Sound only works for root account under KDE

[kirol]

I've got a sarge install (modulo a few backports a/o testing packages). Works great since 2+ years. Recently I can't get sound to work with my regular account. The weird thing is i get half the KDE startup sound, then it's abruptly cut and no app is allowed to use the sound system (xmms, juk, kaffeine..). It works for root, though. A CLI cd player (workbone) works under both accounts, so the problem misght be kde/arts related. Does anyone have a suggestion?

[hal8000]

Have you tried using ALSA emulation ? I've not tried Debian Sarge but on Knoppix Im using ALSA emulation with KDE, both non kde apps and kde apps can use sound.
It may also be worth trying to stop and sound the sound daemon from a terminal, may show some useful output.
/etc/init.d/alsa reload or similar.
Hope that helps

[kirol]

Hi Hal, i think I am using alsa already. I've got both alsa and alsa-utils under /etc/init.d, both of which seem to run alright at boot time. Alsamixer works from the command line. Everything was working under KDE up until a few weeks ago (I am not booting that particular install that often but would really like to keep it working). It still does, but for root only, which is really annoying.

[kirol]

This is definitely a KDE only problem, as if I use another window manager (e.g. windowmaker), sound works. xmms even works with the arts plugin...

[mtodorov_69]

I've got a sarge install (modulo a few backports a/o testing packages). Works great since 2+ years. Recently I can't get sound to work with my regular account. The weird thing is i get half the KDE startup sound, then it's abruptly cut and no app is allowed to use the sound system (xmms, juk, kaffeine..). It works for root, though. A CLI cd player (workbone) works under both accounts, so the problem misght be kde/arts related. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Try to move .kde directory to another directory, for example:

% cd
% mv .kde .kdeback

Now KDE will think it starts for the first time, and reinstall default configuration.

See if this works. If it does, the error is in the setup in your home directory.

Then, as step two, you could try to debug KDE configuration files and see if you can find error.

Hope this helps.

Marv

[hal8000]

Hi Hal, i think I am using alsa already. I've got both alsa and alsa-utils under /etc/init.d, both of which seem to run alright at boot time. Alsamixer works from the command line. Everything was working under KDE up until a few weeks ago (I am not booting that particular install that often but would really like to keep it working). It still does, but for root only, which is really annoying.

Hi Kirol,
Sounds like your regular user is no longer a member of the group "audio"

As a normal user, type groups, at a terminal.
In the results do you see audio?
If not add user to group audio with

gpasswd - a user audio

Replace "user" with your normal knoppix user name

[hal8000]

Hi Hal, i think I am using alsa already. I've got both alsa and alsa-utils under /etc/init.d, both of which seem to run alright at boot time. Alsamixer works from the command line. Everything was working under KDE up until a few weeks ago (I am not booting that particular install that often but would really like to keep it working). It still does, but for root only, which is really annoying.

Hi Kirol,
Sounds like your regular user is no longer a member of the group "audio"

As a normal user, type groups, at a terminal.
In the results do you see audio?
If not add user to group audio with

gpasswd - a user audio

Replace "user" with your normal knoppix user name

[hal8000]

Hi Hal, i think I am using alsa already. I've got both alsa and alsa-utils under /etc/init.d, both of which seem to run alright at boot time. Alsamixer works from the command line. Everything was working under KDE up until a few weeks ago (I am not booting that particular install that often but would really like to keep it working). It still does, but for root only, which is really annoying.

Hi Kirol,
Sounds like your regular user is no longer a member of the group "audio"

As a normal user, type groups, at a terminal.
In the results do you see audio?
If not add user to group audio with

gpasswd - a user audio

Replace "user" with your normal knoppix user name

[hal8000]

Hi Hal, i think I am using alsa already. I've got both alsa and alsa-utils under /etc/init.d, both of which seem to run alright at boot time. Alsamixer works from the command line. Everything was working under KDE up until a few weeks ago (I am not booting that particular install that often but would really like to keep it working). It still does, but for root only, which is really annoying.

Hi Kirol,
Sounds like your regular user is no longer a member of the group "audio"

As a normal user, type groups, at a terminal.
In the results do you see audio?
If not add user to group audio with

gpasswd - a user audio

Replace "user" with your normal knoppix user name

[kirol]

Thanks for the suggestions. More googling had actually revealed a known problem with KDE 3.2.2, namely that sometimes one has to disable the kmix setting "restore playing level at startup". That did the trick for me, although i have no idea what triggered the problem with no KDE update in ages. And yes Hal, I am member of the "audio" group as you anxiously aked (just kidding, i know it can get hard to post at times). Cheers.