LinuxQuestions.org - alsa-mixer not loading

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alsa-mixer not loading

I've installed the nForce drivers for my sound card, but it never loads the alsa-mixer. I run alsactl restore and it doesnt load, i do alsaconf and it shows me my sound card and everything but I select it and it says itll start alsa up, and again another alsa-mixer error. When i run gmix it says no mixer elements loaded. What can I do to get alsa-mixer working? thanks

EDIT: now I get
"alsactl: load_state:1134: No soundcards found..."
when i try to alsactl restore, even though it detects my soundcard through alsaconf. So I guess I probably have to edit the alsaconf files manually, since they arent as easy to fool around with as the XF86Config-4 files, could someone give me a hand? It says I have a
"intel8x0 nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev al)" as a sound card (well thats the drivers name. In my /etc/modprobe.d/sound file I have:

Code:

options snd  device_mode=0660

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

Someone help me please...

Do you have OSS loaded? Remove it first.

I downloaded asla - oss so tecnically it should work with it. I'm not sure if I have oss. Could you tell me how to check it, and if I have it, how to remove it? thanks

alsa-oss is for OSS compatibility layer for ALSA. (keep that)

I had the same problem with you. What i did was, run modconf and remove the OSS related module (mine is at kernel/sound/oss). If you don't have modconf, just apt-get install modconf. And make sure you have alsa-utils and alsa-base too. After that, i type /usr/share/alsa-base/snddevices. And then, i run alsaconf and choose my card. I go to Desktop Preferences ==> Advanced ==> Multimedia System Selectors and choose ALSA from the drop down. I raised the volume from the Volume Control and it works.

I'm a newbie myself, but that's what i did and it works.

I also installed alsa along with a kernel upgrade (2.4.25 --> 2.6.6) on Debian Sarge, and I can't get the thing to work either.

Whenever I try to run alsamixer, I get the following:

Code:

localhost:/root# alsamixer

 alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

localhost:/root#

xmms will not play, the error is this:
Please check that your soundcard is configured properly, (etc)

I've set all the alsa settings in the kernel, and have installed alsa and alsa-utils. The modules load:

Code:

localhost:/home/auriga# lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

snd_seq                56848  0

snd_cmipci            38068  0

snd_pcm                92320  1 snd_cmipci

snd_page_alloc        13188  1 snd_pcm

snd_opl3_lib          13568  1 snd_cmipci

snd_timer              26372  3 snd_seq,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib

snd_hwdep              11552  1 snd_opl3_lib

snd_mpu401_uart        10752  1 snd_cmipci

snd_rawmidi            24864  1 snd_mpu401_uart

snd_seq_device        10760  3 snd_seq,snd_opl3_lib,snd_rawmidi

snd                    50532  9 snd_seq,snd_cmipci,snd_pcm,snd_opl3_lib,snd_timer,snd_hwdep,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device

ppp_deflate            9088  0

zlib_deflate          25368  1 ppp_deflate

bsd_comp                9472  0

ppp_async              14208  1

ppp_generic            30612  7 ppp_deflate,bsd_comp,ppp_async

slhc                  10880  1 ppp_generic

ax25                  65764  2

ipx                    33572  2

p8022                  5760  1 ipx

appletalk              39376  2

psnap                  7172  2 ipx,appletalk

llc                    10004  2 p8022,psnap

md5                    7808  1

ipv6                  262240  21

uhci_hcd              33040  0

ohci_hcd              21636  0

ehci_hcd              31492  0

usbcore                99676  5 uhci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd

evdev                  11520  0

cmpci                  45460  1

soundcore              11872  3 snd,cmpci

ide_scsi              18436  0

scsi_mod              75448  1 ide_scsi

8250                  24416  2

serial_core            24704  1 8250

parport_pc            28224  1

lp                    12068  0

parport                26304  2 parport_pc,lp

ntfs                  112748  1

nls_iso8859_2          8448  2

nls_cp437              9600  1

ide_cd                43396  0

cdrom                  41248  1 ide_cd

rtc                    15560  0

this is my /etc/modprobe.d/sound file:

Code:

localhost:/root# cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci

alias sound-slot-0 snd-cmipci

and this is /etc/modutils/alsa

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# cat /etc/modutils/alsa

### DEBCONF MAGIC

# This file was automatically generated by alsa-base's debconf stuff

 

alias char-major-116 snd

alias char-major-14 soundcore

 

options snd major=116 cards_limit=4

 

alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss

alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss

alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/dsp* snd-pcm-oss

 

alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci

 

alias snd-slot-0 snd-card-0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-slot-0

and I don't see any oss modules there aside from the ones created by alsa for reverse compatability, so that's not it either.

lspci -v | egrep audio returns the following:

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# lspci -v | egrep audio

0000:00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)

This is from dmseg:

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# dmesg | grep cmpci

cmpci: version $Revision: 5.64 $ time 21:08:19 Sep 29 2004

cmpci: found CM8738 adapter at io 0xd400 irq 17

cmpci: chip version = 055

cmpci: Enable SPDIF loop

The only clue I see is this:

Code:

localhost:/etc/modutils# dmesg | grep PCI

C-Media PCI: probe of 0000:00:09.0 failed with error -16

C-Media PCI: probe of 0000:00:09.0 failed with error -16

I've googled through tens of problems/answers regarding alsa but haven't found anything to solve this one.

Any ideas?

Same problem here

Hi, did you manage to solve your problem? I have exactly the same symptoms with my setup.

-jsl

If i remember correctly i got it to run with

Code:

apt-get install discovery2

Discovery2 is a program that detects your hardware and sets it up for you most of the time. I just ran that, rebooted. It runs at boot so it just set it up and i had it running in no time. Try it.

Quote:

Originally posted by bobbens
If i remember correctly i got it to run with

Code:

apt-get install discovery2

I'm having a problem similar to that above so I tried apt-getting it... and apt-get can't find the package. I tried

Code:

apt-cache search discovery

but didn't get anything useful out of it.

Right now I have onboard sound from my AC97 device and a SB Audigy LS that's got a chipset so different that it's not supported by ALSA - or barely.

Code:

CreativeLabs--;

So I'm relying on my onboard sound but it's chippy and I've got lots of random, annoying noises. alsaconf detects my card, same for sndconfig , but I get this message afterwards :

Starting ALSA.../etc/init.d/alsa: Error: alsactl restore failed with message 'alsactl: load_state:1134: No soundcards found...'.

Yay. So now I'm swimming in a sea of words like OSS, arts, alsa... I even had to reboot because I kept having system freezes followed by windows with this warning :

Error - artsmessage
Sound server fatal error :
cpu overload, aboring

Then I'd get my system back for another 20-30 seconds or so and begin anew.

I've a major sound problem now and I don't know how to solve it or even where to begin. So any clues, pointers and opinions would be appreciated.

sorry 'twas:

apt-get install discover

If that doesnt work i can look deeper into other things i did at the time. Good luck.

Yep, discover it was, I apt-got it now :) I'll reboot in a moment and will see if it really is pure magic ;)

if it doesnt work i can hook you up with some nForce drivers i just found on my hdd. I remember installing the nForce drivers, but still not getting my sound to work, then i pumped out discover and it pretty much settled all the hustle with oss and alsa. Best of luck