How come I can play music when logged in as a user but i get no sound when i logg in as root?

try adding all sound related items (users) to group root.

good luck.

Because you are not supposed to login as root to do casual things like listen to music. Many distros disable various things for the root account because there are security issues regarding logging in as root and obviously to protect your system from any mistakes you can make. Root is supposed to be an account strictly for administering the system and not for normal use. When logged in as a normal user, use the "su" command in a terminal to temporarily switch to root. If you are not so good on the command line, you can start apps as root by doing "kdesu appname" whilst logged in as a normal user.

Thank you Much!
That is a relief!

root SHOULD have access to sounds to notify you of errors, etc, should you wish this.

linux is NOT windows-- we are ALOUD to do what we want here

also i forgot, put root in ALL audio type groups-- and reboot.


ps. i work in root alot, which is no biggy if your not connected to the net and / or have firewalls setup.

no use in being paranoid.. if someone REALLY wants to get into your system, they will, whether you are root or not. i protect myself enuff to keep kids and someone by accident getting into my stuff.

valid backups are your (everyones) friend.

good luck.

Yeah it is not windows no need to reboot logout and back in again for the changes to take effect.

ok! I know that i have tons of tutorials, (man pages etc..)
But it IS a little difficult, 'For ME at least to access the 'man pages' useing a terminal. It still requires certain commands to get the page your looking for.

What I am getting at is...Assuming that your talking about using the terminal to "add all sound related items (users) to group root", I dont have a clue about how to go about doing this!

Also, I gave all of you the wrong info in my initial post! My sound WAS working when logged in as 'user', but now it's gone!
I have no sound period! I pulled up the sound interface and the box marked "enable sound" was checked, as user as well as root.

IM LOST!

I agree with you that Linux is not Windows and thats why it has its security model for a reason. Personally I don't see why root would need any sound at all if you are logging in to do system administration and not casual things you can do as a normal user. It seems like many people are approaching Linux with a Windows mentality that they need to be administrator whilst using the system. They can do what they want with their installations, but it's essential to think about why Linux works the way it does or why a distro setup things in a certain way.

if your still using suse 9.3 then you need to get the patched version which fixed sound.

also the sound server needs to be on for 'system sounds' to take effect, and you need to tell it that you want 'system sounds' to occur.

'man pages' are accessed by simple typeing: man (name of program) in a terminal.

run alsaconfig, then set your sound (volume).

run a song or movie while you set the volume up so you'll know when sounds are working.

all these commands are easy to find if you look (because each window manager is different, i can't list them all hear now).

tell us a little more about your system.. ie; kde or gnome and if your sound ever workd.

is it a 'on board' sound card, or pci (ie in a slot)?

*Happy Tux, that is just not true, there are times it is good and safe to reset the linux os by rebooting for changes to take effect. that is not the same as 'having' to reboot, which i never implied.

i agree that NORMALLY someone (ie the average person, or admin) does not, or maybe even should not, for whatever reason, have or need sounds working... or be logged in as 'root' admin.

however, i do a lota os designing and it would just not be practical for me to continueally 'loggin' as root for every litle thing to do (especially if i'm not on the net or have plenty of firewalls behind me).

therefore when i 'stay' in root while i'm working, i like to listen to peercast, or whatever other sounds i think need/want to listen too-- and i feel quite comfortable with this, and have never had a problem.

at least we agree that with linux we can have this agrument

Im Sorry! I need to update my profile. Ive been playing 'Musical Distro's'
. Ive installed and dumped alot of systems in the past. (get kinda frustrated at times with all the configuring and errors) Must have 30 os's on cd in my desk!
Im currently useing Mandriva 2006, downloaded, dual boot with WinXp.
Yes, Im useing an onboard sound device, I think its a very common device Ac 97, something like that. Realtek i think. and yes origonally, I had sound.
But, the other day, I slipped a 'Dynotec' sound card into a pci slot, but could never get it working, even in windows so i gave up, but never removed the card. I installed it and booted to windows for the installing of the driver and thats that...never worked, still installed.

take out the dynotec (while the pc is OFF).

Yeah, after thinkin about it, your right thanks! cant i just disable it somehow for now useing the sound configuration utility?

OK! I'm going to definately pull out the dynotec tomorrow. but in the mean time, i was poking around in the terminal and found this:



snd_seq_dummy 3524 0
snd_seq_oss 33024 0
snd_seq_midi_event 6880 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 51504 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss 50368 0
snd_mixer_oss 17952 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_via82xx 25728 2
gameport 12744 1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec 85180 1 snd_via82xx
snd_pcm 83812 4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 22596 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 9384 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 7040 1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi 21312 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 7884 4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd 48644 14 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,s
nd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_
device
soundcore 8256 1 snd

The 'Via82' ac 97 is the integrated sound device on my board. i dont see anything about the 'Envy24' which is the pci sound card! the 'via' is what i want. I was hopeing that someone could take a lokk at this and see if you can spot a problem. if so, can it be corrected? I Know,..."TAKE OUT THE CARD!"

well hold on then.. i didn't realize you wanted to use the new card still.

have u done any research on it's compatabilities with linux?

maybe the card is bad (is it new?).

have you tried running alsaconfig?

also check your bios AND mobo for a switch to disconnect the onboard card... unless you want to try and run both.. which in either case, lets make sure the dyno card is actually functional first.