[linux-audio-user] system plays cdrom, put not audio files

[tim hall]

Last Sunday 12 December 2004 09:26, ed orphan was like:
> Asus A7N8X motherboard on-board sound circuit.
> nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler
> Slackware 10  kernel 2.4.26    ALSA
> KDE Control sound system is set to autodetect
>     The sound  worked 2 days ago, but then, bang!
> Won't play audio files no more. Somebody ( not me! ) must have
> goofed up somewhere. ( Well, maybe me, I don't know )
>     The cdrom plays audio CDs Ok with KDE KsCD player
> so I know something is working right. But the nForce2 AC97
> sound mixer must have AUX set high. The Master Volume
> and PCM on the mixer have no effect on cd-rom volume.
> But no programs play audio files, including the usual
> KDE system sounds the mouse used to make.
>    I have checked all the /dev devices and they all
> look good. The correct driver ( snd-intel8x0) is loaded.


>    When KDE starts it gives an error message:
> "Sound server Error while initializing the sound driver
> device fault can't be opened for playback ( no such device)
> The sound server will continue, using the null open device."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

> /usr/bin/audacity  in KDE gives this warning when
> starting up:
>   "There was an error initializing the audio I/O layer.
>   You will not be able to play or record audio."
> Try to play a loaded file and audacity says:
>     "Error while opening sound device. Please check the
>     output device settings and project sample rate."
> The Gnome Wave Cleaner is also silent and hangs
> when I press the play button.
>      The Sox play comamnd is silent.
> I have tried all kinds of changes to /etc/modules.conf
> to the ALSA settings and used the alsaconf command
> a few times too, but my knowledge is limited and nothing
> good happens.  This is my  /etc/modules.conf
>
> # --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
> # --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.5 ---
> alias char-major-116 snd
> alias char-major-14 soundcore
> alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
> alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
> alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
> alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
> alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

options snd  device_mode=0660
options snd-intel8x0 mpu_port=0x330 index=0

> alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0
> # --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
Except you'll need to add the two lines above if you want MIDI support.
Otherwise this is correct.

>  These are my  loaded modules  ( lsmod )
> Module                    Size       Used by         Not tainted
> snd-seq-midi               3488   0  (autoclean) (unused)
> snd-seq-midi-event      3264   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi]
> snd-seq                33424   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi      
> snd-seq-midi-event] snd-pcm-oss            37736   0
> snd-mixer-oss          12504   0  [snd-pcm-oss]
> usb-ohci               19240   0  (unused)
> ehci-hcd               17580   0  (unused)
> usbcore                59308   1  [usb-ohci ehci-hcd]
> forcedeth               9164   1
> snd-intel8x0           18924   0
> gameport                1420   0  [snd-intel8x0]
> snd-pcm                56072   0  [snd-pcm-oss snd-intel8x0]
> snd-timer              13604   0  [snd-seq snd-pcm]
> snd-page-alloc          6328   0  [snd-intel8x0 snd-pcm]
> snd-ac97-codec         49500   0  [snd-intel8x0]
> snd-mpu401-uart         3200   0  [snd-intel8x0]
> snd-rawmidi            12740   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-mpu401-uart]
> snd-seq-device          3888   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
> snd                    30852   0  [snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq
> snd-pcm-oss s$ soundcore               3396   4  [snd]
> ide-scsi                9328   0
> agpgart                43940   0  (unused)

Looks normal.

>  One day it works great, the next day its crap. I don't know
> what happened. Anybody got any ideas?

Sounds like the KDE sound server is interfering with ALSA, didn't they fix 
that thing? Turn it off from kcontrol > Sound & Multimedia >Sound System - 
uncheck the box marked 'Enable the sound system' so all the options grey out.

That should sort it. ;-)

If you actually _want_ the system sounds then you'll have to 'Enable' it and 
configure appropriately. Do yourself a favour, if so, and download a decent 
sound theme - http://kde-look.org/content/show.php?content=12584

cheers

tim hall
http://glastonburymusic.org.uk