[SOLVED] Currently no sound on smtube running in AntiX 17

hazel · 05-21-2019, 07:14 AM

This is part of the continuing saga of my friend who messed up an installation. I have gradually added most of what was lacking but we still have no sound. She only uses the sound for Youtube videos (smtube). I hardly ever use sound at all and know almost nothing about it!

When smtube is run from a terminal, it reports problems with .alsaequal.bin. We also had these errors:

Code:

ao/sndio can't open stdio default
[ao] Failed to initialise audio device -> no sound
problem with control file .alsaequal.bin

It also complains about not finding /dev/dsp. What package creates that device? Google suggests that it's an oss thing, but I have /dev/dsp on my LFS system and that only has alsa, not oss.

Is it safe to delete .alsaequal.bin and let the software recreate it?

I've tried using aplay to play some of the .wav files in /usr/share/sounds and I also get that .alsaequal error. If I run aplay as root, there are no errors but no sound either! I've also checked with alsamixer and everything seems to be active.

rokytnji · 05-26-2019, 10:51 PM

Giving this a bump because I don't know where things are screwed up. I have none of the above problems in my 64 bit antix chromebook.

Code:

harry@biker:~
$ locate .alsaequal.bin
/home/harry/.alsaequal.bin
harry@biker:~

Just showing where mine is located. Does soundtest work OK in antix control center?

fatmac · 05-27-2019, 04:59 AM

Maybe, re install/update smtube, (someone else had to do that lately), or purge & re install alsa (?).

hazel · 05-27-2019, 06:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

Maybe, re install/update smtube, (someone else had to do that lately), or purge & re install alsa (?).

Right. I'll try that next time I go round to her place. In the mean time, I have told her to delete that corrupt configuration file. After all, it wouldn't have been there the first time she used alsa, and seemingly it got created on the fly, so the same thing can be done again.

Roky, I have a working smtube on my AntiX laptop too. But that was a normal install, she had an abnormal one. I've been taking advantage of it to show her how Linux lets you fix things as you go along. We installed the whole desktop by hand! I haven't done that (outside of LFS) for years, not since I had a bad upgrade in Crux. This is the only thing that still needs doing.

fatmac · 05-27-2019, 07:54 AM

Another possible is

Code:

sudo apt-get -f install

should fix any broken packages.

rokytnji · 05-27-2019, 11:28 AM

Ok. I am going through the same thing myself hazel with my wifes Asus Windows 10 laptop that went belly up and I erased all the drive and put MX on it.

Thread over here : https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?f=107&t=50525

All I can think of right now is md5sum ok on original iso install?
Reinstalling smtube should not hurt. If me. I would use the remove config files also option in synaptic. Before reinstalling smtube. Instead of keeping old ones. That might be where she played in the deep end of the pool.

I use apt-get -f install from time to time on my gear also.

Edit: I reported the coaching class post. Must be opportunity post of some sort. Maybe a future spammer?

hazel · 05-27-2019, 11:36 AM

Yeah, I already reported that one. The class is a sort of English as a foreign language.

rokytnji · 05-27-2019, 11:46 AM

Just thought of this. Maybe she messed with settings in smtube is all? Easy to do and forget where original settings were.

screenshot

Shadow_7 · 05-27-2019, 02:02 PM

Loading the snd-pcm-oss will enable/create the /dev/dsp device. Or at least the /dev/dsp0, might still need to manually link /dev/dsp to it depending on your setup and versioning. But that's very old OSS (pre-alsa) stuff. The alsaequal.bin thing is interesting. And not necessary since you're probably not doing EQ through alsa. I'd probably move / rename / delete any $HOME/.alsa* or $HOME/.asound* stuff and see if that fixes it.

hazel · 05-28-2019, 10:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_7

Loading the snd-pcm-oss will enable/create the /dev/dsp device. Or at least the /dev/dsp0, might still need to manually link /dev/dsp to it depending on your setup and versioning. But that's very old OSS (pre-alsa) stuff.

That's a kernel module, right? It may be old, but smtube seems to need it.

rokytnji · 05-28-2019, 01:53 PM

I'm back again. On this fresh install on my wifes touchscreen laptop that I am trying to convince my wife Linux is good. Just launched smtube in it.

Code:

holly@mx:~
$ inxi -b
System:    Host: mx Kernel: 4.19.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 
           Distro: MX-18.2_x64 Continuum Apr 7  2019 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: Q302LA v: 1.0 serial: <root required> 
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Q302LA v: 1.0 serial: <root required> UEFI: American Megatrends 
           v: Q302LA.203 date: 05/15/2014 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 44.1 Wh condition: 45.0/50.1 Wh (90%) 
CPU:       Dual Core: Intel Core i3-4030U type: MT MCP speed: 898 MHz min/max: 800/1800 MHz 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Haswell Mobile v: 4.5 Mesa 18.2.6 
Network:   Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7630e 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter driver: mt7630e 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 5.89 GiB (1.3%) 
Info:      Processes: 188 Uptime: 1h 12m Memory: 5.71 GiB used: 1.38 GiB (24.1%) Shell: bash 
           inxi: 3.0.33

I did a

Code:

 sudo updatedb

to make sure mlocate/locate was populated with info. But

Code:

holly@mx:~
$ locate .alsaequal.bin
holly@mx:~

returned nothing. So to compare

Code:

holly@mx:~
$ apt-cache policy smtube
smtube:
  Installed: 18.11.0-0.1~mx17+1
  Candidate: 18.11.0-0.1~mx17+1
  Version table:
 *** 18.11.0-0.1~mx17+1 500
        500 http://la.mxrepo.com/antix/stretch stretch/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo stretch/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     15.5.10-1+b1 500
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian stretch/main amd64 Packages
holly@mx:~

Just In case MX version is different from what AntiX carries.
Just realized I did not test yet . Opened a video. Got sound. Now to updatedb and check locate alsaequal.bin again.

Code:

holly@mx:~
$ sudo updatedb
holly@mx:~
$ locate .alsaequal.bin
holly@mx:~

Hmmmm. Maybe newer version of smtube or MX uses a different way of running it.
Anyways. More info cannot hurt.

rokytnji · 05-28-2019, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

That's a kernel module, right? It may be old, but smtube seems to need it.

Maybe lsmod may mention something? As far as being a kernel module anyways.

Shadow_7 · 05-31-2019, 04:48 AM

The alsaequal was probably in a configuration file. And the error being that it could not find it. Not that any of that applies on a fresh install. But you could egrep the "contents" for alsaequal if it's still an issue.

$ egrep -r -i alsaequal ./*

hazel · 06-03-2019, 04:49 AM

So here I am again! We have established that, with the corrupt file removed, we now have sound through the headphone socket. No way of checking the back output because my friend doesn't have any speakers.

Youtube works via Firefox. Using smtube, it sometimes works and sometimes gives weird messages about "forbidden operations". I have no idea why. At least we are not getting those dsp errors any more. They must have been caused by the corrupt alsaequals file. Just for luck, I removed smtube and reinstalled it. We'll see how it goes from here.

ondoho · 06-04-2019, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hazel

Using smtube, it sometimes works and sometimes gives weird messages about "forbidden operations".

does it use youtube-dl as the backend?
if not, it should.
and if it does, it should be updated A LOT, outside of $PACKAGE_MANAGER (fortunately the youtube-dl binary comes with an option to do just that).
youtube-dl is the only community project that keeps up with the api-changing-game esp. youtube likes to play, in near-real-time.