problems with alsa alsa-autoconfig doesn't seem to work

[dzogchen]

That tells you the module is in use. What does the lsmod command look like now was there any change? You should go into KDE and check to see if the sound works there just to make sure it is not fluxbox.

Sending this from KDE - here is the message that showed up on startup (i had previously set the Kcontrol setting to ALSA)

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (No such file or directory)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

here is the new lsmod - i don't see any changes:

michael@GarabDorje:~$ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd-seq                39536   0 (autoclean)
parport_pc             24840   1 (autoclean)
lp                      7492   0 (autoclean)
parport                22496   1 (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
snd-pcm-oss            36804   0
snd-mixer-oss          11088   0 [snd-pcm-oss]
autofs4                 8756   0 (unused)
af_packet              13512   0
ntfs                   50944   1
msdos                   4652   0 (unused)
nls_iso8859-1           2844   1
nls_cp437               4348   0 (unused)
snd-emu10k1            62644   0
snd-pcm                57408   0 [snd-pcm-oss snd-emu10k1]
snd-timer              15044   0 [snd-seq snd-pcm]
snd-hwdep               4576   0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-util-mem            1168   0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-page-alloc          5328   0 [snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm]
snd-ac97-codec         39852   0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-rawmidi            12416   0 [snd-emu10k1]
snd-seq-device          3700   0 [snd-seq snd-emu10k1 snd-rawmidi]
snd                    29732   0 [snd-seq snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-emu10k1 snd-pcm snd-timer snd-hwdep snd-util-mem snd-ac97-codec snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
soundcore               3428   6 [snd]
via-rhine              12304   1
mii                     2240   0 [via-rhine]
crc32                   2816   0 [via-rhine]
emu10k1-gp              1224   0 (unused)
gameport                1388   0 [emu10k1-gp]
serial                 51940   0
usb-uhci               21836   0 (unused)
usbcore                57824   0 [usb-uhci]
apm                     9768   1
rtc                     6940   0
ext3                   63972   1
jbd                    46164   1 [ext3]

[Stephen]

Sending this from KDE - here is the message that showed up on startup (i had previously set the Kcontrol setting to ALSA)

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (No such file or directory)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

here is the new lsmod - i don't see any changes:

This one has me puzzled the only difference I can see between your card and mine is a higher revision number but the card number is lower and it is using a higher IRQ. Speaking of irq try when you boot at the lilo screen use Linux pci=biosirq change the linux for whatever the name of the kernel you will boot is as it appears on the screen if no lilo screen appears use the SHIFT key IIRC to get a boot: prompt where you can type it in you may also want to try noapic or noacpi here as well. That default line in the error above looks strange as well was there the option in hardware tab for you to select the EMU10K1 WaveTable mixer device? It seems like the devices are not getting created when you run the alsa-autoconfig. And just to be sure you are a member of the audio group to check use groups in a console window.

[dzogchen]

Aargh

No luck - I tried your suggestion but no change.... I am now wondering if I should try to pull the SBLive and just use the onboard Via 88 chip -- my understanding is that it is supported

This has been my first Linux install in 2 years, and has been quite frustrating. My last was a libranet install that I migrated to Sid. I will end up migrating to Sid if I can ever get this running right.... To top it all off, I want to bag knx-alsa and use a standard setup so I can try jack and ardour, so this is not an auspicious beginning, if you know what I mean

[Stephen]

Aargh

No luck - I tried your suggestion but no change.... I am now wondering if I should try to pull the SBLive and just use the onboard Via 88 chip -- my understanding is that it is supported

Well it is a possibility but the sblive should be supported too and it seems to not want to work, it can't hurt to try though.

This has been my first Linux install in 2 years, and has been quite frustrating. My last was a libranet install that I migrated to Sid. I will end up migrating to Sid if I can ever get this running right.... To top it all off, I want to bag knx-alsa and use a standard setup so I can try jack and ardour, so this is not an auspicious beginning, if you know what I mean

Yeah definitely know what you mean it is not a good start at all. Your probably better off with a proper setup for alsa hopefully you will not run into the same problem as you have now if you try it otherwise you are no further ahead you still will have to track it down.

[dzogchen]

Update

I have some sound now - I can play music from the hard drive, both wav and mp3.

If i have XMMS preferences set to OSS, it works. Set to alsa, it doesn't, and complains about not finding a device (can't recall exact wording: at work now)

Neither one can access audio on CD - even though I can see the tracks. Maybe an fstab issue on that? or something in /dev?



Why would OSS work and not ALSA?

[eris_pluvia]

Update

I have some sound now - I can play music from the hard drive, both wav and mp3.

If i have XMMS preferences set to OSS, it works. Set to alsa, it doesn't, and complains about not finding a device (can't recall exact wording: at work now)

Neither one can access audio on CD - even though I can see the tracks. Maybe an fstab issue on that? or something in /dev?

Why would OSS work and not ALSA?

I'm so desperate as you are. I saw the whole thread and your troubles are identical to mine for one year. The only difference is that I successed sooner in working PCM-sound.

I can't play midi. Moreover, 'amixer' and 'amidi -l' reports no soundcard is present !!! So, it's not about loading sound banks (loader does not find the card...) I've tried all the tricks thar people said to you...

Snif!

Eris Pluvia

[Joe999]

I have a similar problem. Alsa works fine if I boot from cd, but on hdinstall, even after running autoconfig, no luck. Oddly, it works for me with an install of the very first (not ct) release of 3.4, but none of the 3.4's after that.