[SOLVED] Missing mixer device in /dev/snd??

barthel · 2011-07-27 10:21:58

I'm trying to get the gkrellm volume plugin working. When I try to configure it, the plugin can't find any mixer devices. My next step was to check the plugin source which notes that "enable_alsa=1" should be an argument to make. Since this wasn't in the PKGBUILD script, I added it and rebuilt the package. After updating and installing, I restarted gkrellm, but was still unable to locate a mixer. Since sound is working just fine, i started digging deeper.

8< Here's the output of several diagnostic commands... >8

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [SB ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
HDA ATI SB at 0xfe7f0000 irq 16
1 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfe8e8000 irq 19

$ cat /proc/asound/devices
1: : sequencer
2: [ 0- 1]: digital audio playback
3: [ 0- 0]: digital audio playback
4: [ 0- 0]: digital audio capture
5: [ 0- 0]: hardware dependent
6: [ 0] : control
7: [ 1- 3]: digital audio playback
8: [ 1- 0]: hardware dependent
9: [ 1] : control
33: : timer

$ l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 Jul 25 10:44 by-path/
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 6 Jul 25 10:44 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 9 Jul 25 10:44 controlC1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 5 Jul 25 10:44 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 8 Jul 25 10:44 hwC1D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 4 Jul 25 10:44 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 3 Jul 26 03:36 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 2 Jul 25 10:44 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 7 Jul 25 10:44 pcmC1D3p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 1 Jul 27 03:44 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Jul 25 10:44 timer

# lsmod |grep snd
snd_seq 50785 0
snd_seq_device 5372 1 snd_seq
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 22784 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 297871 1
snd_hda_intel 22186 1
snd_hda_codec 77543 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep 6342 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 73736 3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer 19488 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 57256 11 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore 6178 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 7161 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

$ pacman -Qs alsa
local/alsa-lib 1.0.24.1-1
An alternative implementation of Linux sound support
local/alsa-plugins 1.0.24-2
Extra alsa plugins
local/alsa-utils 1.0.24.2-1
An alternative implementation of Linux sound support

8< end of command output >8

I've been unable to locate a snd_mixer module for the kernel and there is no /dev/snd/mixerC?D?

I thought that the ALSA interface had changed since I last compiled from scrath (I was a Slacker from kernel 1.2 until I migrated to Ubuntu, and now to Arch), but according to http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. … ibrary_API, /dev/snd/mixerCXDX is still part of the interface specification.

Did I miss an ALSA pacakage that's required to get /dev/snd/mixerCXDX?

Or has the ALSA implementation changed (/dev/snd/mixerCXDX deperecated), in which case the gkrellm plugin needs to be updated? Google didn't turn up anything definitive and the alsa-driver-1.0.2 source tarball doesn't include a changelog.

Thanks!

Last edited by barthel (2011-07-29 03:07:07)

tomk · 2011-07-27 12:28:00

You sure you need /dev/snd/mixer* ?

/dev/mixer is a legacy device that is created if you load the alsa OSS emulation module snd-mixer-oss. That might be what you're looking for.

barthel · 2011-07-29 03:05:32

That's what I was afraid of. I switched to Ubuntu at Dapper Drake, so I've not been up to speed with the details of program changes the way I was with Slackware. I don't want to install the OSS layer only for the sake of a volume widget.

Thanks for the reply. I'm taking a look at Conky now as a potential replacement for gkrellm, since it hasn't been updated in years.

tomk · 2011-07-29 06:33:38

You don't have to install anything to get /dev/mixer - the module I mentioned above is already there, provided by the kernel package.

barthel · 2011-07-29 13:02:54

Probably should have said "load" intead of "install", eh? I was far too tired when I made that last post.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-07-27 10:21:58

[SOLVED] Missing mixer device in /dev/snd??

#2 2011-07-27 12:28:00

Re: [SOLVED] Missing mixer device in /dev/snd??

#3 2011-07-29 03:05:32

Re: [SOLVED] Missing mixer device in /dev/snd??

#4 2011-07-29 06:33:38

Re: [SOLVED] Missing mixer device in /dev/snd??

#5 2011-07-29 13:02:54

Re: [SOLVED] Missing mixer device in /dev/snd??

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