissions file that would pass on the proper identification of the optical drives.

The latest udev.permissions file will grant permissions to sound devices by default, but you're required to take an extra step to set up permissions on your DVD/CD-RW drive. Since Arch doesn't know which hdX device is your optical drive, the default udev.permissions does not assign any of them to the optical group. To point it to the right drive, create a file called /etc/udev/permissions.d/00.permissions (you shouldn't edit the existing udev.permissions, it may be overwritten in the future) and add the following line:
hdc:root:optical:0660
(obviously, we're using /dev/hdc as an example here)

#2- could related to audio permissions for udev. perhaps the news article i snipped the above from will also help you solve your recording. You can find that news release in the old news section of the web page (click on "more..." at the bottom of the page.

#3- no clue. seems that it is getting harder and harder to deal with mozilla, and its relatives, personal setting than ever. I have had lots of case where mozilla or firefox would not accept settings changes but then i would do this or that and all would be well in Dodge again.

phrakture · 2005-01-05 16:00:28

I have a gut feeling that for #1 it's not a permission issue, but he's mounting it first.... dunno why and I can't explain it....

slackhack, any news?

slackhack · 2005-01-05 16:19:57

dude, no i'm not mounting an audio cd first. when i put in the CD and try to load the /mnt/cd folder from xmms, nothing loads. it works as root, though, so it seems it IS a permissions issue.

about the udev stuff -- i never had the time to learn about that, unfortunately. devfs always just worked, so i left it alone, "if it's not broken, don't fix it," etc. but don't i have devfs now, with the /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 designation? i thought that meant devfs instead of it being /dev/hdc (which is in fact the CD in question).

anyway, i created the 00.permissions file, but no luck with that. @mico, yes i changed the permissions with chmod -- which config file should i mod for that? i always just added the permissions lines in /etc/devfs.conf and later added the user to optical, and then changed /dev/hdc to /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 in xmms, grip, etc. and everything worked. i must be missing something really freaking obvious!

>edit: i just mounted a data CD, and i can read that as user. so it must be a sound permissions issue somewhere, and i'm guessing the CD access is related to the recording issue. thx.

edit2: grip can read /dev/cdroms/cdrom0 as root, but not user. i just changed the permissions for /dev/snd and /dev/sound to root:users w/chown to see if that would work -- still nothing.

phrakture · 2005-01-05 16:33:44

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … light=udev

this one explains udev permissions pretty well... make sure the sound ones are working good

slackhack · 2005-01-05 16:40:59

thanks phrakture - off to read that.

meanwhile, rebooting after making the config changes as recommended by the news item solved the CD access issue. still no playback of recorded wav files, though. it says the file is 38k, and i opened it in vim and saw a bunch of @ characters, so i know there's something in it. whether it's just garbage and it's not being recorded properly, or whether it's being recorded and just not playing back, i don't know.

>edit: i still have devfs:

[4] sero:/etc $ ps aux |grep devfs
root       795  0.0  0.1   1476   800 ?        Ss   11:32   0:00 /sbin/devfsd /dev

is that bad?

phrakture · 2005-01-05 17:17:07

yes.... add "devfs=nomount" to your kernel boot params... in either lilo.conf of menu.lst

lanrat · 2005-01-05 19:23:14

about recording:

I experienced this after last skype upgrade too but it's IMO related to alsa only.

You have to (using for example alsamixer):
- unmute mic boost (m key)
- increase mic volume (and unmute if you want to hear yourself)
- set mic select to Mic1
You probably have this already.

The trick is to use amixer now (alsamixer and all other gui mixers will not be able to do it probably) to set AC97 device as a capture device (and Mic1 too at the same time). I know how weird this is but...

 amixer set AC97 capture
Simple mixer control 'AC97',0
  Capabilities: pvolume cvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 100 Capture 0 - 100
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] Capture 100 [100%]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] Capture 100 [100%]

You can lower AC97 volume to 0 using alsamixer or something else if you don't want to hear yourself. It's probably muted already. The full syntax is

amixer set AC97 100 unmute capture

So you can hear yourself and test the mic. To test the recording run

arecord -f cd test.wav

for a few seconds saying something to mic at the same time. To play the test run

aplay test.wav

I have SB Live and this worked for me. You can find more info and solutions for this problem on gentoo forums too.

slackhack · 2005-01-05 20:59:19

[1] sero:~ $ amixer set AC97 capture
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'AC97',0

???

> edit: messing around with gnome-alsamixer, i got sound out, but it's just staticky hissing white noise. still working with it, there are a lot of options in there...

lanrat · 2005-01-05 23:55:40

Yes, it records only the noise.

Maybe you have to enable some other device than AC97?
Maybe you have to set it for Mic control (which should by default be Mic1)?

What soundcard do you exactly have?
Do you have only 1 soundcard or are you sure if the one you want to record from is the default one?

Run this to list all controls

 amixer scontrols
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Simple mixer control 'Headphone LFE',1
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',1
Simple mixer control 'Headphone Center',1
Simple mixer control 'Tone',0
Simple mixer control 'Bass',0
Simple mixer control 'Treble',0
Simple mixer control '3D Control - Switch',0
Simple mixer control '3D Control Sigmatel - Depth',0
Simple mixer control '3D Control Sigmatel - Rear Depth',0
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
Simple mixer control 'Wave',0
Simple mixer control 'Wave Center',0
Simple mixer control 'Wave LFE',0
Simple mixer control 'Wave Surround',0
Simple mixer control 'Music',0
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Simple mixer control 'Line LiveDrive',0
Simple mixer control 'Line2 LiveDrive',1
Simple mixer control 'CD',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost (+20dB)',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic Select',0
Simple mixer control 'Video',0
Simple mixer control 'Phone',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Coaxial',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 LiveDrive',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Optical Raw',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 TTL',0
Simple mixer control 'PC Speaker',0
Simple mixer control 'Aux',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Simple mixer control 'Mix',0
Simple mixer control 'Mix Mono',0
Simple mixer control 'AC97',0
Simple mixer control 'EMU10K1 PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'EMU10K1 PCM Send',0
Simple mixer control 'EMU10K1 PCM Send Routing',0
Simple mixer control 'External Amplifier',0
Simple mixer control 'SB Live Analog/Digital Output Jack',0
Simple mixer control 'Sigmatel 4-Speaker Stereo',0
Simple mixer control 'Sigmatel Surround',0
Simple mixer control 'Sigmatel Surround Phase Inversion Playback ',0

Also check amixer manual for more options.

It looks like alsamixer can also enable recording for a specified channel (device/control):

SPACE enables recording for the current channel. If any other channels
have recording enabled, they will have their recording function dis-
abled first. This only works for valid input channels, of course.

More links for troubleshooting this kind of errors:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=FAQ036
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=FAQ026
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=arecord (run arecord -l)
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=TroubleShooting

slackhack · 2005-01-08 13:16:25

thanks for the links! i just started going through them (have been super busy, just got to it) and the first one did it. i had to use amixer to set the capture to on with "amixer sset Mic Capture cap." alsa seems to ignore "capture on" when set with gnome-alsamixer (i had the levels maxed and the rec checkbox checked, i assume that means it's on?), and my regular alsamixer doesn't have a capture option for some reason. using amixer worked. appreciate!

Arch Linux

#1 2005-01-04 22:26:28

issues after reinstall

#2 2005-01-04 23:14:32

Re: issues after reinstall

#3 2005-01-04 23:47:13

Re: issues after reinstall

#4 2005-01-05 01:07:54

Re: issues after reinstall

#5 2005-01-05 16:00:28

Re: issues after reinstall

#6 2005-01-05 16:19:57

Re: issues after reinstall

#7 2005-01-05 16:33:44

Re: issues after reinstall

#8 2005-01-05 16:40:59

Re: issues after reinstall

#9 2005-01-05 17:17:07

Re: issues after reinstall

#10 2005-01-05 19:23:14

Re: issues after reinstall

#11 2005-01-05 20:59:19

Re: issues after reinstall

#12 2005-01-05 23:55:40

Re: issues after reinstall

#13 2005-01-08 13:16:25

Re: issues after reinstall

Board footer