[SOLVED] Slackware 13: No sound for notifications or Amarok, but command line and xmms are OK

warmana · 09-02-2009, 06:30 PM

[Solution found. Details added to the end of the thread.]

I have a clean (full) install of Slackware 13 on a Thinkpad T21. It's not a modern machine, but runs steadily (I'm using it now for this posting). Everything I've tested so far seems to be working well, except some audio.

The system starts in command line mode (inittab = 3). Logging in as a user (with audio group membership), and running tests like:
aplay /usr/share/sounds/k3b_success1.wav
... and ...
ogg123 /usr/share/sounds/Kopete_Event.ogg
... all work fine.

I go into KDE by running startx. There are no audio notifications. Opening a terminal and running the above command line tests still work fine.

Using the System Settings tool to test sound card configurations produces no audio output at all.

Using File Manager to locate and run audio files works fine - xmms is started and plays the test files no problem. When I load those same files into an Amarok playlist, and try to play, the 'fuel gauge' shows that the track is being played, but there is no audio output.

I've tried Google searching for KDE audio troubleshooting, but haven't found anything so far - a lot of the hits were for KDE 3.5, so not really appropriate.

No error messages appear in the system error logs.

Suggestions for testing and fixing the problem would be very welcome.

Thank you.

-----
Some hardware details:

uname -a gives
Linux t21 2.6.29.6-smp #2 SMP Mon Aug 17 00:52:54 CDT 2009 i686 Pentium III (Coppermine) GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

lspci gives
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24/30 [CrystalClear SoundFusion Audio Accelerator] (rev 01)

slackass · 09-02-2009, 07:39 PM

Try this:
K-menu>multimedia>Mixer>select controls>Master Front
Turn up volume
works on my system.

CrowTRobot · 09-02-2009, 08:04 PM

When using KDE, are you logged in as root or a normal user?
If you're logged in as a normal user, try launching a sound program (like amarok, kmix, etc...) from a terminal and see if any messages appear about not having permission to access certain devices.

alexiy · 09-03-2009, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrowTRobot

When using KDE, are you logged in as root or a normal user?
If you're logged in as a normal user, try launching a sound program (like amarok, kmix, etc...) from a terminal and see if any messages appear about not having permission to access certain devices.

Hi,

I also have such kind of problems with my slackware13. No sound, kmix doesn't work, KDE doesn't save its configs like folders view, terminal doesnt save its profiles so on, obviously it is permissions issue but how to solve this? All this stuff happens when I'm logged as not root. But when I'm root - no any problems at all!

In case of kmix when I click a button to increase volume on my laptop it simply crashes w/o any complains as to permissions

alexd@darkstar:~$ KCrash: Application 'kmix' crashing...
sock_file=/home/alexd/.kde/socket-darkstar/kdeinit4__0

May be I'm running kde wrongly somehow? Or maybe HAL prevents something (also I updated configs to allow plugable devices mounting and wicd start)

Can somebody advise how to solve the issue?
May be I have to assign myself a group like adm or sys?

warmana · 09-03-2009, 02:25 PM

Thank you for the suggestions so far. Sadly, no success to report yet.

I tried the 'K-menu>multimedia>Mixer>select controls>Master Front' suggestion. Some of the settings were low, but nothing significant. When I tried running:
xmms /usr/share/sounds/KDE-Sys-Log-Out.ogg
from a terminal window, I was almost deafened by the volume, so ordinary applications are working fine.

It's just the official KDE notifications (and Amarok) that remain totally silent.

No error messages appeared in the terminal window when I tried running Amarok on the test .ogg file. Amarok *looks* like it's playing the file - but no sound.

Thanks again.

warmana · 09-03-2009, 09:32 PM

Solution:

Change the backend engine used for audio output, as follows:
K -> System Settings
Click General tab
Click Multimedia in Computer Administration section
Click Backend tab
There are two backends: Xine and GStreamer. Select GStreamer, then click the Prefer button so that GStreamer is top of the list.
Click Apply.
Click 'Device Preference' tab.
Select 'default' for Output Device Preference.
Click 'Test' to confirm that sound works.
Click the Prefer button to move 'default' to the top of the list.
Click the 'Apply Device List To...' button.
Click OK.
Click Apply.
Exit from System Settings, and exit from KDE.
Go back into KDE; all being well, a startup notification is heard.

abionnnn · 10-02-2009, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by warmana

Solution:

Change the backend engine used for audio output, as follows:
K -> System Settings
Click General tab
Click Multimedia in Computer Administration section
Click Backend tab
There are two backends: Xine and GStreamer. Select GStreamer, then click the Prefer button so that GStreamer is top of the list.
Click Apply.
Click 'Device Preference' tab.
Select 'default' for Output Device Preference.
Click 'Test' to confirm that sound works.
Click the Prefer button to move 'default' to the top of the list.
Click the 'Apply Device List To...' button.
Click OK.
Click Apply.
Exit from System Settings, and exit from KDE.
Go back into KDE; all being well, a startup notification is heard.

Interestingly, I had done that, the startup notification was heard upon restart and yet the system sounds do not occur at all. I'm using an ALC888 Analog, its very odd. (xmms et al all work)

Do you know where the log files for all these issues are?

cwizardone · 10-02-2009, 01:23 PM

Admin., please delete.