Frustrated newbie slackware user
 

ok so my husband installed slackware 9.1 on my desktop. he also installed kernel 2.4.22. since i have no idea what i am doing, i have to rely on him. the problem is that he never finishes anything. so i have been trying to learn on my own. i think im doing pretty good, but theres one problem i am having and i cant figure out.....i have absoluetly no sound. i tried to install numerous media players and none of them work. even when i go to a website that has sound, i get no sound. could it be my kernel or another problem that i am overlooking? and if it is the kernel, can someone suggest one that i should use? thanks so much.

nikki

Your kernel is probably not the problem. What sound card are you using? a simple modprobe command will enable sound, just gotta know what kind of card so we know which module to use. Let me know. onboard sound - built in ( if that is the case then I need your motherboard name) or if its a pci - an actual card you plug in ( then I need the manufacturer and model number) also what distribution of linux you are running.

If this isn't it, I'd defer back to Rico, but this may well be the very common problem of not running 'alsamixer'. Type that into a prompt and make sure 'master' and 'pcm' (at least) are unmuted (hit 'm' if they are) and turn them up to a reasonable level. If it works and you like it, do 'alsactl store' as root.

yes... try that first, then let us know.

Welcome to LQ in the first place :)

Another thing to consider :}

(Maybe this changed in Slack 9.1?)
By default slack doesn't give users
permissions to /dev/dsp* and /dev/mix*
which means that they don't get any
sound :)

Cheers,
Tink

try logging in as root and seeing if your sound works in other words.. then let us know

I had access as a user to sound running Slackware 9.1 from the get-go.

Only problem that I had was that (when I opened xmms) the volume control was set to zero. After I moved it up, I had sound.

Yep, Jeramy's got it.
When you reboot your Slackware PC, by default, the sound is set to zero, if you are using xmms just turn it up with the scroll bar.

what about using alsamixer and then running alsactl store???????

ok.LOL i feel like such an idiot, but it's ok cuz at least im learning on my own.
i am not quite sure what sound card i am using...all i know is a couple of months ago, we installed slack9.0. sound worked fine. then we put 9.1 on and now i have no sound. i have xmms and every time i open it, it freezes so i have to kill it and then i cant pull it up again. i checked my alsamixer and low and behold, everything was muted. so i fixed that. but still nothing. if i use orpheus, i can listen to a cd, but when i go to websites where sound is usually heard, i dont hear anything. you guys had really great advice and i thank you all soooooooooooooooo much for being so nice to a newbie.
BUT, one last question.....can anyone recommend a really good file sharing client? i cant get aMule or soulseek to work. I am thinking about updating to the new 2.6 kernel.....good idea?

much love,
nikki

what is the output of lsmod also lets check out lspci i think both of these need to be run as root. This will tell us if you already have modules loaded for sound. and the latter if linux is detecting a sound card in a pci slot.

also make sure you try to see if after you are logged in as root if your sound works. by default i think slack 9.0 doesn't let regular users have sound priviledges. one more thing, in alsamixer make sure that your master and your pcm are unmuted and turned up. ( i don't know if you checked both of them or just master) m key is to toggle the mute. but let me know the output of those two commands i mentioned a second ago if these two ideas don't work.

Please, copy and paste the output of
lspci -v
and
lsmod
here ....
Also, check
ls -l /dev/dsp*
ls -l /dev/mix*

I'd recommend giFT (with the ncurses front-end), or
GTK-Gnutella...
As for the kernel ... I'd personally stay clear of
it for a while, just because it's so new... if you
can't find any MUST HAVE features in 2.6, stick
with 2.4.22... it's very robust and mature.

Cheers,
Tink

Did you install a new kernel, or install Slackware all over again? When I tried using 2.6.7test series kernels, I lost sound. Turns out that it completely removed my /dev/dsp /dev/mixer, and the like. I'm just sticking with 2.4 right now until Slack9.2 or Slack10.0 comes out....

yea, your sound and most anything out there should work just fine with the kernel you have. I'd just wait till the next slack release.