alsa-mixer not loading

bobbens · 09-29-2004, 10:18 AM

I've installed the nForce drivers for my sound card, but it never loads the alsa-mixer. I run alsactl restore and it doesnt load, i do alsaconf and it shows me my sound card and everything but I select it and it says itll start alsa up, and again another alsa-mixer error. When i run gmix it says no mixer elements loaded. What can I do to get alsa-mixer working? thanks

EDIT: now I get
"alsactl: load_state:1134: No soundcards found..."
when i try to alsactl restore, even though it detects my soundcard through alsaconf. So I guess I probably have to edit the alsaconf files manually, since they arent as easy to fool around with as the XF86Config-4 files, could someone give me a hand? It says I have a
"intel8x0 nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev al)" as a sound card (well thats the drivers name. In my /etc/modprobe.d/sound file I have:

Code:

options snd  device_mode=0660
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

Someone help me please...

Underhill · 09-29-2004, 10:34 AM

Do you have OSS loaded? Remove it first.

bobbens · 09-29-2004, 10:37 AM

I downloaded asla - oss so tecnically it should work with it. I'm not sure if I have oss. Could you tell me how to check it, and if I have it, how to remove it? thanks

Underhill · 09-29-2004, 11:28 AM

alsa-oss is for OSS compatibility layer for ALSA. (keep that)

I had the same problem with you. What i did was, run modconf and remove the OSS related module (mine is at kernel/sound/oss). If you don't have modconf, just apt-get install modconf. And make sure you have alsa-utils and alsa-base too. After that, i type /usr/share/alsa-base/snddevices. And then, i run alsaconf and choose my card. I go to Desktop Preferences ==> Advanced ==> Multimedia System Selectors and choose ALSA from the drop down. I raised the volume from the Volume Control and it works.

I'm a newbie myself, but that's what i did and it works.

arthurb · 09-29-2004, 05:15 PM

I also installed alsa along with a kernel upgrade (2.4.25 --> 2.6.6) on Debian Sarge, and I can't get the thing to work either.

Whenever I try to run alsamixer, I get the following:

Code:

localhost:/root# alsamixer
 alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
localhost:/root#

xmms will not play, the error is this:
Please check that your soundcard is configured properly, (etc)

I've set all the alsa settings in the kernel, and have installed alsa and alsa-utils. The modules load:

Code:

localhost:/home/auriga# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
snd_seq                56848  0
snd_cmipci             38068  0
snd_pcm                92320  1 snd_cmipci
snd_page_alloc         13188  1 snd_pcm
snd_opl3_lib           13568  1 snd_cmipci
snd_timer              26372  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib
snd_hwdep              11552  1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_mpu401_uart        10752  1 snd_cmipci
snd_rawmidi            24864  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device         10760  3 snd_seq,snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi
snd                    50532  9 snd_seq,snd_cmipci,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib,snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
ppp_deflate             9088  0
zlib_deflate           25368  1 ppp_deflate
bsd_comp                9472  0
ppp_async              14208  1
ppp_generic            30612  7 ppp_deflate,bsd_comp,ppp_async
slhc                   10880  1 ppp_generic
ax25                   65764  2
ipx                    33572  2
p8022                   5760  1 ipx
appletalk              39376  2
psnap                   7172  2 ipx,appletalk
llc                    10004  2 p8022,psnap
md5                     7808  1
ipv6                  262240  21
uhci_hcd               33040  0
ohci_hcd               21636  0
ehci_hcd               31492  0
usbcore                99676  5 uhci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
evdev                  11520  0
cmpci                  45460  1
soundcore              11872  3 snd,cmpci
ide_scsi               18436  0
scsi_mod               75448  1 ide_scsi
8250                   24416  2
serial_core            24704  1 8250
parport_pc             28224  1
lp                     12068  0
parport                26304  2 parport_pc,lp
ntfs                  112748  1
nls_iso8859_2           8448  2
nls_cp437               9600  1
ide_cd                 43396  0
cdrom                  41248  1 ide_cd
rtc                    15560  0

this is my /etc/modprobe.d/sound file:

Code:

localhost:/root# cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cmipci

and this is /etc/modutils/alsa

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# cat /etc/modutils/alsa
### DEBCONF MAGIC
# This file was automatically generated by alsa-base's debconf stuff
 
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
 
options snd major=116 cards_limit=4
 
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/dsp* snd-pcm-oss
 
alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci
 
alias snd-slot-0 snd-card-0
alias sound-slot-0 snd-slot-0

and I don't see any oss modules there aside from the ones created by alsa for reverse compatability, so that's not it either.

lspci -v | egrep audio returns the following:

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# lspci -v | egrep audio
0000:00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)

This is from dmseg:

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# dmesg | grep cmpci
cmpci: version $Revision: 5.64 $ time 21:08:19 Sep 29 2004
cmpci: found CM8738 adapter at io 0xd400 irq 17
cmpci: chip version = 055
cmpci: Enable SPDIF loop

The only clue I see is this:

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# dmesg | grep PCI
C-Media PCI: probe of 0000:00:09.0 failed with error -16
C-Media PCI: probe of 0000:00:09.0 failed with error -16

I've googled through tens of problems/answers regarding alsa but haven't found anything to solve this one.

Any ideas?

jsilence · 10-24-2004, 07:55 AM

Hi, did you manage to solve your problem? I have exactly the same symptoms with my setup.

-jsl

bobbens · 10-24-2004, 03:29 PM

If i remember correctly i got it to run with

Code:

apt-get install discovery2

Discovery2 is a program that detects your hardware and sets it up for you most of the time. I just ran that, rebooted. It runs at boot so it just set it up and i had it running in no time. Try it.

SolarBear · 10-24-2004, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bobbens
If i remember correctly i got it to run with

Code:

apt-get install discovery2

I'm having a problem similar to that above so I tried apt-getting it... and apt-get can't find the package. I tried

Code:

apt-cache search discovery

but didn't get anything useful out of it.

Right now I have onboard sound from my AC97 device and a SB Audigy LS that's got a chipset so different that it's not supported by ALSA - or barely.

Code:

CreativeLabs--;

So I'm relying on my onboard sound but it's chippy and I've got lots of random, annoying noises. alsaconf detects my card, same for sndconfig , but I get this message afterwards :

Starting ALSA.../etc/init.d/alsa: Error: alsactl restore failed with message 'alsactl: load_state:1134: No soundcards found...'.

Yay. So now I'm swimming in a sea of words like OSS, arts, alsa... I even had to reboot because I kept having system freezes followed by windows with this warning :

Error - artsmessage
Sound server fatal error :
cpu overload, aboring

Then I'd get my system back for another 20-30 seconds or so and begin anew.

I've a major sound problem now and I don't know how to solve it or even where to begin. So any clues, pointers and opinions would be appreciated.

bobbens · 10-25-2004, 09:38 AM

sorry 'twas:

apt-get install discover

If that doesnt work i can look deeper into other things i did at the time. Good luck.

SolarBear · 10-25-2004, 08:15 PM

Yep, discover it was, I apt-got it now

I'll reboot in a moment and will see if it really is pure magic

bobbens · 10-26-2004, 11:19 AM

if it doesnt work i can hook you up with some nForce drivers i just found on my hdd. I remember installing the nForce drivers, but still not getting my sound to work, then i pumped out discover and it pretty much settled all the hustle with oss and alsa. Best of luck