No sound for users in openSUSE 10.3, but root is OK

Cogar · 10-21-2007, 07:57 PM

I recently upgraded from openSUSE 10.2 to 10.3 and now the sound will not work when logged in as as either of two users. It worked fine with versions 10.0 and 10.2, and it works fine with 10.3 when logged in as root. The user belongs to the audio group and yes, the volume is turned up. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Nick_Battle · 10-23-2007, 06:59 AM

A related thread suggests:

"Try these permissions

chmod 666 /dev/mixer
chmod 666 /dev/mixer0
chmod 666 /dev/dsp
chmod 666 /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa
chmod -R 666 /dev/snd
chmod -R 666 /dev/sound"

That's a bit heavy handed. I'd check first what permissions and owner/group the files have. It's very likely to be a permission problem if it works for root and not users. If the users are in the audio group, then either the device or configuration files aren't, or they are but aren't group-readable.

I'd also check what the udev system does with permissions. The /dev files should be created dynamically, so a manual fix as above may be overridden at the next boot.

HTH,
-nick

Nick_Battle · 10-23-2007, 07:02 AM

This site tells you about udev rules and permissions, in case that's relevant:

http://www.reactivated.net/writing_u...html#ownership

-nick

Baloo_PNW · 10-23-2007, 11:17 PM

I had the same problem
I added my user to the audio group and that fixed it for me

Cogar · 10-23-2007, 11:20 PM

Thank you for the reply Nick. I checked the files and the permissions seem to look OK. Here is an example:

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 14, 3 2007-10-23 20:05 dsp

There is one thing that I can't remember--the meaning of the + sign on the end. I did a Google search for it and looked in a reference book and did not find anything, although I recall battling this before (although I can't remember where). It appears on essentially all of the audio-related files you listed except these:

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 420 2007-10-23 20:05 snd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5345 2007-09-21 16:39 alsasound

Since snd is a directory, that should be OK, and all the files in that directory have the format:

crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 6 2007-10-23 13:04 midiC0D0

I suspect that alsasound is a configuration file, so it makes sense that it assigns group permissions to root.

Nick_Battle · 10-24-2007, 04:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cogar

There is one thing that I can't remember--the meaning of the + sign on the end. I did a Google search for it and looked in a reference book and did not find anything, although I recall battling this before (although I can't remember where).

Yes, it's very difficult to google for "+" isn't it! :^)

This indicates that there are extended ACL permissions on the files. I suspect this is the root of the problem. Although the regular permissions look OK, presumably the ACLs are set such that only root can access the files.

Have another google for POSIX ACLs in Linux. I found:
http://www.suse.de/~agruen/acl/linux-acls/online/ which may help. You should be able to remove the extra permissions, unless they're there for a good reason.

Cheers,
-nick

Cogar · 10-25-2007, 02:24 PM

Thanks again Nick. I poked around with umask and not discovered any cures yet. I will keep looking into the issue.

Nick_Battle · 10-26-2007, 02:57 AM

I think you just want "setfacl -b" - ie. return the files to base permissions and remove all ACL extended permissions. umask only comes into it when you create new files, not access existing ones.

HTH,
-nick

auxsvr · 10-26-2007, 10:08 AM

Are you able to use USB sticks normally (mount them in KDE)? What is the output of 'getfacl /dev/dsp'? Does 'rcresmgr status' return 'running'?

Cogar · 10-26-2007, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by auxsvr

Are you able to use USB sticks normally (mount them in KDE)? What is the output of 'getfacl /dev/dsp'? Does 'rcresmgr status' return 'running'?

Yes, USB sticks behave properly.

---

getfacl /dev/dsp output:

Code:

getfacl: Removing leading '/' from absolute path names
# file: dev/dsp
# owner: root
# group: audio
user::rw-
user:cogar:rw-
group::rw-
mask::rw-
other::---

---

rcresmgr status output:

Code:

Checking for resource manager:

Cogar · 10-26-2007, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nick_Battle

I think you just want "setfacl -b" - ie. return the files to base permissions and remove all ACL extended permissions. umask only comes into it when you create new files, not access existing ones.

HTH,
-nick

OK. I don't have the time to do it right now with all the various files, but I will do so when I do have the time.

auxsvr · 10-27-2007, 12:39 AM

Type 'rcresmgr start' as root. This service needs to be started to handle device permissions via ACLs. You shouldn't remove the ACLs (they'll be reset on login anyway).

jschiwal · 10-27-2007, 03:14 AM

If you add the regular users to the audio group and run "alsaconf" and then set your mixer settings, you may get audio working.

The permissions of /dev/dsp and /dev/snd/* were correct to begin with. This is an indication that udev is working because it is what added your username to the acl when it was dynamically created.

Cogar · 10-27-2007, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by auxsvr

Type 'rcresmgr start' as root. This service needs to be started to handle device permissions via ACLs. You shouldn't remove the ACLs (they'll be reset on login anyway).

OK, I did that and it now shows as "running."

Cogar · 10-27-2007, 05:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jschiwal

If you add the regular users to the audio group and run "alsaconf" and then set your mixer settings, you may get audio working.

I also use Arch on this computer and that is the method I used for it (and it is behaving normally). Although I normally use YaST to set up sound in SUSE, as a check, I tried it with openSUSE and it did not work.

---

I also looked into reconfiguring sound with YaST again. I have three card models that appear is YaST:

Intel ICH5
P4P800 Mainboard (the board is actually a P4C800-E Deluxe)
Santa Cruz (the card is a PCI Turtle Beach Santa Cruz)

When I choose the "Edit" option for the Intel ICH5 card, the configuration window disappears--as though the application is immediately killed.

When I choose the "Edit option for the P4P800 Mainboard, regardless of the option I choose, I get the following message:

Quote:

An error occurred during the installation of P4P800 Mainboard. The kernel module snd-intel8x0 for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.

The configuration for the Santa Cruz card appears to work normally, but when I connect the speakers to that card (which I no longer use normally), I get no sound from it either—and that includes when logging in as root.

Incidentally, the Intel ICH5 “sound card” works when logged in as root, but that is all that is working.