ALSA problem (u r my last hope) !!

gaffel · 07-26-2004, 04:23 PM

Hi One ManArmy

I've been trying to get Alsa to work on my Debian set-up for ages. I recently updated to sarge and installed the 2.6.6 kernel, expecting Alsa to work, but nothing!!

I have gone through similar situation to yourself, run alsaconf etc. Becuase I am running 2.6 kernel I know the drivers are there. My modprobe.conf is full of Alsa settings, and still nothing.

But then....... I read this thread and followed the link recommened by zajelo3.
I thought that all my OSS drivers were removed, they weren't.
My /etc/modules file needed modifying to remove the 'sound' entry and the entry for my spoundcard 'in my case ens1371' : Here is my /etc/modules file

Code:

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a "#", and everything on the line after them are ignored.

usb-ohci
input
usbkbd
keybdev
#es1371  to remove the oss driver soundcard
#sound  to remove the oss drivers
parport
mousedev 
psmouse
ne2k-pci

I rebooted and hey presto, alsa is working straight away. Just type alsamixer to get a mixer up, unmute the channels and I have sound-sweet-sound piping from my computer.

So, there is hope, and zajelo3 - thank you very much, I've been scratching my head on this for ages.

OneManArmy · 07-26-2004, 06:09 PM

Guess what gaffel?
It was the same exact problem as yours and solved exactly as you said.
Actually,I knew I had to comment the sound modules in the /etc/modules
file to avoid loading them on bootin. But The problem is that the trident
module was surounded with commented stuff which gave me the
illusion that it was commented as well

.
I commented the trident module,rebooted and ......off u go

The trident module didn't show up when booting and it said like
it was black listed or something.
Anywayz.........thanx 4 u all for your help.
This forum rocks

webvandals · 08-11-2004, 09:21 PM

Not me :-(

Here's what I tried:

1) Removed *all* sound related modules
2) Used modconf to add soundcore module
3) Ran alsaconf

Here;s what happened
1) alsaconf detected my ens1371 sound card
2) alsaconf said it had configured my soundcard properly
3) alsa said this:
Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Restoring ALSA mixer settings ... failed:
You may want to run 'alsactl restore' manually to view any errors.
Setting default volumes...

I've tried *everything* but I *always* get this error message (for months now).

Any ideas?

Debian SID (Mepis), 2.6.7 kernel, alsa 1.05

OneManArmy · 08-12-2004, 03:49 AM

could you post the contents of /etc/modules ?

webvandals · 08-12-2004, 03:53 AM

Code:

root@370[kdewebdev]# cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line.  Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.

apm
apm
soundcore
root@370[kdewebdev]#

Looks a bit strange, huh?

OneManArmy · 08-12-2004, 04:07 AM

looks quite empty ! Anyway, I think you need to install (using modconf)
the "snd" and "snd-pcm-oss" which you can find under /kernel/sound/core.
As far as I remember, ALSA uses some OSS emulation stuff so it needs
that "snd-pcm-oss" module.
Hope this helps.

webvandals · 08-12-2004, 04:14 AM

The weird thing is, those modules are already installed -- I think running alsaconf did that. So does anyone know why these things don't appear in my /etc/modules? While we're at it, how come I've got 'apm' listed twice?

I'm still no closer to getting alsa working though :-(

Any ideas/thoughts greatly appreciated!

webvandals · 08-12-2004, 04:17 AM

Oh... here's an lsmod in case that helps:

Code:

root@370[kdewebdev]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
snd_pcm_oss            55048  0
snd_pcm                98756  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc         11752  1 snd_pcm
snd_timer              25668  1 snd_pcm
snd_mixer_oss          20096  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd                    56644  4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mixer_oss
soundcore              10336  1 snd
ide_cd                 43332  0
cdrom                  40352  1 ide_cd
capability              4520  0
commoncap               7200  1 capability
ipt_MASQUERADE          3840  1
ipt_state               2080  11
ipt_REJECT              6912  5
ipt_LOG                 6592  13
ipt_limit               2528  15
ip_nat_ftp              5008  0
ip_conntrack_ftp       72276  1 ip_nat_ftp
iptable_nat            25100  3 ipt_MASQUERADE,ip_nat_ftp
ip_conntrack           35392  5 ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_state,ip_nat_ftp,ip_conntrack_ftp,iptable_nat
iptable_mangle          2880  0
iptable_filter          2880  1
ip_tables              18432  8 ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_state,ipt_REJECT,ipt_LOG,ipt_limit,iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter
agpgart                34152  0
nvidia               2075144  12
vmnet                  30448  12
vmmon                  49464  0
ipv6                  255488  8
parport_pc             35008  1
lp                     11204  0
parport                41832  2 parport_pc,lp
af_packet              22376  0
ds                     18532  0
yenta_socket           21440  0
pcmcia_core            68132  2 ds,yenta_socket
dm_mod                 44960  0
rtc                    12760  0
nls_cp437               5696  1
e100                   32608  0
mii                     5120  1 e100
natsemi                24960  0
crc32                   4320  1 natsemi
thermal                12656  0
processor              17264  1 thermal
tsdev                   7328  0
mousedev               10444  1
fan                     3980  0
usblp                  13024  0
joydev                  9888  0
evdev                   9568  0
button                  6296  0
battery                 9388  0
ac                      4812  0
usbhid                 32768  0
floppy                 61204  0
uhci_hcd               32880  0
ohci_hcd               21796  0
usbcore               114784  6 usblp,usbhid,uhci_hcd,ohci_hcd
udf                    94308  0
ntfs                   93292  1
reiserfs              245424  0
romfs                   8932  0
isofs                  35416  0
vfat                   14656  0
msdos                   9696  0
fat                    46688  2 vfat,msdos
ext2                   72392  0
ext3                  127144  2
jbd                    62264  1 ext3
mbcache                 9348  2 ext2,ext3
ide_disk               19264  6
ide_generic             1408  0
piix                   13440  1
ide_core              142808  4 ide_cd,ide_disk,ide_generic,piix
unix                   28624  620
fbcon                  27460  72
font                    8320  1 fbcon
vesafb                  6656  1
cfbcopyarea             3840  1 vesafb
cfbimgblt               3040  1 vesafb
cfbfillrect             3776  1 vesafb
root@370[kdewebdev]#

Thanks guys!

OneManArmy · 08-12-2004, 04:42 AM

it seems from your lsmod that your sound card module is missing. you need
to install it using modconf.

Part of my lsmod looks like that (my soundcard is ali5451):
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Code:

snd_ali5451            25224  1
snd_ac97_codec         70020  1 snd_ali5451
snd_pcm                98756  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ali5451
snd_page_alloc         11752  1 snd_pcm
snd_timer              25668  1 snd_pcm
snd                    56644  8 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ali5451,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore              10336  1 snd

webvandals · 08-12-2004, 04:56 AM

Wow! Hey cool!! Thanks guys!

I thought alsaconf was supposed to install it for me. But you're right, I just needed to add the soundcard module and now Rythmbox is rawkin'!!!

Hooray!

Thanks!

Hooray again!!!

OneManArmy · 08-12-2004, 05:08 AM

g8...im happy 4 ya

zajelo3 · 08-12-2004, 03:56 PM

Good to see you have sound now. I totally missed the sound card module not being loaded. Next time I'll look at my set up closer. But don't feel bad, there's a lot of talk on the alsa-user mailing list about how hard it is to get alsa going on the 2.6 kernel, and most of those guys are professionals. Most of them are still using the 2.4 kernel, as the 2.6 kernel is just now getting up to the specifications that they need for professional audio work.

webvandals · 08-12-2004, 09:35 PM

Okay, this is going way off topic but...

I used to be a sound engineer back in NYC and as much as I love using Linux for my day to day desktop, I frankly can't imagine using anything other than a Mac in the recording studio simply because these kinds of issues *practically never* happen on a Mac and every minute of studio downtime is insanely expensive.

I can just imagine telling the producer, the asst. engineers, the band -- "hey y'all? uhh... this might take a while. I think I'm gonna have to recompile my kernel for alsa... tick-tock... tick-tock..." :-)

Anyway, I'm really curious... are there any pro audio guys out there really using Linux in the studio?

zajelo3 · 08-12-2004, 10:45 PM

Yes there are pro's using Linux for pro-audio. But your concerns are well founded, because Linux as a pro-audio tool, be it at a live gig or in the recording studio, is still in its infancy. Most of the apps are still beta, and the coders that write the programs are so busy, that they really don't have time to keep the documentation up to date. If your serious about use Linux in pro audio the best thing to do is to subscribe to the "linux-audio-users@music.columbia.edu" list and just jump in and get your feet wet. There is a thread going right now about the sad state of documentation for Linux audio apps and one thought was, just as you said, that you really can't ask professional's to wait while you get something working (or read the doc's) that should already be working. Another question linux pro audio users are asking is "Are Linux pro audio applications always going to be by geeks for geeks?", in other words "What will it take to get to the point where a regular pro-audio person can just use a app and not have to be a computer programmer?" Alot of the people on the list use Linux in conjunction with other OS'es because they realize that the Linux pro audio scene is just starting. It is fun to watch it as it progresses, but it's not ready to replace your mac just yet.

wensveen · 09-07-2004, 05:32 PM

Hi all,
I have been having problems with ALSA too. Everything worked fine until a few weeks ago my sound stopped working.
I have checked most fora but couldn't find a solution.
The problem seems to be that alsa only loads the 'snd' module, but not all the others up to snd_cmipci. When I load snd_cmipci manually everything works fine and a workaround is to put it in /etc/modules. I never had to do this though and I think the loading of snd should in turn load other modules too.
Before I posted here, I had modutils and module-init-tools both, but now I only have module-init-tools.

Any ideas?
Regards, Matthijs.

PS. Oddly /etc/modprobe.conf is empty, is this right?

beast:~# ls -l /etc/modprobe.d/
total 28
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4677 Aug 20 16:47 aliases
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 264 Aug 23 13:47 alsa-base
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 23 14:48 arch
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9 Aug 23 14:48 arch-aliases -> arch/i386
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 484 Jul 16 22:11 bluez
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 363 Feb 21 2004 crypto
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 58 Sep 8 00:03 sound

beast:~# cat /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm && /sbin/modprobe snd-pcm-oss
install snd-mixer /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-mixer && /sbin/modprobe snd-mixer-oss
install snd-seq /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-seq && /sbin/modprobe snd-seq-oss

beast:~# cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cmipci

beast:~# cat /etc/modprobe.conf

beast:~# cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line. Comments begin with
# a "#", and everything on the line after them are ignored.

# RealTek 8139c
8139too

#usb & usb mouse
uhci_hcd
hid

#sd_mod