can no longer change audio settings, missing gstreamer plugin or no audio device
 

I needed to unmute my computer today for some tests and when I use the audio controls in my gnome desktop I get a message saying it is unable to modify the audio, missing gstreamer or no audio device configured. I have been using this laptop and audio for some time without difficulty. The only thing I can think of that I have done to change its configuration was to run install (and uninstall...and reinstall...) an rpm I was creating, but it shouldn't have touched anything realated to audio.

When I go to the configure soundcard option I'm able to configure the sound card and play a test audio file without any trouble. I installed the recent version of all the gstreamer rpm's as well and see no difference. There are no messages in dmesg (that I could find, it's a large file) that give any hint as to the problem.

I googled the problem but didn't find anything too useful. I did find the aumix program which I'll try installing on Monday to see if I can control the audio from the command line (it's a work computer that is otherwise in use till Monday). I may be jumping ahead of myself asking for help before I had an opportunity to try aumix, but I was hopping I could get some suggestions on where I should look to track down the problem on Monday.

Thank you

yes

some waffle first

bios onboard sound can interfere with sound

wrong kernel modules can interfere

wrong settings and configs ditto

In particular...mixer settings.

I suggest you look at http://sidux.com/index.php?module=Wi...=MixerSettings

and there is a link to multiple pages at the botton called sound master.

yours is a rpm system but I am suggesting alsa-utils and its associated mixer....alsamixer ....and other apps are the best to trouble shoot.

There are many pages there...so feel free to peruse to get the gist of what to test.

2) gstreamer...namely the libgstreamer acts as a backend to software that needs the gstreamer plugins.

Its possible you have accidently un-installed some plugins.

try downloading independent software that can play multimedia

I suggest vlc

Thank you aus9, your provided a good informative answer. In an hour when I can get hold of the laptop I'll try looking into the mixer settings.

I did notice that you knew I was using an RPM based system. Despite my explicit intent to mention what OS I was using I still forgot to say I was working with RHEL 5.2. How did you know what OS I was using?

an rpm I was creating