Insignia USB Laptop Speaker Bar (NS-SPKBAR) isn't found when plugged in

Dennola4 · 02-28-2010, 07:48 PM

Hey there,

bought this speaker bar thing at Best Buy and realized only after getting it home that it specified: "for Windows blah blah blah and Mac OS". I guess I can return it and get my $33.00 back, but I'd love to see it work on my Dell Inspiron 6000. Certain MP3's and games with heavy bass are blowing my poor little pc speakers out.

Any suggestions?

MS3FGX · 02-28-2010, 09:47 PM

I would be very surprised if it wasn't just a regular USB audio device. What do the kernel logs say when it is connected?

Dennola4 · 03-01-2010, 10:12 AM

The logs show it:

Code:

usb 5-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 5-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
input: C-Media Electronics Inc. Insignia USB sound bar as /class/input/input9
generic-usb 0003:046D:0A0B.0002: input: USB HID v1.00 Device [C-Media Electronics Inc. Insignia USB sound bar] on usb-0000:00:1d.3-2/input2
usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio

(entire output of dmesg HERE)

So.....now what?

MS3FGX · 03-01-2010, 02:35 PM

Does it have buttons on it? Perhaps that is why it comes up as a HID device.

But the last line shows it has been recognized as USB audio:

Code:

usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio

So according to that it is detected and the driver is loaded already. It should now show up as an output device in any software that uses ALSA. So you would go into your media player or whatever application, and in it's settings you should be able to pick between the default sound device and the USB Audio.

Where you expecting it to do something different?

Dennola4 · 03-01-2010, 04:04 PM

Does it have buttons on it? Perhaps that is why it comes up as a HID device.

No it doesn't have a power button.

So according to that it is detected and the driver is loaded already. It should now show up as an output device in any software that uses ALSA.

Yes, it is detected. When I use the GUI for the Alsa Mixer I see the device listed as a soundcard. I choose "select controls" and the only control offered is PCM. So I check the box, turn it all the way up, and unmute it.

So you would go into your media player or whatever application, and in it's settings you should be able to pick between the default sound device and the USB Audio.

I just went into Mplayer's settings and did not see an option to switch to this device. Further, I would like to be able to make it the default audio output device for my box, as well as to be able to switch back to internal speakers if I need to.

Were you expecting it to do something different?

I only expect it to work, which is has when I have plugged it into a Windows machine, but it has not yet worked on my Zenwalk box.

Dennola4 · 03-04-2010, 01:05 PM

Because this thread died I tried another forum (Zenwalk support), and between it and IRC Freenode I got a solution. Rather than retype it all, I will just post a link (sorry if this is questionable etiquette):

http://tinyurl.com/y9g85j3

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