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...................... ?