Need a little help with ALSA???

Southpaw76 · 12-15-2006, 11:58 PM

Hello all,
I have Slackware-11 installed on my Dell Dimension 4500. I am trying to get the sound to work but I don't seem to be getting anywhere

.
I'm using a SB Audigy2 Platinum, here's my spec's...

Code:

# lspci -v
02:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 04)
        Subsystem: Creative Labs Unknown device 1002
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
        I/O ports at d800 [size=64]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

02:0c.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy Game Port (rev 04)
        Subsystem: Creative Labs Unknown device 0060
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        I/O ports at dc00 [size=8]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 2

02:0c.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port (rev 04) (prog-if 10 [OHCI])
        Subsystem: Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
        Memory at ff9fe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
        Memory at ff9f8000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [44] Power Management version 2

...and my kernel setup

Code:

Linux-2.6.17.13
Sound-->
<M> Sound card support
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture --->
<M> Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
<M> Sequencer Support
<M> OSS Mixer API
<M> OSS PCM (digital audio) API
[*] OSS PCM (digital audio) API - Include plugin system
[*] OSS Sequencer API
[*] Verbose procfs contents
PCI devices --->
<M> Emu10k1 (SB Live!, Audigy, E-mu APS)

...and finally, my modules

Code:

snd_seq_oss            31360  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      6016  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                47824  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            39712  0 
snd_mixer_oss          16896  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_emu10k1           119972  0 
snd_rawmidi            20256  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_codec         91808  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_ac97_bus            2048  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                78216  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_device          6540  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi
snd_timer              20996  3 snd_seq,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          7944  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm
snd_util_mem            3456  1 snd_emu10k1
snd_hwdep               7044  1 snd_emu10k1
snd                    45924  11 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_seq_device,snd_timer,snd_hwdep

...My two main problems atm are :
a)I can't hear any sound when I try to play CD through XMMS
b)I can't hear any sound when I am on a web page that uses flash(I'm using Firefox2 with Flash9)

Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated, thanx...

vharishankar · 12-16-2006, 12:25 AM

Are you using KDE? If so, go to the Sound Server settings in KDE Control Center and try and play around with the settings. If you're not using any sounds in KDE or using any KDE apps to play sound, disable the KDE sound server and try - this will usually free up the sound resources for ALSA programs.

Southpaw76 · 12-16-2006, 02:43 AM

Sorry, I forgot to mention what window manager I was using. I'm using Fluxbox. I installed Slackware without anything KDE.

vharishankar · 12-16-2006, 11:30 AM

Second, did you run alsaconf, alsamixer to unmute the volumes and alsactl store?

Sometimes even if the correct modules are loaded, it doesn't necessarily mean ALSA is working properly. Usually alsaconf does the trick.

Southpaw76 · 12-16-2006, 02:01 PM

Did that too

....

When I used to use Gentoo, I was able to successfully run sound. However, if I remember correctly, it was stated that when using ALSA, one must either use the kernel driver or the driver package provided by the ALSA project. Although I began this endevour with ALSA compiled into my kernel, I then downloaded and installed the latest stable driver and utilities package from the ALSA project website...

alsa-driver-1.0.13
alsa-firmware-1.0.13
alsa-lib-1.0.13
alsa-oss-1.0.12
alsa-plugins-1.0.13
alsa-tools-1.0.13
alsa-utils-1.0.13

...I'm trying to read through all the already provided documentation (Again), to see if I overlooked anything

HaroldWho · 12-16-2006, 02:51 PM

Maybe I missed something, but have you used 'alsamixer' and unmuted your card? Everything is muted by default, and it's easy to overlook.

HW

cdale77 · 12-16-2006, 05:38 PM

had similar problems with ALSA and a Dell Inspiron 5150, slack 11, linux 2.6.19 (and 2.6.18)

It's been a while since I figured it all out, but I think I solved my problem by figuring out what sound card I had (turns out to be more of an Intel sound chipset), and then paying very close attention to the kernel config options in the sound section. I had to compile all the sound-related pieces as modules (compiling them right in didn't work), and I had to compile the correct modules for my chipset.

Southpaw76 · 12-16-2006, 07:16 PM

Yes, I did unmute all the channels HW. I went back and read over the doc's under my ~/alsa-driver-1.0.13 directory, and I basically followed it's direction's...

Quote:

Quick install
=============

1) You must have full configured source for the Linux kernel which you
want to use for the ALSA drivers. Note that ALSA drivers are part
of the kernel, so there is necessary to resolve all symbol dependencies
between the used kernel and ALSA driver code. Partly installed kernels
(for example from distributor makers) can be unuseable for this action.

2) You must turn on sound support (soundcore module).

3) Run './configure' script.

* General Options
If you do not want ISA PnP support, use --with-isapnp=no switch.
If you do not want sequencer support, use --with-sequencer=no switch.
If you do not want OSS/Free emulation, use --with-oss=no switch.
If you have udev or devfs and want to use more than eight cards, use
--enable-dynamic-minors switch.
If you want to turn on debug mode, use --with-debug=full switch.
If you want to debug soundcard detection, try --with-debug=detect switch.

* Kernel Source Tree
On 2.4/2.6 kernels, the location of the kernel source tree is
parsed automatilly from the running kernel.
If it's not in the standard place, specify the path via
--with-kernel=<kernel_directory>.
On 2.6 kernels, the build directory has to be given via
--with-build=<kernel_build_dir> option additionally, too.

* Drivers to Compile
The card drivers to be compiled can be selected via --with-cards option.
Pass the card driver name without "snd-" prefix. To specify
multiple drivers, list names with comma (,).
Passing "all" will compile all possible drivers (and this is the
default choice).
Some drivers have compile options. They can be passed via
--with-card-options option. Multiple options can be passed with comma,
too. The default is "all".
For available cards and options, see ./configure --help.

* Example
./configure --with-debug=full
./configure --with-cards=sb16,emu10k1 --with-card-options=sb16-csp
4) Run 'make'.

5) Run 'make install' as root.
If you have already a system with ALSA init script, you should install
just only modules via 'make install-modules' so that the existing init
script won't be replaced.

6) Run the './snddevices' script to create new sound devices in /dev directory.
Skip this step, if you have already /dev/snd/* files, or if you're
using a DEVFS or udev.

7) Edit your kernel module config (either /etc/modprobe.conf or
/etc/modules.conf, depending on the kernel version). If you are not
sure, what to do, you may try the alsaconf script available in
the alsa-utils package.

8) Run 'modprobe snd-xxxx' where xxxx is the name of your card.
Note: All ALSA ISA drivers support ISA PnP natively, so you don't need
isapnptools any more. Don't use both together. It will
conflict. For disabling the ALSA ISA PnP support, specify
--with-isapnp=no configure switch.

You can also look at the utils/alsasound file. This script is designed for
the RedHat distribution, but it can be used with other distributions which
use System V style rc init scripts.

Note: All mixer channels are muted by default. You must use a native
or OSS mixer program to unmute appropriate channels (for example a
mixer from the alsa-utils package).

Note: This document notices the /etc/modules.conf file. Many current
distributions uses the old /etc/conf.modules file. Both names are
valid.

...so after I did that, I ran
# alsaconf
# alsamixer
# alsactl store

After I rebooted, my settings were restored and when I popped an audio CD (F.Z. The Grand Wazoo), I still got no sound from my speakers. Even though both Xine and XMMS read the disc just fine, the visualization demonstrated an audio stream but still no sound

....

soldan · 12-16-2006, 07:17 PM

another thing u can try, is going into 'alsamixer' and actually mute the card (that is, set the card to 'MM', not '00', because ive got a soundblaster card and for some reason its the reverse, MM gives sound, and '00' mutes the card.

Southpaw76 · 12-16-2006, 09:05 PM

Yeah, I just tried that but still no go

...

vharishankar · 12-16-2006, 10:06 PM

First, it shows that ALSA is configured, but for some reason you get no sound.

Some things you might want to check to make sure:

1. Check your audio jacks and whether the correct outputs are connected properly to the speakers.

2. For playing audio CDs, are you sure you've connected your CD drive to the sound card? Otherwise you might get no sound.

3. Also try playing plain WAV files and MP3 files from the hard disk. Also make sure you've installed the necessary media codecs to play other formats as well.

Southpaw76 · 12-17-2006, 12:58 AM

Okay, I'm not exactly sure what I did but I'VE GOT SOUND!!!

I went ahead and started recompiling all my packages after the alsa-driver(alsa-firmware, alsa-lib, etc..etc..). Afterwards, I began switching the speaker cable between the three output jacks of my soundcard (after all this is a 6.1 surround sound card). At that point I went ahead and replayed my Zappa CD and viola! The strange thing though is that without ever having touched that cable under Windows the audio played fine

.

So there you go, at some point within the last 20 min I stumbled onto the solution, go figure

. Thanx again guys, for all of your suggestions.

vharishankar · 12-17-2006, 11:20 AM

Better document down the procedure, you might need it again