trying to fix sound onboard system

Hi,

Still have not found any solution to my sound problem !!

The onboard via 8233 a sound system is mute except for cd ( i can have sound from kscd ) the bell is ok too, but anything else is not.

Alsa came with mdk 9.2 and i changed modules to match my soundcard requirements ( via82xx ).

Soundcard is detected, i have no strange messages and i even have a loud sound from the speackers at boot.

Every mixer is 100 %.

I chmod /dev/dsp .... and add myself to the audio group.

I use Kde and disabled arts ,as this one was not happy and send me error messages.

I cannot play any wav sound with Totem or Xmms ( and yes, files are associated !! )

Can anybody with the same problem ( if somebody solved the problem it will be great !! ) give me a reply.

One thing comes to mind:

XMMS or Totem may still be trying to output sound to arts, which you've disabled. Check the output preferences for them, and change them to OSS/ALSA (whichever you're using).

Might help.... might have already done that...

Are you getting any error messages at all? Check dmesg?

--Rounan

Thanks Rounan for the reply,

I only have OSS as output, cannot select anything else !!

I suppose Alsa can emulate Oss, so i also suppose sound should be there... but maybe i'm wrong.

No strange messages dmesg ok too.

Check mixer channels, make sure they're not muted?
Sorry man, I'm at a loss. If there aren't any error messages, outputs are OK, and still no sound.... no idea.

Thanks Rounan for your reply,

Taking the problem back to the root, i discovered a problem.

Alsa ask to chmod /dev/dsp /dev/mixer ... etc

I discovered that those were only links to /dev/sound/dsp ... /dev/sound/mixer and so on !!!


So i tried to chmod the above to 777 to be sure, the thing works but if i log in and out... things get back to the previous information!!!

Can i store chmod information and how ?? ( i use Mdk 9.2 and i used mdk control panel to change things but i discovered this was not changing much ). I have used command line to chmod with the above result.

Also do you know if i should change group ( from users to audio maybe ?? )

Thanks

Yeah, something must be resetting permissions at reboot, likely an alsa script.

The permissions should be rw for group audio, though, so if you do:
adduser (you) audio

it should give you access all the time.

And to clarify: you're not "changing" group - one user can be a member of multiple permission groups at the same time. you're just adding yourself to the audio group as well.

--Rounan

thanks again for all the information.

I know about permissions, the only think is not clear enough is :

If i use" ls" command for /dev/sound/dsp i have the following information ( more or less )

crw------- 1 myself audio ...

The thing is ... should i change audio to users, or keep it as it is?

Any idea where that script can be ( i have had a look but cannot find it )

Also, even when chmoding the sound was not there anyway ( the idea is should i have permissions right away after chmoding, or after a log in/ log out ? in that case as permissions are back to rw only for owner i cannot have sound anyway ? )

Thanks again

You may be able to keep your settings by doing the chmod in etc/rcd/rclocal .this may run the chmod script after everything else initialises . Ihave not tried this with chmod but it works for my joystick . best of luck

Regards sharkee

Thanks both of you !

i changed modules and now everything works ( don't ask how i did it )

Hi,

I'm a complete newbie (Linux installed a week ago), and had exactly the same problem with my system which is VIA8233. I had CD playing, and the line input worked. All inputs were set to max and un-muted.

As the CD, line, and speakers worked, I figured that this meant the sound card and its driver were sort of OK, but it wouldn't play anything from xmms, and although I had enabled all sounds, they didn't work either.

I tried playing a wav file in xmms (I used startup.wav) and set it to 'repeat'. At first it wouldn't even play the file until I fiddled about with the device it used which was 'PCM'. Then it was playing but still no output. I then realised that in my troubleshooting I now had 3 mixers installed - alsamix, aumix, and KMix. As I am using KDE I decided to keep KMix and get rid of the other 2. After a restart (sorry - old Windoze habits die hard), it all came up and worked OK. Arts still seems to be starting and is also OK.

I didn't need to fiddle with any permissions etc, and don't understand what went on yet, but I'm still learning!

Hope this may help others.

hello, I have the same problem with via8233, I'm not a total newbie, but I have never configured a sound card, so it is a problem for me.

Bravofoxtoruk, I will try your advise. What do you mean with the PCM device? What should I set there?

bibilit, how did you changed the modules?

Is there some generous way how to configure via8233 sound codecs? Does someone in Mandrake team know about this problem?

Thanks

Hi,

Sorry to keep you waiting, quite busy!!

Try first MDK control center and try to change from via module (via-82xx), to oss one (82cxxx) don't quite sure but similar.

Log out and in and try again.

You probably will have to change modules.conf file ( /etc/modules.conf ) to get things working.

I explain recently how i did it in another thread ( seek for bibilit on this forum ) i hope you will get your answers.

Something I came across while researching a totally unrelated topic:
Apparently, support for the VIA8233 was working in kernel 2.4.16, then "disappeared" until 2.4.20, when it came back.
Check your kernel versions with:
uname -r

I'd suggest upgrading to the latest 2.4 kernel, or the 2.6 series if you feel ambitious.

--Rounan