Hey there.

Here is whut i done. i bought a soundblaster 16 pci from Best Buy today to set up my box with sound. but when it plays under xmms. it is very quiet and when the sound is turned all the way up, it sounds terrible.

so i did an lsmod and it showed that the module ens1371. i thought it would be the emu10k1 or similar. so, i tried with alsa. downloaded the stuff - did an alsa config - it also found it to be an es1371 card. it sets it up and says that everything is ok, but when i try any alsa mixer, it says that it cannot find a card. ok.

i am on debian sarge. 2.4.5, and also 2.6.6 ( same issue in each )

if anyone can help, please do....

thanks all

Could you post the output of lspci and lsmod (after running alsaconf)? Are you sure this card is PCI and not ISA?

OK - here is what i get after lspci .......

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-751 [Irongate] System Controller (rev 23)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] AMD-751 [Irongate] AGP Bridge (rev 01)
0000:00:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 04)
0000:00:04.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 14)
0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 06)
0000:00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6202 [USB 2.0 controller] (rev 06)
0000:00:07.4 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 10)
0000:00:0c.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB12LV23 IEEE-1394 Controller
0000:01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 86C326 5598/6326 (rev 0b)

And here is what lsmod had to say........
Module Size Used by
ipv6 254624 6
tsdev 7328 0
mousedev 10068 2
psmouse 20424 0
sis 50624 2
af_packet 22376 2
eth1394 20936 0
ohci1394 35364 0
ieee1394 110872 2 eth1394,ohci1394
uhci_hcd 31632 0
usbcore 108060 3 uhci_hcd
8139cp 20672 0
snd_ens1371 24224 0
snd_rawmidi 24704 1 snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device 8200 1 snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm_oss 54436 0
snd_mixer_oss 20096 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 98148 2 snd_ens1371,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 11460 1 snd_pcm
snd_timer 25380 1 snd_pcm
snd_ac97_codec 65188 1 snd_ens1371
snd 54692 8 snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_ac97_codec
pci_hotplug 36400 0
amd_k7_agp 7852 1
evdev 9536 0
es1371 37312 0
soundcore 10336 2 snd,es1371
gameport 4704 2 snd_ens1371,es1371
ac97_codec 18956 1 es1371
8139too 25984 0
mii 5120 2 8139cp,8139too
crc32 4320 2 8139cp,8139too
parport_pc 35008 0
parport 41832 1 parport_pc
agpgart 34152 2 amd_k7_agp
capability 4100 0
commoncap 7200 1 capability
ide_cd 43268 0
sr_mod 17732 0
cdrom 40384 2 ide_cd,sr_mod
rtc 12760 0
ext2 72456 0
ext3 126184 1
jbd 62008 1 ext3
mbcache 9348 2 ext2,ext3
ide_disk 19872 3
ide_generic 1408 0
via82cxxx 14524 1
ide_core 149696 4 ide_cd,ide_disk,ide_generic,via82cxxx
sd_mod 21600 0
ata_piix 7972 0
libata 42080 1 ata_piix,[permanent]
scsi_mod 122252 3 sr_mod,sd_mod,libata
unix 28560 72
font 8320 0
cfbcopyarea 3840 0
cfbimgblt 3040 0
cfbfillrect 3776 0


hope this helps. i think i would really like to get alsa running right instead of OSS, but right now i think that i would settle for anything that sounds good.

thanks for your time and attention

OK it looks like it's an ensoniq chipset. I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily. Run alsamixer and make sure all of your volumes are set to no more than about 85%. That may solve your problem. You shouldn't really set your volume to 100% since it will distort most times.

No, Ensoniq cards were quite good; I still have an ISA Ensoniq card that I can't use anymore .

When you run alsamixer make sure all of the mixer controls are unmuted and the volumes are raised, not just the Master (excepting Microphone, if you don't have one, of course).

Having the Master turned up but Video, PCM, and CD turned down could result in the "very very quiet" issue that you report.

ok here is whut happened...
i did an apt-get install of a couple of alsa mixer apps
when i try to run one of them they all give me the same error --
" function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

i don't know - it appears to find a card at boot, and durring alsaconf, but then looses it?

ok, thanks for your help - whats your advice ?

How did you install ALSA? Did you install ALSA-lib and ALSA-utils as well? The mixer app "alsamixer" is included in ALSA-utils and depends on ALSA-lib. As far as I know, alsamixer is the only mixer app that handles ALSA correctly.

Well, I kind of think we're getting off-track, for starters.

If you get even "very very quiet" sound from XMMS and it "sounds terrible" when the sound is turned up, then the card is configured and working. If it was not, you would get crashes in XMMS, and errors on startup indicating that no sound card was found.

"A couple of alsa mixer apps"? As far as I know, there is only one alsamixer (or amixer); it is part of the alsa-utils package. Maybe you mean alsaplayer? Not helpful in this situation.

I question whether ALSA is properly installed. Did you install 3 packages; alsa-drivers, alsa-libs and alsa-utils? And they were all the same version?

Unfortunately, www.alsa-project.org seems to be down again (at least I can't connect to it), or I would link you to the instructions for installing ALSA for your particular sound card.

However, my general impression is that your sound card is detected, and ALSA may have installed the drivers, but those drivers are not being loaded, as these
look like the OSS drivers loaded by the kernel. The ALSA driver is apparently snd-audiopci, according to Alsa-sound-mini-HOWTO: Loading the driver. You might want to read this document in its entirety at http://www.tyneside.lug.org.uk/LDP/H...ound.html#toc7 .

If you're really using the OSS drivers as you appear to be, you should try raising mixer volumes in aumix rather than alsamixer, and see if that helps you.

Maybe you should post the contents of /etc/modprobe.conf so we can see what drivers are being loaded and if the settings for ALSA have been entered there.

That could be a problem too. You've got both ALSA and OSS loaded at once. Unload OSS and try again.

um, ok.. aumix is what i used to set the volume of settings because i couldn't get any alsa mixer program to run. It
tells me that it can't find an alsa soundcard. i suspect that having the OSS drivers loaded at the same time by the
kernel is a problem, but i dont know how to disable the OSS drivers short of recompiling a new kernel and leaving
the OSS drivers out of it.

Can i permananently remove the OSS drivers ?

It may be an Ensonique chip 5880 but it really is a soundblaster.

since i got sound to work at all. i wonder if i need different speakers. The ones i have do not plug into the wall for power
but they still sound great with the SB soundcard that i used to have. dont know, i dont think that should make a difference
perhaps it does.

ok, lemme know what my next move should be.

thanks

well to temporarily remove OSS just do an rmmod es1371 as root. Then check to see if there's any difference. To permanently disbale OSS take out any mention of "es1371" (not "snd-es1371") from /etc/modules and /etc/modules.conf (or modprobe.conf for 2.6 kernels).

well, i got sound set up right in ALSA ! getting rid of the OSS modules is what hooked me up. i can do more with the card now, but it still sounds bad at anything louder than about 70% on volume. it is perhaps a function of the speakers. the last sound card i had just seemed to put out more power than this one, but i can use that soundcard with this motherboard because those slots are not on this one. These speakers only plug into the sound card, not to an external power source. Do newer cards require more amplification than what this does ?
ok, thanks for all of your help, i can at least hear again, but let me know if you have any suggestions.
and thanks again, you guys are great

Some onboard cards can be really crappy. Mine is an onboard and starts to distort around the high 80's.

Yeah, well, this one isn't an onboard ( on the motherboard ) sound card, but one i purchased at Wally World ( walmart ). i am going to pick up some more powerfull speakers today and see if that helps.

i will let you know.