ALSA in Debian Sid

gamehack · 06-20-2004, 05:07 AM

Hello people

I installed Debian Sarge with the new installer through FTP and then dist-upgraded to unstable and then installed x-window-system and gnome. So, now I want to have sound with ALSA, but when I type alsamixer it gives me that:

Code:

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

I have run alsaconf before alsamixer and it says that everything is okay.

Thanks

Dead Parrot · 06-20-2004, 05:22 AM

Personally, I use aumix-gtk as my sound mixer in WindowMaker. In theory, you should be able to use any mixer you have available to control the sound levels in ALSA (once you've done "alsaconf").

gamehack · 06-20-2004, 06:12 AM

The problem is not in the mixer. I need a howto how to set my ALSA sound...

Dead Parrot · 06-20-2004, 07:39 AM

Here's the procedure that worked for me: I installed (I used Aptitude that also installs the "recommended" packages) the "alsa-base" package and did (as root) "alsaconf". The "alsaconf" command did a probe to find my soundcard and after it had correctly detected my sound hardware, I was able to use aumix-gtk to set up the sound levels like I wish. In what step of this procedure do you experience problems?

Dead Parrot · 06-20-2004, 07:50 AM

On second thought, does "nano /etc/group" show that you're a member in the "audio" group? If not, this may be one source of your sound problems. You can add your normal user into new groups with the "adduser" command (check out "man adduser" to get more detailed info on this command).

gamehack · 06-20-2004, 07:51 AM

This is the output from alsaconf:

Code:

Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Restoring ALSA mixer settings ... failed:
       You may want to run 'alsactl restore' manually to view any errors.
Setting default volumes...
Saving the mixer setup used for this in /var/lib/alsa/asound.state.
/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1061: No soundcards found...

Dead Parrot · 06-20-2004, 08:01 AM

Has the sound worked before installing ALSA? Do you have the correct kernel module for your sound card loaded? You can use the "lsmod" command to view the modules that are loaded at the moment.

Dead Parrot · 06-20-2004, 08:11 AM

Here's a thread that discusses the methods you can use to load kernel modules:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=172998

But first, you need to know what kernel module your sound card requires. A search in google.com usually gives this info.

gamehack · 06-20-2004, 08:51 AM

I have everything loaded:

Code:

snd_ali5451            21572  0
snd_ac97_codec         54916  1 snd_ali5451
snd_pcm_oss            47652  0
snd_mixer_oss          16640  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                84900  2 snd_ali5451,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc         10884  1 snd_pcm
snd_timer              23044  1 snd_pcm
snd                    48356  6 snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer

And I have no sound

Dead Parrot · 06-20-2004, 09:35 AM

For me alsaconf worked without any error messages. For you it returned "/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1061: No soundcards found...".

Still you say that you have everything loaded.

I'm out of suggestions at this point. Anyone else?

wrat · 06-21-2004, 06:49 AM

sort of the same thing here BUT my sound does work I gave up on alsa..if using kde..
control center sound hardware auto detect rather than alsa.

gamehack · 06-21-2004, 11:14 AM

same here

the sound works but witout ALSA

king of nothing · 06-21-2004, 03:49 PM

My brother and I had the same problem the other day. We solved it by going to /lib/modules/2.6.6-1-k7/kernel/sound and removing the oss folder --- renaming it would probably work too. I just stuck mine in /home in case I ever need it for something.

We had Alsa set up but the old sound modules would load first and wouldn't share the sound with Alsa. Taking out the folder kept the old modules from being found....... so they couldn't load.

Dirty....... but it works.