stef

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Free 2008.1 (x86_64)
KDE 3.5.9


Hi,

A week ago (see previous posts) I was having problems with sound and
getting the following error message on boot (I must have messed something
up trying to troubleshoot/re-configure sound):

Error while initializing the sound driver: device: default can't be opened
for playback (Invalid argument) The sound server will continue, using the
null output device.

So, to resolve that error I disabled PulseAudio and Automatic routing from
ALSA to Pulse Audio (Enable 5.1 sound with PulseAudio was disabled by
default.)

That made the boot error above go away (but I don't believe disabling the
Pulse options was correct.)

I would like to re-enable the defaults (i.e. Enable PulseAudio and
Automatic routing from ALSA to PulseAudio) but am concerned of doing it
with X Server up and perhaps should do it from a console login only.

(Trying to re-able the above settings from GUI I was previously giving me
error messages that sound is already being used by such and such
application and thus could not change the settings as they were locked
and I was unable to unlock them with X Server up.)

What would be the best way to re-enable the "default" settings of:

PulseAudio (enabled)
Automatic routing from ALSA to Pulse Audio (enabled)

I don't believe Enable 5.1 sound with PulseAudio should be enabled--even
though I really don't quite know what I am talking about re. sound--just
trying to get back to "default settings".

Thanks.


(Here is the basic setup:

$ lspcidrake -v | fgrep -i AUDIO
snd_hda_intel : Intel Corporation|82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio
Controller (vendor:8086 device:284b subv:17aa subd:20ac)

$ grep sound-slot /etc/modprobe.conf
alias sound-slot-0 snd_hda_intel)

evodawg

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Still having problems with this I see. Like I mentioned earlier that Intel
HD Audio Controller has had problems from my research. I also mentioned I
bought a cheap C-Media card for $10.00 with surround sound and all the
bells and whistles and it works great. Just thought it might be a
alternative.

--
"You can lead them to LINUX
but you can't make them THINK"
Running Mandriva release 2008.0 free-i586 using KDE on i586

aragorn

I don't have a recent Mandr* distro on this machine, and the sound chip on
this machine is different from yours. In addition, I'm also having a
problem here with the KDE notifications and /artsd,/ which also seems bound
to use the null device now.

It happened after I tried to play a sound as a "preview", and I couldn't be
bothered with checking it out as it was never a priority on this machine -
I have sound in other applications and I can listen to my music collection,
so that's good enough for me.

Yet I will try to give it a go, for as much or as little as I know of the
sound subsystem. ;-)

The error message you are describing seems to indicate that there may be a
permissions problem on a couple of device special files. So you may want
to check the following...:

*/dev/dsp* - it's a symlink on mine, pointing to */dev/dsp0*
*/dev/sequencer - similar to above
*/dev/mixer - similar to above again

Check their permissions - they should be /crw-/ for your account - or if
they are not owned by you, see whether you are in the audio group and
whether that group has /rw-/ permissions.

I would indeed try fixing it from a character mode commandline console,
without X running. It might also be useful to examine the /init/ scripts
pertaining to sound and see what exactly they are trying to do or access,
and in what way.


The 5.1 thing is just Dolby 5.1 Surround sound, for when you have a 5.1
speaker set, i.e. five speakers (2 front, 2 rear and a central speaker,
plus a subwoofer).

If you've only got two speakers or perhaps a 2.1 system as I myself have -
i.e. left, right and subwoofer - then you don't need to enable this feature.


Just my two cents. :-) I hope someone else has a better clue than me. ;-)

--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

stef

Thanks for the info.

Last thing I want to do is to tinker with hardware....

And it may well be a problem at the software level, permissions, etc.

Also, It worked great in Free 2008.0 (before I upgraded to 2008.1)--not
from the start but after I must have downloaded some plug-in, or update
or library, etc--what I mean is that it started working "on its own
accord" and stayed that way; until I upgraded to 2008.1.

So it must be a config problem...which I should really troubleshoot....

stef

Aragorn,

Thanks for your post!

Let me study it; and I'll come back with results or questions.

mark madsen

AFAICT, snd-hda-intel is working correctly in Mandriva 2008.1, the first
distro these have worked in for some while.

What does lspci say about the chipset?

stef

$ lspcidrake -v | fgrep -i AUDIO
snd_hda_intel : Intel Corporation|82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio
Controller (vendor:8086 device:284b subv:17aa subd:20ac)

stef

stef@localhost ~ $ ls -l /dev/dsp
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 14, 3 2008-05-01 20:14 /dev/dsp

stef@localhost ~ $ ls -l /dev/sequencer
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 14, 1 2008-05-01 20:14 /dev/sequencer

stef@localhost ~ $ ls -l /dev/mixer
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 14, 0 2008-05-01 20:14 /dev/mixer


I agree and will look at the init | Sound.
But in any event, HOW to set the PulseAudio settings from the command
line iwth X down?


I have a 2:1 so forget about the 5.1 setting....

aragorn

On this older Mandrake 10.0, they are /crw-------,/ with my user account as
the owner. You should therefore check whether your user account is a
member of the /audio/ group.

This I cannot tell you as I've never had to fiddle with pulse audio. ;-)
I'll have to leave it up to someone more knowledgeable about this subject
than myself to answer that question. ;-)


--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)

bit twister

My WAG:
# cat /etc/sysconfig/pulseaudio
# Set the below variable to suit your needs.
# Possible values are:
# personal Start a personal pulseaudio server per-user (recommended)
# system Start a system wide daemon (not yet implemented)
# none Don't start pulse
#
# NB For the system wide daemon, users need to be in the group pulse-access.
#
PULSE_SERVER_TYPE=personal

# Set the various arguments to the daemon here
# This defaults to:
# --log-target=syslog for "personal"
#PULSE_ARGS=

$ cat ~/.pulserc
cat: /home/bittwister/.pulserc: No such file or directory