Why won't my sound work?

**b_rimes** · 01-11-2004, 05:34 PM

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** · 01-11-2004, 06:26 PM

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** · 01-11-2004, 06:45 PM

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** · 01-11-2004, 09:26 PM

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

**fingers99** · 01-12-2004, 01:09 AM

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** · 07-04-2004, 02:57 PM

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?