The sound problem is still not fixed, but I'd like to thank all of you who did the effort to answer and help. In any case I learned from your posts and that's much appreciated.
Best wishes to all,
Paul

Driver == check (you wouldn't get the hiss otherwise, be sure to ^C to stop the hiss)
Permissions == check (you might want to add pulse and pulse-access groups)

$ ps -Al

One of the few ways to tell "IF" you're running a sound daemon and which one (of many). It can also tell which window manager. Some have system sounds, and a configuration that doesn't share sound, can have your sounds locked by the window manager. Less of an issue these days, but might still be one on an unconfigured system.

# apt-get install pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils pavucontrol
(assuming debian or debian based)

It's not perfect, but it's common. As in your default java version is probably assuming a pulseaudio configuration. And end user wise it is probably one of the simpler solutions.

You'll probably need to create a file.

~/.asoundrc
And from a terminal if it's not automated for you.

$ pulseaudio --start

Then you should be able to run:

$ pavucontrol

And things might make more sense / work out of the box better.

HTH

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi. Meanwhile I changed the hard disk to the one having PCLinux 2012 LXDE installed to and performed the same tests. Result: basically the same as with Debian Wheezy, best result being that hiss. So, I downloaded Pulseaudio and did the tests you suggest.

[paul@localhost ~]$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [ES1869 ]: ES1869 - ESS AudioDrive ES1869
ESS AudioDrive ES1869 at 0x220, irq 5, dma1 1, dma2 5

[paul@localhost ~]$ pavucontrol
bash: pavucontrol: command not found

[paul@localhost ~]$ groups
paul lp floppy cdrom cdwriter audio video dialout users polkituser

[paul@localhost ~]$ su
Password:

[root@localhost paul]# groups paul
paul : paul lp floppy cdrom cdwriter audio video dialout users polkituser

[root@localhost paul]# speaker-test -c 2
bash: speaker-test: command not found

[paul@localhost ~]$ speaker-test -c 2
bash: speaker-test: command not found

[paul@localhost ~]$ ps -Al
F S UID PID PPID C PRI NI ADDR SZ WCHAN TTY TIME CMD
4 S 0 1 0 0 61 0 - 542 poll_s ? 00:00:02 init
1 S 0 2 0 0 61 0 - 0 kthrea ? 00:00:00 kthreadd
1 S 0 3 2 0 61 0 - 0 run_ks ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
1 S 0 5 2 0 61 0 - 0 worker ? 00:00:00 kworker/u:0
1 S 0 6 2 0 -41 - - 0 cpu_st ? 00:00:00 migration/0
1 S 0 7 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 khelper
5 S 0 8 2 0 61 0 - 0 devtmp ? 00:00:00 kdevtmpfs
1 S 0 9 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 netns
1 S 0 10 2 0 61 0 - 0 bdi_sy ? 00:00:00 sync_supers
1 S 0 11 2 0 61 0 - 0 bdi_fo ? 00:00:00 bdi-default
1 S 0 12 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 kintegrityd
1 S 0 13 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 kblockd
1 S 0 14 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 md
1 S 0 16 2 0 61 0 - 0 kswapd ? 00:00:02 kswapd0
1 S 0 17 2 0 61 5 - 0 ksm_sc ? 00:00:00 ksmd
1 S 0 18 2 0 61 0 - 0 fsnoti ? 00:00:00 fsnotify_mark
1 S 0 19 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 crypto
1 S 0 22 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 kpsmoused
1 S 0 23 2 0 61 0 - 0 worker ? 00:00:01 kworker/0:2
1 S 0 39 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 ata_sff
1 S 0 41 2 0 61 0 - 0 scsi_e ? 00:00:03 scsi_eh_0
1 S 0 42 2 0 61 0 - 0 scsi_e ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
1 S 0 44 2 0 61 0 - 0 worker ? 00:00:02 kworker/u:2
1 S 0 54 2 0 61 0 - 0 kjourn ? 00:00:00 jbd2/sda6-8
1 S 0 55 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 ext4-dio-unwri
5 S 0 92 1 0 61 -4 - 683 poll_s ? 00:00:00 udevd
1 S 0 414 2 0 61 0 - 0 hub_th ? 00:00:00 khubd
1 S 0 489 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 firewire
1 S 0 517 2 0 61 0 - 0 pccard ? 00:00:00 pccardd
1 S 0 522 2 0 61 0 - 0 pccard ? 00:00:00 pccardd
1 S 0 534 2 0 61 0 - 0 kjourn ? 00:00:00 jbd2/sda8-8
1 S 0 535 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 ext4-dio-unwri
1 S 0 550 2 0 61 -20 - 0 rescue ? 00:00:00 cfg80211
5 S 0 687 1 0 61 0 - 554 poll_s ? 00:00:00 syslogd
5 S 0 695 1 0 61 0 - 542 syslog ? 00:00:00 klogd
1 S 0 709 2 0 61 0 - 0 bdi_wr ? 00:00:00 flush-8:0
5 S 496 715 1 0 61 0 - 778 poll_s ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
5 S 495 732 1 0 61 0 - 4648 poll_s ? 00:00:05 hald
4 S 0 734 1 0 61 0 - 7299 poll_s ? 00:00:00 console-kit-da
4 S 0 801 1 0 61 0 - 6246 poll_s ? 00:00:00 polkitd
0 S 0 804 732 0 61 0 - 3800 poll_s ? 00:00:00 hald-runner
0 S 0 861 804 0 61 0 - 1513 poll_s ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-inp
0 S 0 863 804 0 61 0 - 1513 poll_s ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-rfk
0 S 0 871 804 0 61 0 - 1514 poll_s ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-sto
4 S 495 873 804 0 61 0 - 990 hrtime ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-acp
4 S 0 907 1 0 61 0 - 5009 poll_s ? 00:00:01 gdm-binary
1 S 0 931 1 0 61 0 - 1177 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gpg-agent
5 S 0 936 907 0 61 0 - 5313 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gdm-binary
4 R 0 938 936 10 66 0 - 9395 ? tty8 00:05:13 X
1 S 0 939 2 0 61 0 - 0 kaudit ? 00:00:00 kauditd
0 S 0 1030 804 0 61 0 - 1514 poll_s ? 00:00:01 hald-addon-sto
1 S 500 1396 1 0 61 0 - 6400 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gnome-keyring-
4 S 500 1402 936 0 61 0 - 3559 poll_s ? 00:00:01 lxsession
1 S 500 1449 1 0 61 0 - 1331 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gpg-agent
1 S 500 1470 1402 0 61 0 - 1472 poll_s ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent
1 S 2 1686 1 0 61 0 - 597 hrtime ? 00:00:00 atd
1 S 0 1687 1 0 61 0 - 755 poll_s ? 00:00:00 xinetd
1 S 0 1708 1 0 61 0 - 1197 hrtime ? 00:00:00 crond
1 S 493 1799 1 0 61 0 - 1053 skb_re ? 00:00:00 uuidd
1 S 500 1824 1 0 61 0 - 940 poll_s ? 00:00:00 dbus-launch
1 S 500 1835 1 0 61 0 - 862 poll_s ? 00:00:01 dbus-daemon
0 S 500 1849 1402 2 61 0 - 12975 poll_s ? 00:01:05 net_applet
1 S 500 1888 1 0 61 0 - 3286 poll_s ? 00:00:00 s2u
0 S 500 1942 1402 0 61 0 - 3908 poll_s ? 00:00:07 openbox
0 S 500 1945 1402 3 61 0 - 12439 poll_s ? 00:01:50 lxpanel
0 S 500 1948 1402 0 61 0 - 9564 poll_s ? 00:00:04 pcmanfm
0 S 500 1955 1402 0 61 0 - 1943 poll_s ? 00:00:03 xscreensaver
0 S 500 1966 1 0 61 0 - 9057 poll_s ? 00:00:02 python
0 S 500 1977 1 0 61 0 - 7321 poll_s ? 00:00:00 volumeicon
1 S 500 2001 1 0 61 0 - 1618 poll_s ? 00:00:00 menu-cached
0 S 500 2004 1 0 61 0 - 7195 poll_s ? 00:00:00 lxpolkit
0 S 500 2009 1 1 61 0 - 6826 poll_s ? 00:00:41 clipit
0 S 500 2011 1 0 61 0 - 2248 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gvfsd
1 S 500 2036 1 0 61 0 - 8436 futex_ ? 00:00:00 gvfs-fuse-daem
0 S 500 2345 1 0 61 0 - 8882 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gvfs-hal-volum
0 S 500 2391 1 0 61 0 - 5157 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gvfs-afc-volum
0 S 500 2406 1 0 61 0 - 2368 poll_s ? 00:00:00 gvfs-gphoto2-v
0 S 500 2455 1 0 61 0 - 2154 poll_s ? 00:00:01 gconfd-2
5 S 498 2538 1 0 61 0 - 813 poll_s ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
1 S 498 2542 2538 0 61 0 - 813 unix_s ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
5 S 485 2569 1 0 61 0 - 1089 poll_s ? 00:00:00 xfs
1 S 0 2579 1 0 61 0 - 1636 lock_f ? 00:00:00 saslauthd
1 S 0 2588 2579 0 61 0 - 1636 skb_re ? 00:00:00 saslauthd
1 S 0 2592 2579 0 61 0 - 1636 lock_f ? 00:00:00 saslauthd
1 S 0 2593 2579 0 61 0 - 1636 lock_f ? 00:00:00 saslauthd
1 S 0 2594 2579 0 61 0 - 1636 lock_f ? 00:00:00 saslauthd
5 S 0 2652 1 0 61 0 - 817 fuse_d ? 00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
4 S 0 2659 1 0 61 0 - 2487 epoll_ ? 00:00:00 cupsd
5 S 0 2694 1 0 61 0 - 817 fuse_d ? 00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
5 S 0 2701 1 0 61 0 - 2827 poll_s ? 00:00:08 snmpd
4 S 0 3094 1 0 61 0 - 538 n_tty_ tty1 00:00:00 mingetty
4 S 0 3095 1 0 61 0 - 538 n_tty_ tty2 00:00:00 mingetty
4 S 0 3096 1 0 61 0 - 538 n_tty_ tty3 00:00:00 mingetty
4 S 0 3097 1 0 61 0 - 538 n_tty_ tty4 00:00:00 mingetty
4 S 0 3098 1 0 61 0 - 538 n_tty_ tty5 00:00:00 mingetty
4 S 0 3099 1 0 61 0 - 538 n_tty_ tty6 00:00:00 mingetty
5 S 0 3100 92 0 61 -2 - 682 poll_s ? 00:00:00 udevd
5 S 0 3101 92 0 61 -2 - 682 poll_s ? 00:00:00 udevd
5 S 0 3359 1 0 61 0 - 1295 poll_s ? 00:00:00 wpa_supplicant
5 S 0 3361 1 0 61 0 - 546 poll_s ? 00:00:00 ifplugd
1 S 0 3530 1 0 61 0 - 2007 poll_s ? 00:00:00 dhclient
0 S 500 3593 1 0 61 0 - 6220 poll_s ? 00:00:03 notify-osd
0 S 500 3769 1 22 61 0 - 112134 poll_s ? 00:10:08 firefox
1 S 0 3971 2 0 61 0 - 0 worker ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:0
5 S 486 5253 1 0 61 0 - 866 poll_s ? 00:00:00 ntpd
1 S 0 5819 1 0 61 19 - 586 rt_sig ? 00:00:00 anacron
1 S 0 7427 2 0 61 0 - 0 worker ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:1
1 S 0 8191 2 0 61 0 - 0 worker ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:3
0 S 500 8366 1 1 61 0 - 7352 poll_s ? 00:00:02 leafpad
0 D 500 8640 1 5 61 0 - 9657 sleep_ ? 00:00:01 lxterminal
0 S 500 8644 8640 0 61 0 - 553 unix_s ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-help
0 S 500 8646 8640 1 61 0 - 1325 wait pts/0 00:00:00 bash
0 R 500 8702 8646 0 67 0 - 1172 - pts/0 00:00:00 ps
[paul@localhost ~]$

After installing Pulseaudio and creating the file
"~/.asoundrc
Code:
defaults.pcm.card 0

pcm.pulse { type pulse }
ctl.pulse { type pulse }
pcm.!default { type pulse }
ctl.!default { type pulse }

What name should that file have? "defaults.pcm.card 0"?

[paul@localhost ~]$ pulseaudio --start
W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/home/paul/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authorization key '/home/paul/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
[paul@localhost ~]$

[paul@localhost ~]$ pavucontrol
Segmentation fault
[paul@localhost ~]$

[paul@localhost ~]$ speaker-test -c 2
bash: speaker-test: command not found
[paul@localhost ~]$

I'll try the same things with the Debian installation and will report the result later.
Many thanks for your efforts. Kind regards,
Paul

Again the Debian Wheezy hard disk:

paul@armada:~$ ps -Al
F S UID PID PPID C PRI NI ADDR SZ WCHAN TTY TIME CMD
4 S 0 1 0 0 80 0 - 570 ? ? 00:00:03 init
1 S 0 2 0 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kthreadd
1 S 0 3 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:02 ksoftirqd/0
1 S 0 6 2 0 -40 - - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 migration/0
5 S 0 7 2 0 -40 - - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 watchdog/0
1 S 0 8 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 cpuset
1 S 0 9 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 khelper
5 S 0 10 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kdevtmpfs
1 S 0 11 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 netns
1 S 0 12 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 sync_supers
1 S 0 13 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 bdi-default
1 S 0 14 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kintegrityd
1 S 0 15 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kblockd
1 S 0 17 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 khungtaskd
1 S 0 18 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:13 kswapd0
1 S 0 19 2 0 85 5 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 ksmd
1 S 0 20 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 fsnotify_mark
1 S 0 21 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 crypto
1 S 0 101 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 khubd
1 S 0 121 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 ata_sff
1 S 0 123 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:03 scsi_eh_0
1 S 0 124 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
1 S 0 156 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 jbd2/sda1-8
1 S 0 157 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 ext4-dio-unwri
5 S 0 301 1 0 80 0 - 736 ? ? 00:00:00 udevd
5 S 0 384 301 0 80 0 - 735 ? ? 00:00:00 udevd
5 S 0 385 301 0 80 0 - 735 ? ? 00:00:00 udevd
1 S 0 419 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kpsmoused
1 S 0 423 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 pccardd
1 S 0 431 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 pccardd
1 S 0 441 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:02 kworker/0:4
1 S 0 466 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 cfg80211
1 S 0 1673 1 0 80 0 - 1456 ? ? 00:00:01 wpa_supplicant
5 S 0 1713 1 0 80 0 - 593 ? ? 00:00:00 rpcbind
5 S 106 1749 1 0 80 0 - 662 ? ? 00:00:00 rpc.statd
1 S 0 1754 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 rpciod
1 S 0 1762 2 0 60 -20 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 nfsiod
1 S 0 1771 1 0 80 0 - 643 ? ? 00:00:00 rpc.idmapd
5 S 0 1997 1 0 80 0 - 7207 ? ? 00:00:00 rsyslogd
1 S 0 2053 1 0 80 0 - 502 ? ? 00:00:00 acpid
1 S 0 2070 1 0 80 0 - 425 ? ? 00:00:00 acpi_fakekeyd
5 S 102 2089 1 0 80 0 - 952 ? ? 00:00:05 dbus-daemon
5 S 0 2115 1 0 80 0 - 4597 ? ? 00:00:01 NetworkManager
4 S 0 2134 1 0 80 0 - 6241 ? ? 00:00:07 polkitd
4 S 0 2161 1 0 80 0 - 4536 ? ? 00:00:00 gdm3
1 S 0 2168 1 0 80 0 - 1295 ? ? 00:00:00 dhclient
4 S 0 2178 1 0 80 0 - 1721 ? ? 00:00:00 modem-manager
4 S 0 2183 2161 0 80 0 - 5141 ? ? 00:00:00 gdm-simple-sla
4 R 0 2213 2183 5 80 0 - 12208 ? tty7 00:04:44 Xorg
1 S 1 2289 1 0 80 0 - 537 ? ? 00:00:00 atd
5 S 107 2316 1 0 80 0 - 789 ? ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
1 S 107 2317 2316 0 80 0 - 789 ? ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
5 S 0 2342 1 0 80 0 - 1121 ? ? 00:00:00 bluetoothd
5 S 0 2356 2 0 70 -10 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 krfcommd
1 S 0 2422 1 0 80 0 - 959 ? ? 00:00:00 cron
4 S 0 2465 1 0 80 0 - 2530 ? ? 00:00:01 cupsd
4 S 0 2470 1 0 80 0 - 5847 ? ? 00:00:00 accounts-daemo
4 S 0 2474 1 0 80 0 - 7001 ? ? 00:00:01 console-kit-da
4 S 103 2541 1 0 80 0 - 6139 ? ? 00:00:00 colord
4 S 103 2545 1 0 80 0 - 12543 ? ? 00:00:01 colord-sane
4 S 0 2830 1 0 80 0 - 6607 ? ? 00:00:01 upowerd
5 S 105 2871 1 0 80 0 - 1854 ? ? 00:00:00 exim4
4 S 111 3049 1 0 81 1 - 4744 ? ? 00:00:00 rtkit-daemon
1 S 0 3104 1 0 80 0 - 462 ? ? 00:00:00 minissdpd
4 S 0 3116 1 0 80 0 - 944 ? tty1 00:00:00 getty
4 S 0 3117 1 0 80 0 - 944 ? tty2 00:00:00 getty
4 S 0 3118 1 0 80 0 - 944 ? tty3 00:00:00 getty
4 S 0 3119 1 0 80 0 - 944 ? tty4 00:00:00 getty
4 S 0 3120 1 0 80 0 - 944 ? tty5 00:00:00 getty
4 S 0 3121 1 0 80 0 - 944 ? tty6 00:00:00 getty
4 S 0 3135 2183 0 80 0 - 6752 ? ? 00:00:00 gdm-session-wo
1 S 1000 3141 1 0 80 0 - 17206 ? ? 00:00:00 gnome-keyring-
1 S 0 3143 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kauditd
4 S 1000 3159 3135 0 80 0 - 12397 - ? 00:00:01 x-session-mana
1 S 1000 3199 3159 0 80 0 - 967 ? ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent
1 S 1000 3202 1 0 80 0 - 879 - ? 00:00:00 dbus-launch
1 S 1000 3203 1 0 80 0 - 1205 - ? 00:00:02 dbus-daemon
0 S 1000 3212 3159 0 80 0 - 74206 - ? 00:00:08 gnome-settings
0 S 1000 3223 1 0 80 0 - 2191 - ? 00:00:00 gvfsd
1 S 1000 3229 1 0 69 -11 - 24448 - ? 00:00:45 pulseaudio
0 S 1000 3233 1 0 80 0 - 2432 - ? 00:00:00 gvfs-gdu-volum
4 S 0 3235 1 0 80 0 - 3931 ? ? 00:00:00 udisks-daemon
1 S 0 3236 3235 0 80 0 - 1587 ? ? 00:00:02 udisks-daemon
0 S 1000 3239 1 0 80 0 - 4774 - ? 00:00:01 gvfs-afc-volum
0 S 1000 3242 1 0 80 0 - 2166 - ? 00:00:00 gvfs-gphoto2-v
0 S 1000 3249 3159 0 80 0 - 33193 - ? 00:00:26 metacity
0 S 1000 3254 3159 1 80 0 - 44449 - ? 00:00:59 gnome-panel
0 S 1000 3259 1 0 80 0 - 11629 - ? 00:00:00 gsd-printer
0 S 1000 3266 1 0 80 0 - 2270 - ? 00:00:00 gconfd-2
0 S 1000 3268 1 0 80 0 - 7839 - ? 00:00:00 dconf-service
0 S 1000 3272 3159 0 80 0 - 10016 - ? 00:00:00 notification-d
0 S 1000 3273 3159 0 80 0 - 48717 - ? 00:00:02 gnome-sound-ap
0 S 1000 3274 3159 0 80 0 - 33656 - ? 00:00:02 polkit-gnome-a
0 S 1000 3275 3159 0 80 0 - 15042 - ? 00:00:01 evolution-alar
0 S 1000 3276 3159 0 80 0 - 14442 - ? 00:00:00 gnome-fallback
0 S 1000 3277 3159 0 80 0 - 33866 - ? 00:00:03 gnome-screensa
0 S 1000 3279 3159 0 80 0 - 33405 - ? 00:00:01 bluetooth-appl
0 S 1000 3280 3159 0 80 0 - 6357 - ? 00:00:00 gdu-notificati
0 S 1000 3281 3159 0 80 0 - 16321 - ? 00:00:02 tracker-store
0 S 1000 3282 3159 0 99 19 - 12619 - ? 00:00:01 tracker-miner-
0 S 1000 3285 3159 0 80 0 - 57516 - ? 00:00:01 nm-applet
0 S 1000 3322 1 0 80 0 - 9382 - ? 00:00:00 mission-contro
0 S 1000 3326 1 0 80 0 - 22975 - ? 00:00:00 goa-daemon
0 S 1000 3549 3254 10 80 0 - 172529 - ? 00:09:09 firefox
0 S 1000 3563 1 0 80 0 - 8001 - ? 00:00:00 at-spi-bus-lau
1 S 0 3663 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:02 kworker/u:0
1 S 0 3664 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 flush-8:0
1 S 0 3665 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:01 kworker/0:1
1 S 0 3666 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:03 kworker/u:1
1 S 0 3712 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:01 kworker/0:0
1 S 0 3739 1 0 80 0 - 879 ? ? 00:00:00 dbus-launch
5 S 0 3740 1 0 80 0 - 754 ? ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
0 S 0 3745 1 0 80 0 - 2274 ? ? 00:00:00 gconfd-2
0 S 1000 3825 3254 0 80 0 - 483 - ? 00:00:00 synaptic-pkexe
4 S 0 3828 3825 4 80 0 - 42044 ? ? 00:01:07 synaptic
1 S 0 3830 2 0 80 0 - 0 ? ? 00:00:00 kworker/0:2
4 S 0 3853 3828 0 80 0 - 519 ? ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-help
0 S 1000 4243 1 0 80 0 - 2331 - ? 00:00:00 gvfsd-trash
0 S 1000 4245 1 0 80 0 - 2191 - ? 00:00:00 gvfsd-burn
0 S 1000 4251 1 0 80 0 - 2117 - ? 00:00:00 gvfsd-metadata
0 S 1000 4254 1 2 80 0 - 47216 - ? 00:00:22 gedit
0 R 1000 4318 3254 0 80 0 - 38498 - ? 00:00:03 gnome-terminal
0 S 1000 4324 4318 0 80 0 - 519 ? ? 00:00:00 gnome-pty-help
0 S 1000 4325 4318 0 80 0 - 1436 - pts/1 00:00:00 bash
0 R 1000 4385 4325 0 80 0 - 1031 - pts/1 00:00:00 ps
paul@armada:~$

It seems those files are mostly already installed except "pavucontrol", which is done by now.

Done.

Works, still without sound, and I get this although the panel opened and settings seem possible:

paul@armada:~$ pulseaudio --start
N: [pulseaudio] main.c: User-configured server at {bc2bd08d5efc367bdada0b815217647e}unix:/tmp/pulse-j1y3yMnC97Vv/native, which appears to be local. Probing deeper.
paul@armada:~$ pavucontrol

(pavucontrol:4373): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_render_frame_gap: assertion `xy1_gap <= width' failed

Many thanks and kind regards,
Paul

$ pgrep pulseaudio

It should return a PID if it is running. If it's not running then it failed to start. This happens. Sometimes if you try to start it as root it will create .pulse files in / which messes up using the /home/ versions. And various quirks between versions that can bite you between updates.

# apt-get install sox

$ play -n synth 2 sin 440 gain 0.5

A two second tuning A as a sine wave. 2 = duration / 440 = Hertz. Just something more than the pink noise of speaker-test.

$ groups

You should have "pulse" and "pulse-access" groups if you're going with pulse. Back to the old permission issue.

You might try a live CD/DVD image of ubuntu, it's a little better at assuming things and runs a pulse setup out of the box.

1 members found this post helpful.

paul@armada:~$ pgrep pulseaudio
3413

root@armada:/home/paul# apt-get install sox
only last lines of the output:
Paramétrage de libsox2 (14.4.0-3) ...
Paramétrage de libsox-fmt-alsa (14.4.0-3) ...
Paramétrage de libsox-fmt-base (14.4.0-3) ...
Paramétrage de sox (14.4.0-3) ...

paul@armada:~$ play -n synth 2 sin 440 gain 0.5
play WARN alsa: can't encode 0-bit Unknown or not applicable

Encoding: n/a
Channels: 1 @ 32-bit
Samplerate: 48000Hz
Replaygain: off
Duration: unknown

In:0.00% 00:00:02.05 [00:00:00.00] Out:96.0k [ | ] Hd:0.0 Clip:20.6k
play WARN gain: gain clipped 20640 samples; decrease volume?
Done.

paul@armada:~$ groups
paul cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev netdev scanner bluetooth
paul@armada:~$

The "pulse" group doesn't seem to be there, and still no sound nor hiss.
I'll double check everything over again.

That's what I tried also yesterday, with the CD Ubuntu 10.04 i384.
Boots without problems, but still no sound. Will try again, who knows...
Ubuntu 12.10 is a bit too heavy for this old machine, but maybe
Lubuntu 12.10 will do (up to date version). I'll report the results.

I googled "sound armada 1750" (I could have done that before of course), and got this link on a Puppy-Linux forum:
Which means there is a way to fix the problem. Now, Puppy is not Debian Wheezy, and I'm not sure the mentioned codes will work.

Curious not one single Linux version I tried succeeded in getting the sound feature turned on right out of the box.

Many thanks and kind regards,
Paul

BITD you would run SuSE linux. As alsa (the non-OSS sound driver) was primarily developed in that distro. Or funded by it, or some such.

You might try an older version of knoppix. Pre-ubuntu, that was one distro that tended to get the autodetection things right while still not being overly bloated. BITD you'd run that one just to copy it's configuration files. Or as a chroot environment to run the 32 bit java applet before there was a 64 bit version.


Check the /etc/group file for a pulse entry.

$ cat /etc/group | grep -i "pulse"

That's what I get on my system. I tend to do groups by editing that file directly. But you really should use usermod (in theory).

You could look at it in terms of windows, you'd probably be installing windows 95 or windows 98, which is like 15 to 18 years olds now. Despite the want ads requiring 20 years of windows 95 experience some 15 years ago. Your ubuntu 10.10 attempt is only 2010 or 3-ish years ago.

Your sound works, or else speaker-test would output nothing. It's just not configured to be end user friendly out of the box. Which is sadly common despite 20-ish years of progress.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/vie...458564b891e76b

You'd do basically the same method in debian. Although you're more likely to see this kind of trickery on wireless cards than old soundcards these days.

$ pulseaudio --kill
$ su
# /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop
# modprobe -r snd-es18xx
# modprobe snd-es18xx isapnp=0 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=5
# /etc/init.d/alsa-utils start
# exit
$ pusleaudio --start

Really, ISA on laptop, wow. That's an old puppy. Note that pulseaudio is userland, not root.

This one:
you would add to file in /etc/modprobe.d/. Say /etc/modprobe.d/alsa_custom.conf

# modprobe snd-es18xx isapnp=0 port=0x0220 dma1=1 dma2=5 irq=5 mpu_port=0x330

To do those parameter manually after boot. Which assumes that snd-es18xx isn't already loaded. Also bear in mind that your parameter values might differ on your hardware.

# modinfo snd-es18xx

And all the lines starting with parm: shows you what's available to override defaults.

And from that thread:
would be passed to the kernel at boot time. In your bootloader configuration you would add those after root= and whatever other parameters are already there. Or clone that stanza in the config file to /etc/grub/40_custom so it's always there everytime update-grub runs. Like when an update does a new kernel version or new grub version. Assuming you use grub and not burg, lilo, or other options. For me it would look like:

You might opt for a non-pae kernel on that old of a system.

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

if the "flags : " section doesn't contain the string " pae ", then you don't have that anyway. Sorry if that's a little advanced, but like I orinally said, creative labs has never been much of a linux friendly option, especially in those old days. And that 2011 thread you linked shows a taste of that. Like 5+ years after the fact you're still part of the reverse engineer team to make it work (limited). However indirectly.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thank you Shadow 7, I'm going to try your different suggestions and will report.

Concerning distros, the aim is to get a working distro (of course...) relatively up to date. I already gave OpenSuse a go, but this distro seems too heavy for the poor old lady; same for Lubuntu 12.10: doesn't work. Ik like Puppy in general (runs very well actually), but it forces me to some other limitations: excellent spare distro I dare say.

Going back to Win95-like distros doesn't seem an option because I'd better just stick to Windows then... Not an option either. Still, XP to my surprise did very well

So, knowing Ubuntu 10.04 works, I installed it on another spare hard disk. Still no sound, but runs most of the software I like: OpenOffice, Gimp, Audacity, Avidemux, MMC, MuseScore, etc, even the latest Firefox 24.00 (I'm using it right now), which is good news.

I plan to stick to Debian Wheezy and Ubuntu 10.04 to get the sound turned on!

Many thanks for your patience and kind regards,
Paul

Worst case scenario, you could always go with a USB sound option. I have an M-Audio mobilepre that does most of my laptop audio needs. Although mostly because the speakers on the laptop suck and the headphone out has too much hiss. Not because the sound doesn't work. The usb-audio module just works for "class compliant" devices.

You might also give xubuntu a try, or linuxlite, both fairly stripped down distros running off of the ubuntu repositories.

Interesting Idea, although the Armada would loose the advantage of its speakers.
I'm not going to give up that easily. Just a few days rest and tests and then
we'll see. Giving life again and using a good old machine is also kind of a
special pleasure, and a challenge of course: kind of sports...

Xubuntu might be a bit too heavy because because Xfce, though lighter than KDE,
is still heavier than LXDE, which doesn't work, I mean the latest versions of
course. Ubuntu 10.xx(Gnome) works very well, even without the sound, but if
someone already succeeded in having the sound turned on with Puppy, why not
with Ubuntu? So, a few days rest, and then back to the battlefield

Many thanks for your advices, and kind regards,
Paul

I should add that pulseaudio has a hefty performance hit. On my old boxes I get 10% less fps graphically with pulse in play, and that's while not having any active audio outputs. You could try going without pulseaudio, but you'll likely run into issues on some (limited) things. Things like games with multiple semi-time critical sound events, might leave you with a subset of all those sounds without pulse. Beyond that stop pulseaudio, and comment out those lines in ~/.asoundrc, or just rename ~/.asoundrc. And you're good to go.

Easier said than done. On many default configurations pulseaudio will auto restart. You can modify that behavior by adding "autospawn = no" to /etc/pulse/client.conf. At which point "pulseaudio --kill" will stop pulse from running without it restarting. Which will leave you with alsa and any other things you opt to run on top of alsa. And on older machines, that's good enough in a lot of cases. There's just a lot of choice when it comes to audio and linux. And there's justifications for most of them.

Curious: Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't seem able to notice
the sound card... but all the software I want does
run !? Debian Wheezy runs also very smoothly, seems
to notice a sound card without emitting more than
a hiss in best case, but doesn't allow the installation
of for instance MMC (Mobile Media Converter).
Well, so be it. Let's give it a rest for the time being.

Many thanks and best wishes,
Paul

Hi everyone on this topic. Just to inform you how the sound issue evolves.

I once more went over everything, meaning installing a brand new Ubuntu 10.04 system in order to be sure I'm starting over again with a clean system.
From the start the system installs without problems, but still without any sound nor hiss. No way for the system to even notice the sound card... I tried most of the suggested codes over again, but of no avail. Well, so be it:
Compaq Armada 1750 needs absolutely Windows to have the sound turned on

Many, many thanks to all who gave their time and patience to help.
Paul

The "drivers" for sound are in "alsa". And "alsa" is in the kernel trunk since 2.6.x kernels. You might try to roll your own kernel (3.11.x) with the latest and greatest sources. Not ideal, but 10.04 is quite an ancient distro / kernel by all things current. But that doesn't mean that you can't use new-ish stuff on it.

$ uname -r

Not that I hold much hope for you. ISA is quite ancient tech. Even by modern standards. But there was some good stuff going on in those old days. Soundcards that had midi on board. Some like the AWE series had RAM chips for soundfonts on the soundcard. Or an option to modify from factory specs. Probably not on laptop specs. But good stuff.