Just to give a bit of background:
I have been workin on a mobile MP3 Player in my truck. I have assembled a computer in a plexiglass box that I control with a PS2 keyboard and no mouse or display (usually anyway) with the following:
A cheap mobo with integrated sound
600mhz Duron
300w Power Supply
4mb Matrox PCI Video...

So, I have it starting up and going right into X. I know that alot of you look at this as a "bad idea" to begin with, but it makes it much easier to just start playing music.

Then once in X it also auto logs in as root. And as an added bonus it also automatically starts xmms. But this is where my problem lies.

As soon as it gets all the way booted up and ready to go, if I try to press play, it gives me the message "Check you sound output." and is followed by 3 possibilities; "1. Make sure your sound card is properly configured. 2. Ensure the device is not being blocked by another application. 3. Ensure you have the correct output selected." And yes it is possible/likely that one of those 3 things are the cause. But if I wait for a good 10 minutes and then press play, it works just fine. Or if I close xmms and restart it, it works just fine.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

If you know of anyway to get my LinuxBox started up faster too, that would be great too. I am quite a newbie, but a know a little. Thanks for any suggestions.

I am running Mandrake 8.0 with a pretty basic install.

Well if you have money to spare a 600Mhz Duron and use it as a .mp3 player only then you might want to buy a nifty little real mp3 player that works with memory vards or simply a mini disc...

And for the xmms problem... You said it starts automatically, well maybe its starting before your sound modules are started or maybe your sound modules are not starting at all but are auto loaded by the kernel module autoloader Daemon when XMMS reqests them
Hope that helps

-Nskl

Actually I'm broke. The whole box only cost me around 70 bucks. The most expensive part was the plexiglass.
*All prices are in US*
Mobo=$12
CPU=$15
64MB RAM=$6
Keyboard=Free
PlexiGlass=$20
Matrox Card=$2
Power Supply=$16

Those prices include shipping. I shopped around and found the "best bang for my buck". I got the keyboard from my tech geeks at work, it was an extra. The rest from ebay or Pricewatch. Oh and get this!!!... I was leaving my buddies apt and by the dumpster was a 19 inch monitor. I grabbed it just for kicks, when I got home I tested it and it worked! So that was free too. I use it to setup/diagnose the LinuxBox in the truck so I don't have to take the box out of the truck. Got most of my ideas from http://mp3car.com/usersites/arby/case/ Had quite a few ideas that I wished I had used too. Like instead of glue the braces and things like that.

So how do I stop it from starting up before the sound modules. Or better yet, how do I stop it from starting up at all? I have unchecked the box to restore session, but it still starts up. Is there a way to start the sound modules before starting anything else? Thanks.:smash:

I dont know what distribution you are using but i assume it has System V startup (only slack and debian use BSD AFAIK) so you should modprobe entries in your /etc/modules.conf to load appropriate modules for your sound card. This way the modules will load while system is booting as opposed to when they are needed (Kernel module loader) and in this way they are always available.
Remember that i am not sure if this is actually the problem, there might be something else blocking XMMS.
You might try running xmms from a console to see if it spits any errors about being unable to access /dev/dsp or you might change output plugin in xmms preferences to use alternate device which can be /dev/dsp, /dev/dsp1, /dev/audio or /dev/audio1 and that might solve the problem. You have to fiddle around with it and make sure you have rwxrwxrwx permissions on the 4 files i listed above (also change permissions to /dev/sequencer and /dev/mixer so you can adjust the volume from xmms.
Hope this helps

-Nskl

If you're going to use it as mp3 only wouldn't it make sense to compile sound into the kernel and not as modules.(if possible)

going into X?
Are you running gnome or KDE on that.
I am assuming so if you are running xmms.

Yes, I am running X.
KDE

And any ideas on how to get it booted faster and how to load the sound module after the auto-loading XMMS would be great.

I don't know how to compile it into the kernel, yes I am a Winux crossover, so I don't know much. A faster boot and making XMMS play without having to close and restart it would be great.

Thanks for any help.

I use redhat. So my experience comes from there.
Turn off services.
You have it in your auto right.
You don't need networking.
you don't need sendmail
nfs
ipchains
iptables

when you starup you box watch for all the services that start
i.e.

bringing up eth0 [OK]
starting portmapper [OK]
etc
turn them off one by one.
But don't start before bringing up eth0. I think most of that is necessary for basic functionality. If one breaks your machines desired functionality, turn it back on and go to the next one.
The less you start up the quicker it is.
Recompile you're kernel. It's really pretty easy.
cd /usr/src/linux
#backup old config
make x config # Carefully read each item before turning it off.
# If you aren't going to use it. OFF (no)
# If you will only occasionally use it. MODULE
# As a regular fuction. ON (yes)
make clean && make dep && make bzImage && make modules
# Go have a cup of tea

cp ./arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-yourkernel
cp System.map /boot/System.map-yourkernel
make modules_install
Then before altering my bootmanager i test the kernel.
In grub that includes typing
e # to edit in grub
e # to edit the kernel it will boot from
rename kernel to on ejust built
enter # to finalize it and return to the previous screen
b # to boot to the kernel you specified


If it works right edit /etc/grub.conf and make your new kernel the dedfault
or go back and build another one
xconfig will have your last settings...
Anyone is welcome to correct me for mandrake stuff...or for turning of stuff before up eth0 etc...