Why won't my sound work?

[b_rimes]

So for some reason I can't get the sound to work (I can't play MP3s and what not) when I'm using Knoppix. I have a Gateway computer w/ a Boston speaker system (they are the speakers that came with the system when I bought it). While booting it says that it finds my audio hardware.

Running lspci -v I get:


00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82810E DC-133 GMCH [Graphics Memory Controller Hub] (rev 03)
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82810E DC-133 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller] (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Subsystem: Gateway 2000: Unknown device 0012
Flags: bus master, 66Mhz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Memory at ffe80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
Capabilities: <available only to root>

00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA PCI Bridge (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=32
I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
Memory behind bridge: ffc00000-ffcfffff
Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f6a00000-f6afffff

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801AA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02)
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801AA IDE (rev 02) (prog-if 80 [Master])
Subsystem: Intel Corp. 82801AA IDE
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0
I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]

00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA USB (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
Subsystem: Intel Corp. 82801AA USB
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 9
I/O ports at ef00 [size=32]

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801AA SMBus (rev 02)
Subsystem: Intel Corp. 82801AA SMBus
Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 10
I/O ports at e000 [size=16]

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801AA AC'97 Audio (rev 02)
Subsystem: Gateway 2000: Unknown device 0012
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
I/O ports at e080 [size=64]

00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801AA AC'97 Modem (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [Generic])
Subsystem: Gateway 2000: Unknown device 0012
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
I/O ports at e800 [size=256]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=128]



So can anyone tell me how to get my sound working correctly?

As secondary questions I have a Speedstream USB DSL modem. I know the problems with USB DSL modems, but if anyone has actually gotten a Speedstream modem to work for them then I'd appreciate knowing how they did it. Thanks!!!

[windos_no_thanks]

I think that sound chip uses the i810_audio module, lets start by checking if it is loaded:
Run "lsmod" and tell us what you get.

[b_rimes]

windos_no_thanks (or anybody else) please be my teacher. I ran the command lsmod. What exactly does this command do?

The output was:

Module Size Used by Not tainted
i810 63776 9
agpgart 38296 7 (autoclean)
autofs4 8756 1 (autoclean)
nls_iso8859-1 2876 1 (autoclean)
nls_cp437 4380 1 (autoclean)
i810_audio 25064 0
ac97_codec 11916 0 [i810_audio]
soundcore 3428 2 [i810_audio]
i810_rng 2660 0 (unused)
serial 52004 0 (autoclean)
keybdev 1696 0 (unused)
mousedev 3832 1
hid 21380 0 (unused)
input 3168 0 [keybdev mousedev hid]
usb-uhci 21868 0 (unused)
usbcore 57472 1 [hid usb-uhci]
apm 9768 2
rtc 6940 0 (autoclean)
cloop 9092 2


What does this tell us? Thanks!!

[fingers99]

lsmod "just" lists loaded modules. (It does a little more than that, but that'll do for now). man lsmod will tell you a little more.

OK, from your lsmod we can see that your sound is OK. What you need to do now is to run alsamixer (probably from the command line) and whack the volumes up. Then find kmix (Kmenu>multimedia>sound) and turn the relevant channels up. That should do it.

BTW, what happens if you click on an mp3?

[b_rimes]

Okay, so I couldn't find alsamixer and couldn't run it through the command line. But everything else in Multimedia >> Sound I opened and turned up all the volumes. Still no sound.
When I click on the MP3 it opens it using XMMS.

So why does my sound still not work? Any more suggestions?

[Stephen]

Okay, so I couldn't find alsamixer and couldn't run it through the command line. But everything else in Multimedia >> Sound I opened and turned up all the volumes. Still no sound.
When I click on the MP3 it opens it using XMMS.

So why does my sound still not work? Any more suggestions?

If you have installed to the HD then open a console window and use su to become root and then /etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig then edit the file /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh and add aumix -v 75 -w 75 to the bottom of the file to have the default volume set on boot. If you are running from the CD use the cheat code knoppix alsa when you boot.

[windos_no_thanks]

If you have installed to the HD then open a console window and use su to become root and then /etc/init.d/alsa-autoconfig then edit the file /etc/init.d/bootmisc.sh and add aumix -v 75 -w 75 to the bottom of the file to have the default volume set on boot. If you are running from the CD use the cheat code knoppix alsa when you boot.

Stephen probably knows what he is doing here but can anyone explain
why the sound module is loaded yet it has zero users:


i810_audio 25064 0


Another thing that hit me: I don't know what a "Boston speaker system" is. If it is something that connects to the analog output things should be ok but if it uses the usb port we might be barking up the wrong tree at the moment...

[Stephen]

Stephen probably knows what he is doing here but can anyone explain
why the sound module is loaded yet it has zero users:


i810_audio 25064 0




I'm going with the theory if the devices themselves have not been created yet then there is nothing for the module to use (this happens when you install to HD and do not run the autoconfig) and the mp3 is playing but no sound another symptom now if the mp3 froze xmms then I would be thinking the artsd daemon getting in the way like it always does and while I thinking some more when he gets it going check the output plugin being used for xmms if it not set to the alsa output then may not get sound either. But the clincher is this you should have similar output to this if you are using alsa which some of them chips need:


>$ lsmod
Module Size Used by Tainted: P
snd-pcm-oss 36708 0 (autoclean)
snd-mixer-oss 11408 1 (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
nvidia 1628672 11 (autoclean)
sg 24700 0 (autoclean)
apm 9256 2 (autoclean)
snd-emu10k1 60692 3
snd-pcm 55776 2 [snd-pcm-oss snd-emu10k1]
snd-timer 14180 0 [snd-pcm]
snd-hwdep 4608 0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-util-mem 1152 0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-page-alloc 5392 0 [snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm]
snd-rawmidi 12512 0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-seq-device 3844 0 [snd-emu10k1 snd-rawmidi]
snd-ac97-codec 35832 0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd 30148 0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-hwdep snd-util-mem snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd-ac97-codec]
soundcore 3556 6 [snd]
usb-uhci 21708 0 (unused)
usbcore 57504 1 [usb-uhci]
ide-scsi 9008 0
via686a 8192 0
i2c-proc 6256 0 [via686a]
i2c-isa 1196 0 (unused)
i2c-core 12868 0 [via686a i2c-proc i2c-isa]
nls_iso8859-15 3388 0 (unused)
sidewinder 8388 0 (unused)
emu10k1-gp 1224 0 (unused)
joydev 6976 0
gameport 1516 0 [sidewinder emu10k1-gp]
parport_pc 25192 1 (autoclean)
lp 6528 0
parport 24960 1 [parport_pc lp]
tulip 38208 1
crc32 2848 0 [tulip]
autofs4 8500 2
input 3360 0 [sidewinder joydev]

[windos_no_thanks]

I'm going with the theory if the devices themselves have not been created yet then there is nothing for the module to use (this happens when you install to HD and do not run the autoconfig) and the mp3 is playing but no sound another symptom now if the mp3 froze xmms then I would be thinking the artsd daemon getting in the way like it always does and while I thinking some more when he gets it going check the output plugin being used for xmms if it not set to the alsa output then may not get sound either.

Ok, thanks :-) However, I don't think this is a HD install since the cloop module was in use.

[fingers99]

If it's not a HD install, then

knoppix alsa

as a cheatcode should do it. If not, then...................... ?

[b_rimes]

Where to start. It's not a HD install, I'm running it off of a CD. So I tried the knoppix alsa "cheat". Also was loaded and all of that, but it still didn't make a sound. I then went into the settings of XMMS and changed the output to Alsa. Still didn't work.

Also, the speaker system isn't USB, it's just connected to the sound card like usual.

Any more suggestions folks?

[b_rimes]

So I'm starting to think that it might be more of a hardware problem than a software problem. I did the whole alsa thing again and put a regular headphone set into the sound card and it worked great. So I'm thinking it might be my speakers. They are Boston Digital BA735. Why would they work fine with Windows ME and not w/ Linux. Any ideas?

[windos_no_thanks]

Looks like "Digital" is the key word here.
I guess they expect the soundcard to feed the sound in digital form instead of converting it to analog. Doing that is very very different from what soundcards normally do, I don't know if the linux driver supports that.

[b_rimes]

does anyone know of a way that I can set the sound card to digital out?

[fingers99]

I've never done it, so can't "really" advise, but a google for

alsa digital

reveals that there are digital plugins for alsa.

The alsa people are very, very smart: why not join the alsa list and see if someone can talk you through it?

[dessale]

Just found post from b_rimes about his problems with Boston digital speakers.
I have same speakers which work just fine with Knoppix 2003-11-19 but dont work with Knoppix 2004-05-04. They also work with Mandrake 9.2 but not with Mandrake 10.0!
But they do always work with headphones.
Using aplay -l will list valid digital audio playback devices and it should be possible to do:-
aplay -D pcm.hw:0,1 [ a .wav file ]
but it doesn't doit for me. Any suggestions?