I went through a Lenny netinstall and added the minimum amount of packages:
xorg, Kde, kdm, pmount, hal, synaptic, alsa-base and alsa-utils.

I then added VLC from Etch repository (as you know it's not in Lenny's repository in this moment). Although the video is showing correctly I don't hear any sound at all; this is true regardless the format I play.

Could you please help me out ? Do I need to add other packages ?

I know that for a newbie as I am should be more appropriate to go through Etch and not to jump to Lenny but...don't blame me (too much)!!!

Do you get sound with other applications? If not you might not have the proper sound drivers installed or something. I know that I had to monkey around with the sound on my new computer for a couple hours before it would work. I don't have VLC player, so if thats the problem, I can't help you.

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I cannot answer to you as I don't have any other application installed able to play sound.

I suspect as well a problem with drivers but I wonder if I'm still thinking with an MS approach. Is there any way to check if drivers are missing ?

I would say you don't have sound configured yet.

open a terminal window and su to root, then type alsaconf and go through the setup. After your done you can exit the root account then as user type alsamixer and make sure the main volume is up.

Yes mrrangerman, it works now thanks a lot !!!

I'm discouraged now: how should I have known that the sound (and not the video) had to be configured ? I went through the graphic "control center" and everything seemed to be OK ! Please teach me, I'm looking forward to having the correct "linux mindset" !

You figure this stuff out by asking here. We basically depend on each other to solve our problems. If you have a problem, someone else has the same one, or has had it.

Your more than welcome!


It's like war1025 said, and don't be afraid to ask questions no question is to dumb to ask, if you don't understand the subject at hand. A good place to start learning how linux works is HERE. Another thing that will help you is to remember this, "Linux is NOT windows", it's not trying to be. If you know a lot about windows some ideas may help understand some things, but the best thing to do is look at linux as an adventure and enjoy the trip. If you have a bad day don't worry about it, you didn't know anything about windows or any other OS for that matter the first time you tried it did you??

Play with it, work at the command line, learn the commands. The GUI apps are fine (nothing wrong with them). But you will find the command line will add in learning, and as you learn you will start to see just what kind of power and freedom Linux has over other that other OS.

mrrangerman & war1025, I felt sorry to leave this thread without a public thanks to you both. Thanks not only for the suggestion on this specific topic but mostly for trying to give me (and all the newbies) a correct way to approach Linux world together with an open offer for full support.

I now know that there is a community on which I can count while I deal with Linux !!!

Sorry, but I have to disagree. There ARE stupid questions, and they are being asked here as well.

A question is stupid when the impossible is asked: ('URGENT: I need to write a program to prove the Riemann hypothesis and I need it urgently. PLEASE HELP ME')

Or when the obvious is asked, already answered a zillion times in this forum, or with an answer in the first Google hit.

That makes it less and less encouraging for other people to actually read the thread and give an answer.

Questions are NOT stupid if a question is asked which is obvious for 95% of all Linux users. Everyone has to start, and Linux as such is not obvious when you only have a Windows background. Hell, who ever has heard about *multiple* sound systems in Windows? And granted, after you did an install which you think is complete, you expect sound to work, even in Debian I spent some time on it myself during the last Lenny install.

So.. welcome to the community. Google first and if you didn't find it, don't be afraid to ask it here.

jlinkels