kde3.3 and system sounds

Having just upgraded to KDE3.3, and a relatively painless experience it was. A couple of niggles, but no great biggy, (swaret probs mainly) I have to say just how much it has improved it terms of performance. One problem though, I can no longer get system sounds. No login/logout sounds. No new mail notification etc. And if I hover my mouse over .wav files within konqueror, no preview sounds as previously. Also, no test sound from the KDE control centre. But, all sounds do work when clicked on, which launches the embedded Kplayer component.
Apart from this annoyance, everything is as it was before the upgrade, so anyone got any ideas what might be happening?

Something to do with arts then? Did you upgrade it? Is artsd running?

OK,
Set my soundsystem within the Kcontrol centre to /opt/kde/bin/artsplay, and now get login/out sound, BUT only if they are .wav files. Looking at the /opt/kde/share/sounds directory, it seems the 3.3 uses .ogg files. These don't play. Also the 'test sound' bar within the control centre does nothing, plus mouse hovering still doesn't play the file being hovered over.
Also, if attempting to start arts from the command line I get this:-
root@localhost:~# artsd -l0 -F10 -S4096
artsd version is 1.3.1
gsl: using Unix98 pthreads directly for mutexes and conditions
autodetecting driver:
- toss: 4
- esd: -1
- null: -1
- alsa: 15
- oss: 10
... which means we'll default to alsa
[artsd: 9108] SoundServerStartup --> got lock
ALSA driver: default
buffering: 4 fragments with 4096 bytes (audio latency is 92.9 ms)
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:494snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken pipe
Closing ALSA-driver
virtualize StereoVolumeControl
ALSA driver: default
buffering: 4 fragments with 4096 bytes (audio latency is 92.9 ms)
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:494snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken pipe
audio format is 44100 Hz, 16 bits, 2 channels
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop,)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Amarok,Amarok)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Arts,Arts)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Arts/Environment,Arts::Environment)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Noatun,Noatun)
addDirectory(/root/.mcop/trader-cache,)
can't register Arts::MidiManager
There are already artsd objects registered, looking if they are active...
xrun!!

ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:494snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken pipe

Error: Can't add object reference (probably artsd is already running).
If you are sure it is not already running, remove the relevant files:

/tmp/mcop-root/Arts_SoundServerV2
/tmp/mcop-root/Arts_SoundServer
/tmp/mcop-root/Arts_SimpleSoundServer
/tmp/mcop-root/Arts_PlayObjectFactory
/tmp/mcop-root/Arts_AudioManager

Synth_PLAY: closing audio fd
Closing ALSA-driver
[artsd: 9108] SoundServerStartup <-- released lock
root@localhost:~#
So I removed the suggested, and then I get this:-
root@localhost:~# artsd -l0 -F10 -S4096
artsd version is 1.3.1
gsl: using Unix98 pthreads directly for mutexes and conditions
autodetecting driver:
- toss: 4
- esd: -1
- null: -1
- alsa: 15
- oss: 10
... which means we'll default to alsa
[artsd: 9150] SoundServerStartup --> got lock
ALSA driver: default
buffering: 4 fragments with 4096 bytes (audio latency is 92.9 ms)
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:494snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken pipe
Closing ALSA-driver
virtualize StereoVolumeControl
ALSA driver: default
buffering: 4 fragments with 4096 bytes (audio latency is 92.9 ms)
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:494snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken pipe
audio format is 44100 Hz, 16 bits, 2 channels
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop,)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Amarok,Amarok)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Arts,Arts)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Arts/Environment,Arts::Environment)
addDirectory(/opt/kde/lib/mcop/Noatun,Noatun)
addDirectory(/root/.mcop/trader-cache,)
Arts::MidiManager registered successfully.
[artsd: 9150] SoundServerStartup <-- released lock


Does this mean then, that ALSA is broken?:

Have tried arts manually from within the /opt/kde/share/sounds directory. This is what happens:
e.g. artsplay 'file.wav', plays the .wav file.
artsplay 'file.ogg', no sound, no errors, just returns to the prompt

Now getting confused.

It looks like arts is already running.

So you definetely upgaded arts? Have you tried running "swaret --dep"?

I rarely use KDE, but I thought I'd check it out. I am having the same issue.

I upgraded to KDE 3.3.1 using SWareT. I made sure to run "swaret --dep" and that caught a library that I had missed. Checked out my /etc for .new files. Deleted all of the /tmp directory. Rebooted.

I use GDM as my login manger. I set the session to KDE. Logged in as root. No start up sound. Fire up xterm.

bash-3.00# ps ax|grep arts 2892 ? S 0:00 artsd -F 10 -S 4096 -s 60 -m artsmessage -c drkonqi -l 3 -f

So, arts is running (note, this was also upgraded via SWareT). Let's investigate some more. I click on K-> Multimedia-> More Applications-> Sound Server Control (aRts Control Tool). I click on View-> aRts Status. I get a popup menu that says:

Artsd is not configured for realtime scheduling or was manually started without artswrapper. The aRts sound daemon is suspended. Legacy applications can use the sound card now.

If I click on an mp3, noatun fires up and plays the song perfectly. Sound is working. Fire up the COntrol Center and go to the sound system. Clicking on "Test Sound" does nothing.

I logout and fire up Gnome. Everything still works great there. No problems with sound at all.

Didn't have any solution for this, but I just wanted to say that it looks like I have the same problem. It's not a big issue, since I rarely use KDE, but if a solution is found, I'd love to hear it.

Well I feel that it must be that Arts is broken. If I choose to use an external player (ogg123) in the KDE control panel, then my ogg files play, but if I try to play them directly using Arts, from the command line with artsplay 'file001.ogg' then I get no sound, and if I try from within Konqueror by clicking on the file I get this error:-aRts cannot load this file

So, anyone anymore ideas?

Update,
I have re-installed kaboodle (via kmultimedia) and libidn, and I now have ogg files playing when using aRts as the sound driver within the KDE control centre. The only thing left now is to figure out why I still get the error on .wav files if I ask to play them in the KDE embedded player, which was working until this re-install.
Also, niether kaboodle, nor noatun will load and play .wav files, though any other application does. It is my understanding that kaboodle is the embedded KDE audio player, so is this a bug withing KDE somewhere, and if so, does anyone know which module it might be?

A solution, if only temporary.
It looks as though there are some fundamental differences in the way that KDE3.3 handles your environment when compared with 3.2.
My temporary fix was to rename my .kde directory to .kde.old, then login again. This obviously set up a new .kde directory, and now all my system notifications/sounds/mouseover etc work correctly. A bit of a pain in the rear, as all my previous settings are of course lost.
I am now in the process of moving all of my config files from my old settings to my new setings to see what breaks.
Will try and update this when I find out what is going on.

Hey,

Have you found a solution yet?

If you have, please let us know!

Thx.

Hello.

I've had the same problem.
After I moved my kde config "~/.kde" to "~/.kde.old" I played around.
I found out that you must copy the new "~/.kde/share/config/knotifyrc" to your old kde config.
Move your old kde config to "~/.kde" and arts should work fine.

This solved my problem!

bye Ingo

I'm still stumped by this problem. I didn't fully understand the last set of directions. Can anyone elaborate on how they resolved this problem?

I think theoracle is saying knotifyrc is the problem.

Delete knotifyrc and restart KDE. It'll generate a new one.

Can anyone confirm that deleting the file knotifyrc works in getting sound back? I would like to know before I tempt to upgrade to KDE 3.3

Slovak & others:

Well, I too have the problem - although it wasn't brought to my attention till
reading this thread. (never really payed attention to the login sounds).

I renamed my ~/.kde to .kde.old

Restarted KDE and all my settings are gone, but sounds still do not work.

Nothing. mp3s play fine, but no notifications not wav's from testing the notifications.

So to answer your question Slovak - no. I can not confirm.

-tw

(it might be just me, but 3.3.1 does seem faster then 3.2 - more 'fluid' of a feel)

Well I'm going to stick with 3.2.3 because it works so far.