I think I need a sound/ALSA guru.

Tue Aug 2 15:50:01 UTC 2005

Am Di, den 02.08.2005 schrieb William Case um 16:49:

> My system is Fedora Core 4_i386 2.6.12-1.1398_FC4 
> > > 
> > > > My problems are:
> > > > 1) My event sounds all have scratchy or hissy backgrounds
> > > > 2) My /dev/*(sound) permissions seem all screwed up
> > > 
> > > You have to be specific about this. List the permissions.
> > > 
> > > ls -al /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer*
> ~]$ ls -al /dev/dsp /dev/audio /dev/mixer
> crw-------  1 bill root 14, 4 Jul 31 04:07 /dev/audio
> crw-------  1 bill root 14, 3 Jul 31 04:07 /dev/dsp
> crw-------  1 bill root 14, 0 Jul 31 04:07 /dev/mixer
> I get the above as user and as su -

Proper permissions. Switching with "su -" does not change them.

> When I log into root account I get the following:
> root ~]#  ls -al /dev/dsp /dev/audio /dev/mixer
> crw-------  1 root root 14, 4 Jul 31 04:07 /dev/audio
> crw-------  1 root root 14, 3 Jul 31 04:07 /dev/dsp
> crw-------  1 root root 14, 0 Jul 31 04:07 /dev/mixer
> 
> The 'root' info may not be relevant; but it seemed to concern my LUG
> help.

You normally should never have any good reason to graphically log in as
root. Use "su -" or "sudo" if you need root's permissions.

> > > > 3) All the modules seem to be there (except one for synthesizer??
> > -- > > which is required in WindowsXP)
> 
> The synthesizer question is mine because my Windows XP set up works
> perfectly with the following settings:
> 
> WindowsXP
> Vol Control:  40%
> Wave: 40%
> SW Synth: 95%
> Line-in: Mute
> CD Audio: 50%
> 
> While /proc/asound/oss/sndstat shows
> Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

That is no issue, no problem. My card does show the same in sndstat and
is working great (SB Audigy). I think a synthesizer would be a chip on
the card for processing midi sound.

> > > Please show us the list of loaded modules.
> 
> See at bottom
> > > 
> > > > 4) Most but not all of my sound programs can't find my sound card.
> > > 
> > >Which programs are that? Do they work with ALSA or do they need OSS
> > > emulation by ALSA?
> 
> a) Helix seems to work
> b) as user audacity returns "There was an error intializing the audio
> i/o layer.  You will not be able to play or record audio." As root
> audacity starts without error dialogue but the sound playback is very
> distorted.
> c)Multimedia Systems Selector (Audio) i.e. gstreamer properties
> 
> Output ALSA alsasink clear sound
> Artsd artsdsink no sound
> ESD esdsink sound (tremble/faint)
> OSS ossink failed test pipeline
> 
> Input ALSA alsasrc crashed/forced quit 
> ESD esdmon no sound
> OSS osssrc failed test pipeline
> 
> 
> d) CD player - plays.  It is hard to tell whether it is distorted or
> not. The only disk I have handy is bagpipe music.

From another list posting:

<quote>

>If you sound is distorted, check the kmix setting for the IEC958
option.
>If it is turned on,  turn it off (mute it).
>
>I had distorted sound problems with FC4 with this option turned on.

Thanks Bruce, that did it. I no longer have distorted sound. Terrific :D

</quote>

So check that please and change the setting if you find it either in
gnome volume manager or alsamixer in terminal and see if that changes
the sound quality.

> e) tvtime (see below)
> f) General strangeness: As user I still get event sounds after I have
> muted everything in
> alsamixer - volume control.  Even stranger, if I go to /usr/share/sounds
> in File Browser and just focus the cursor (i.e. don't click or select in
> any way) on a *.wav
> event file I get the sound in spite of everything being muted and the
> files being owned by root (other is set to r).

Why do you think this is strange? From your description files are world
readable, so the can be played even if the user does not own them.

> > > > 6) system-config-soundcard plays the test sample but has the worst
> > > > distortion of all.

See quoted advice and reply above.

> ~]$ lspci

> 02:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq 5880 AudioPCI (rev 02)

The card is listed on the ALSA project site and ...

> ]$ lsmod
> Module                  Size  Used by
> snd_seq_midi            8929  0

> snd_ens1371            31649  1
> gameport               18633  1 snd_ens1371
> snd_rawmidi            30305  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_ens1371
> snd_ac97_codec         75961  1 snd_ens1371
> snd_seq_dummy           3653  0
> snd_seq_oss            37057  0
> snd_seq_midi_event      9153  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss
> snd_seq                62289  6
> snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
> snd_seq_device          8781  5
> snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
> snd_pcm_oss            51185  0
> snd_mixer_oss          17857  1 snd_pcm_oss
> snd_pcm               100169  3 snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
> snd_timer              33605  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
> snd                    57157  12
> snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
> soundcore              10913  1 snd
> snd_page_alloc          9669  1 snd_pcm

... all needed sound modules are loaded. snd-ens1371 is the correct ALSA
module.

> amixer returns the following:
> ~]$ amixer

> Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
>   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
>   Playback channels: Mono
>   Mono: Playback [on]

IEC958 appears to be muted.

> /etc/modprobe.conf
> alias eth0 8139too
> options bttv tuner=2

There should be more entries, at least for your sound setup.

> Regards Bill

Alexander

-- 
Alexander Dalloz | Enger, Germany | GPG http://pgp.mit.edu 0xB366A773
legal statement: http://www.uni-x.org/legal.html
Fedora Core 2 GNU/Linux on Athlon with kernel 2.6.11-1.35_FC2smp 
Serendipity 17:38:42 up 17 days, 22:11, load average: 0.08, 0.18, 0.17 
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