Sound in Slackware
 

Please excuse the newbie question. Ok, so I have Slackware 8.1 set up properly, kde works, etc, but the problem i have is that i have no idea how to configure the sound card. from doing /sbin/lspci -v i found out i have the following card: http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...hp?product=651 . Now i have no idea what to do next to set it up.

Thanks, Nick

you basically need to unmute the sound.
try running "kmix" in kde, or alsamixer as root to unmute the sounds.

.stan

thanks for the suggestion, but that wasnt it. i opened kmix, then tried to play a cd, and still no sound.

do you have alsa installed If so run alsaconfig as root that should set it up your sound for you. then run alsamixer to set the volume

no i dont have alsa, what exactly is it?

alsa is a sound server.
http://www.alsa-project.org/
Read there for a bit more description.

i have the same sound chip running on slackware 9.1 perfectly...

i know slackware 9.1 comes with alsa support out-of-the-box, perhaps 8.1 doesn't...

alsa-utils (i think that's what the package is called) comes with a tool called "alsaconf"... basically you just run "alsaconf" and it detects and sets-up your sound card... then you usually just run "alsamixer" to set the volume and then "alsactl store" to store the settings...

what should i do if alsaconfig returns that it can not find any sound cards? by the way, my /sbin/lspci -v sais the following about my sound card:

try this (it works on my box, with the same card):

modprobe snd-cmipci


that's for alsa, i think for oss (the old standard) it would be like:

modprobe cmpci


have you thought about upgrading to slackware 9.1??? IT'S VERY GOOD.

=)

hey thanks, modprobe cmpci worked, and now i can adjust the volume with the sound mixer that comes with linux, but still when i play a cd, etcf there is no sound :(

okay if "modprobe cmpci" works but "modprobe cmipci" doesn't, then that probably means you're using oss instead of alsa...

=(


what are you using to play cds???

make sure the analog audio cable from the cd to the soundcard is correctly hooked-up...

but if you're using xmms to play cds make sure it's configured to use the oss output plugin and make sure you have a cd-reading plugin enabled... remember you don't mount audio cds so you wouldn't look for the songs in /mnt/cdrom but instead in /dev/cdrom, for example...

once again, i'd strongly suggest upgrading to slackware 9.1, if you can... it's well worth it...

do the kde/gnome sounds work???

hmm strange, sounds for things like aMSN work, but i dont hear any sounds while using kde, and io still cant hear playing cd's :(

about upgrading to 9.1, does it take alot of time, and would i ahve to reconfigure everything again?

in kde's control center there's a part for configuring the sound system... try playing with that...



slackware 9.1 usually manages to configure your audio, video, and network automagically during the install with almost no human intervention, so i'd have to say it's really not very painful to install...

in a way, it's even easier than mandrake... lol...

hey thanks, il take a look at sound config.
but what i meant with is it hard it setup, is will i have to reformat, etc, then install fresh, or can ijust upgrade from 8 to 9.1?

i'm not sure if you can "upgrade" slackware from 8.x to 9.1, but it might be possible...

perhaps one of the other subscribers to this thread knows how that works...

honestly, i've never done it, and probably never will (a version upgrade), i'd do a fresh install with the new version, mainly for psychological reasons, lol... although i'm sure there are also technical benefits to doing it the clean install way...

of course before doing the clean install i'd backup not only my documents but also certain configuration files (apache, squid, iptables, samba, dhcpd, etc...) so that i wouldn't have to re-configure that stuff again...

damn, this is annoying, i looked around the sound seetings, to no avail. it sucks when only amsn's sounds work, atleast i nkow that my sound card is set up properly. so are there any other suggestions as to why this doesnt work?? by the way, i added the following to my /etc/rc.d/rc.modules:

C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738:
/sbin/modprobe cmpci

under "Sound Support", is this correct?

yeah, that entry in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules should do it (oss)...


what's the output of "lsmod" now?


is arts running??

ps aux | grep arts


you posted earlier that alsaconf wouldn't find your card... what version of alsa are you running???

let's have a look at /etc/fstab, and just checking, do you have a cable running from the cdrom to the motherboard? (had to ask :D )

if your sure you have the sound cable running from the cdrom to the motherboard(sorry had to check) then it's probably a permission problem. if your /etc/fstab looks like this (note: i've only included the relevant parts)

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0

you'll need to edit it as root to look like this (note: again, only relevant parts, donot edit any other lines as it may render your system unbootable, and do not restart your system after making changes)

/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0

the easy way to make this change is to logout as your normal user, login as root, and use whichever text editor your comfortable with. another safer way is from a terminal(from your normal user account) to

pico is a text editor from the command line, i like it, and use it frequently, but, it takes a little gettting used to. you have to be comfortable w/the keyboard, and forget about your mouse. if that's too much for now, just use the first method described, and, post any success/failure. we'll get you listening to cd's.
good luck.

nick_krym: Emerge alsa-utils and emerge alsa... then type alsamixer... goto all sound levels and type m to unmute them and then bring up all sound levels to about 49. Some sound levels will not be able to be moved and that is ok. Hope this helps :)

emerge??? ummm... it's slackware, not gentoo...

oh..slackware? sorry

haha thanks everyone, after editing /etc/fstab all sound is working :) once again PEACEDOG saves the day

*edit* sorry for not replying for awhile, but i think we are in different time zones and i was sleeping

glad you got it sorted, happy slackin.
good luck.

i jus have one more question:
what exactly did i do? and why does my cdrom have anything to do with the soud of my system?

your /etc/fstab mounts the disks/drives listed in it. changing the owner(which is root) to user allows the user access to the drive. the cdrom itself had nothing to do w/system sounds, but, the drive was mounted on boot by root, so you have no access to it. hope that makes sense.
good luck.

i'm curious: how did changing /etc/fstab make it so that "all sound is working"???

why did editing the cd-rom entry in /etc/fstab affect kde's or gnome's sound system???

it didn't, it only affected the ability to hear the cd. take a look back at post #10, and 12. the system had sound, just not the cdrom. hope that clears it up. :)

well, from post #12:

"sounds for things like aMSN work, but i dont hear any sounds while using kde, and io still cant hear playing cd's"

so i figured the problem wasn't only with the cd player, but also with the kde sounds...

anyways, i'm glad it's working now...

i assumed if sound worked for aMSN once the module had been loaded, that the kde system sounds just weren't set to on. sorry, for the confusion on my thought pattern, and i'm glad it's working also.

hi, i have basically the same problem > no sound in slack 9.1
when i run alsaconf it gives an error of no supported PnP or PCI cards.
It is an onboard sound card , i can find the model somewhere if it's required.
I have no sound at all, any ideas? Would i need to find drivers or something??
thanks -John

what does /sbin/lspci -v tell you about your sound card?

hi johntramp, you'll get better attention, if you start your own thread, stating your specific problem. if i were you, i'd start a new thread, w/a tilte like no sound in slackware. you'd also do well to go ahead and post some specifics, i.e. system specs, mobo, sound card, etc. also the output of

/sbin/lspci -v

and the output of

lsmod

w/all of that info, in a newly created thread, you should have some help soon.
good luck.:)

i have done that PEACEDOG... http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=167500

thx for the update, i'll head on over there, and see if i can help. :-)