No sound

osjak · 12-14-2007, 11:38 PM

Hi all. I am a newbie in Linux. I've been using Windows for all my life and played some with Linux servers (shared and dedicated) to get a couple of web sites going. I'm not scared of command line, just don't know much

So let's get to my question.

I just installed a PCLinuxOS 2007 desktop on my "second" computer (an old one). It's function is to check email, write letters in some sort of office application, play music off the shared folder on the "main" computer. It also has a printer hooked up to it, that's shared with my main computer (WinXP). I am having a problem with the sound. After I installed the OS, I could not play any sound at all. I tried mplayer and XMMS with no success. Searching through the web, I found that I can run alsaconf to configure sound on my PC. I did that and, sure thing, I was able to play mp3's with XMMS. So I happily logged in my journal that if sound breakes, run the alsaconf (yes, I'm running a journal for this to avoid researching the same thing twice). The next day (today), I discovered that sound doesn't work again. Nobody seemed to do anything with the PC, so let's think of it as broken on its own. Running alsaconf didn't fix it. Now I'm stuck. I checked Kmixer to make sure it is not muted and volume is up. It's probably something simple, I just don't know my way around. Please help me to fix it. Not sure what info you would need to troubleshoot:

Code:

#lspci | grep audio
00:0e.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 08)

# uname -a
Linux localhost 2.6.18.8.tex5 #1 SMP Thu May 10 11:36:58 WST 2007 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) GNU/Linux

Last lines from alsaconf:

Code:

Loading driver...
ALSA driver isn't running.
Starting ALSA version 1.0.13: ens1371 ens1371.                  [  OK  ]
Setting default volumes...
===============================================================================

 Now ALSA is ready to use.
 For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

 Have a lot of fun!

When ALSA restarts, there's a distinctive connection sound from the speakers, so they are definitely hooked up right.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Simon Bridge · 12-15-2007, 02:57 AM

Try

lsmod | grep snd
... see if that driver (snd-ens1371) is loading.

asoundconf list
... what does alsa see

Check the system logs (dmesg)

osjak · 12-15-2007, 12:41 PM

Simon Bridge, thank you for helping. Here's the output of those commands:

Code:

# lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_dummy           3908  0
snd_seq_oss            32512  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7616  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                52272  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            43072  0
snd_mixer_oss          16608  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ens1371            25664  0
gameport               15368  1 snd_ens1371
snd_rawmidi            24320  1 snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device          8268  4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec         95268  1 snd_ens1371
snd_ac97_bus            2400  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                76868  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              22884  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         10152  1 snd_pcm
snd                    52708  10 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               9824  1 snd

# asoundconf list
bash: asoundconf: command not found

The driver is loading.

The last lines from the log running dmesg, it seems they were formed when I ran alsaconf:

Code:

ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:00:0e.0 disabled
gameport: kgameportd exiting
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:0e.0 (0100 -> 0101)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0e.0[A] -> Link [LNKC] -> GSI 5 (level, low) -> IRQ 5

Simon Bridge · 12-16-2007, 05:55 AM

OK - the driver is present and loaded - still no sound.

The obvious next step is to play a test sound from local file. Rules out the possibility that it's just the network streaming that shut down. Possibly try: "alsactl restore" see if that gets your old config back.

Try playing sound as root.
Try plugging speakers into an alternative jack (phones, microphone - I know: humor me.)

dmesg:
bent to run it right after boot like this:

dmesg > dmesg0.log

then run

less dmesg0.log

and hunt through for anything about alsa or sound or audio or anything like that.

Try playing a test sound - no sound, do

dmesg > dmesg1.log
diff dmesg1.log dmesg0.log > test1.log

less test1.log, see what got reported when you tried to play a sound.

then do alsaconf followed by

dmesg > dmesg2.log
diff dmesg2.log dmesg1.log > test2.log

less test2.log to see what happened when alsaconf got run.

osjak · 12-28-2007, 01:35 AM

Simon, I just wanted to say thank you for trying to help.

I did all of what you said with no results. I researched other forums as well and spent a lot of time troubleshooting. Nothing. After a while I had some hardware crash (turned out to be a bad memory bank) that screwed up the X server settings. At that point I decided not to invest any more of my time into this and just reinstall Windows XP. I'm up and running again now and everything works fine. Sorry for wasting your time. I'll keep my Linux experience to web server hosting, no desktops for me in near future.

Simon Bridge · 12-28-2007, 10:44 PM

Quote:

I did all of what you said with no results.

That's unlikely, as a zero responce to the things I suggested would have given me valuable information... i.e. if a local file would play, then the trouble is in streaming over the network.

If you were having HW problems though, this could have been more subtle. I take it you fixed the HW before reinstalling XP?

Oh well - better luck next time.

osjak · 12-29-2007, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simon Bridge

That's unlikely, as a zero responce to the things I suggested would have given me valuable information... i.e. if a local file would play, then the trouble is in streaming over the network.

If you were having HW problems though, this could have been more subtle. I take it you fixed the HW before reinstalling XP?

Oh well - better luck next time.

Sorry if I offended you, I meant to say that I didn't find a clue in any results produced. The local file didn't play, I forgot to mention it in my initial post, but that's how I've been testing it all the time. I also tried running the machine off a couple of live CD's. First one - the PCLinuxOS CD that I used for installation. Sound didn't work. Just for the heck of it, I tried a Damn Small Linux live CD. Sound worked there. I did all the log screening and comparing as you suggested. I even visually compared logs from DSL and PCLinuxOS. I didn't find any obvious signs of sound failing to load or anything wrong with alsa. Back to installed system to do more tests, I had that hardware issue that hung the computer and messed up my X server. I have found the hardware problem and fixed it - removed a faulty memory bank, down to 500MB now. At that point I decided to take an easy route out and reinstall WinXP. Thank you for your help!

dv502 · 12-29-2007, 02:23 AM

I recognized that module, it is a sound blaster card which I have. This is a popular card and should work with almost any linux distro. I've used PClinuxOS with this card and it did work. Some distros don't enable sound by default, you need to run alsamixer to turn on the sound.

As root, type alsamixer

You will see a mixer like console. Press m to toggle between mute and unmite. use the left-right arrow keys to move between channels and the up-down arrow keys to adjust volumes.

After setting the volumes and channels, press Esc key.

Now type alsactl store

You also need to run the mixer in KDE.

Open the kmix program, either from the terminal or from the program menus.
i.e multimedia

Click the green LED to turn on that channel and move slider up for volume.

test a video from youtube to see if sound is working.