Distro: Suse 9.1 Pro
Desktop: KDE 3.4.0 Level "a"
Kernel: 2.6.5-7.151-default

I'm having a problem hearing system sounds (e.g. KDE startup, or KMail notification)... The interesting thing is that I don't seem to have any problems listening to music using Xmms, or Juk. I can even load the sound file for the notification into Juk or Kaffeine and play it with no problem. As far as I can tell, all volume control has been set to as high as possible using KAMix.

Anyone have any ideas why system notification sounds aren't working?

Try doing the following, then tell me if it worked/failed:
run 'kcontrol'
Click on 'Sound and Multimedia'
Click on 'System Notifications'
Click on 'Player Settings'
Click on 'Use an external player'
Click on the textbar, and write in 'artsplay'
Click OK, apply, and close kcontrol. Try opening a few windows, try using apps that make sounds etc..see if it works basically.

this thread post #29
there are other issues from the 3.4 update covered here too.

DaBlade,

Thanks for the suggestion... Unfortunately, it didn't seem to help.

Are there other external players I can try?

piscikeeper,

I went to the link you suggested, tried to do what you suggested, but was having trouble understanding the output... You suggested in that thread to:

So, I ran startkde, got some output:

./startkde: line 1: kde-config: command not found
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

xset: unable to open display ":0.0"
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

xsetroot: unable to open display ':0.0'
./startkde: line 192: lnusertemp: command not found
./startkde: line 196: lnusertemp: command not found
./startkde: line 200: lnusertemp: command not found
./startkde: line 203: dcopserver_shutdown: command not found
startkde: Starting up...
./startkde: line 232: ksplash: command not found
./startkde: line 242: kdeinit: command not found
startkde: Could not start kdeinit. Check your installation.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

Error: Can't open display: :0.0
./startkde: line 259: kwrapper: command not found
startkde: Shutting down...
./startkde: line 269: kdeinit_shutdown: command not found
./startkde: line 270: dcopserver_shutdown: command not found
./startkde: line 271: artsshell: command not found
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.


I then ran test -n "$KDEWM"&&KDEWM="--windowmanager $KDEWM",

no response

Then I ran kdeinit +knotify and got some more interesting output:

kdeinit: Shutting down running client.
---------------------------------
It looks like dcopserver is already running. If you are sure
that it is not already running, remove /root/.DCOPserver_nitrogen__0
and start dcopserver again.
---------------------------------

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

kded: cannot connect to X server :0.0
DCOP aborting call from 'anonymous-5427' to 'kded'
kded: ERROR: Communication problem with kded, it probably crashed.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

kdeinit: Can't connect to the X Server.
kdeinit: Might not terminate at end of session.
Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

knotify: cannot connect to X server :0.0
DCOP aborting call from 'anonymous-5429' to 'knotify'
ERROR: Communication problem with knotify, it probably crashed.

and finally I ran kwrapper ksmserver $KDEWM and got:

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

Xlib: connection to ":0.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

ksmserver: cannot connect to X server :0.0

I'm not sure what all of this means... but from first glance it doesn't look good! Can you help me decipher this?

Thanks!

Jon

just open startkde with a text editor(kwrite works) and scroll towards the bottom.after the test -n line add kdeinit +knotify.

Ok, this worked for me:-
As root, open : /opt/kde3/bin/startkde

Look for the line: LD_BIND_NOW=true kdeinit +kcminit

I changed it to:

LD_BIND_NOW=true
kdeinit +kcminit +knotify

The "kdeinit +kcminit" is now underneath, with +knotify added.

Save & close, then restart KDE.

HTH.

Thanks for the help. It worked like a charm!

Thanks radarman, that seems to be the solution.

I saved my old startkde and appeared something like that.

Is this a typo from the developpers?
Pretty annoying, hope they'll fix it.

Thanks for your help