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WindowPhobic · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 6:50 am Post subject: Sound stopped working

Help please guys,

I'm running Xandros on a Dell Inspiron 1150 laptop. It uses an AC97 integrated sound system.

Xandros installed and ran with no problems. Sound worked perfectly and there was a volume control in the bar along the bottom of the screen.

After 6 months sound stopped working and the volume control disappeared from the bar. That was 2 weeks ago. The computer dual-boots with Windows and sound continues to work fine in the hated MS product.

I have run alsaconf and it doesn't complete because it can't find a mixer. I tried to put the mixer back into the menu bar and it pops up a box to 'Select Mixer' which has no mixers available for selection.

I have tried selecting OSS or the other options in Control Centre and they fail because also they cannot find a mixer.

I've looked at Xandros Networks for mixers and there are none I can see.

Help please!
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jimallyn · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 4:04 pm Post subject:

Had you installed something just before the problem ocurred? It happens now and then that installing a new application - especially if it came from other than the official Xandros repositories - can remove previously installed applications.

I see the following mixers available for install:

alsamixergui
asmixer
gnome-alsamixer
mixer.app
tkmixer
wmmixer
xfce4-mixer

Of those, I have used alsamixergui.

Jim
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WindowPhobic · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 5:39 am Post subject:

Yes Jim,

I had installed a printer driver app - 'Samsung MFP Configurator'.

Any suggestions how I can overcome the deadly quiet? The machine is my wife's and she is UNHAPPY, so any help will be gratefully received.
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WindowPhobic · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:27 am Post subject:

I just tried removing and re-installing alsa base and alsa utils from XN.

Then I ran alsaconf and got the output below, which is exactly the same as I have been getting:

MaryLou:~# alsaconf
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-intel8x0 snd-ac97-codec snd-ac97-bus
snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc.
Building card database...

Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Setting default volumes...
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

===============================================================================

Now ALSA is ready to use.
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!

NOT FUN YET!
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WindowPhobic · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:56 am Post subject:

Further info:

FIXED!!!

I got lucky. I noticed that there was an issue with /etc/modprobe.d being reported at startup. That led me to check there is in fact such a dir and tht its ownership and permissions appear correct, which they do.

So I did a man on modprobe and learnt that modprobe.conf comes before modprobe.d. Guess what, the blasted printer app had created a 1 line modprobe.conf file to set up a parallel port. I deleted the file and the deadly quiet ended.

Hooray!

Thanks for your help Jim. Now I just need help getting my Samsung printer to work but I'll ask for that in the appropriate forum in a few days.

Ken.
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jimallyn · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:35 pm Post subject:

I suspect this thread may be of value to you in solving your Samsung printer problem:

http://forums.xandros.com/viewtopic.php?t=32911

One user had to do a reinstall of Xandros to fix the problems the Samsung driver install disk did to his system. Sad

Jim
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subseashaun · Xplorer Joined: 17 Mar 2007 Posts: 10

I have the same problem as well - and have tried the same fixes but with no luck yet! Any other suggestions?

So far I have downloaded and installed both alsamixergui and gnome-alsamixer but I am still showing no mixer available. When I go to the control center/sound system and try and select the audio device using the alsa option all I get is a message telling me:

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (No such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

I really need to get the sound back - I use skype for work and cannot be without it for long!

Any suggestions welcome!
Thanks guys

jimallyn · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 12:01 am Post subject:

subseashaun, the first thing I would try is running alsaconf. You have to do this from an Admin/root console. Click Launch, Applications, System, Administrator Tools, Console (Administrator) and enter the password when it asks for it. In the console window that opens type alsaconf and press Enter. Go through the wizard and see if that gets your sound back.

Jim
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subseashaun · Xplorer Joined: 17 Mar 2007 Posts: 10

Ok this is what I got:

shaunsmithers:~# alsaconf
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-seq-dummy snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-rawmidi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-hda-intel snd-hda-codec snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc.
Building card database...

Then the wizard found two cards:
hda-intel corporation HD Audio controller (Rev 03)
Legacy Probe Legacy ISA (non PnP) chips

I chose the Intel card.

Then I got two options:

Configuring snd-hda-intel
Do you want to modify /etc/modprobe.d/sound (and
etc/modprobe.conf if present)?

I chose yes.

Then the wizard came back with:

OK, sound driver is configured.
ALSA CONFIGURATOR will prepare the card for playing now.
Now I will load the ALSA sound driver and use amixer to raise the default volumes. You can change the volume later via a mixer

Running update-modules...
Loading driver...
Setting default volumes...
amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

===============================================================================

Now ALSA is ready to use.
For adjustment of volumes, use your favorite mixer.

Have a lot of fun!

shaunsmithers:~#

So I went back to choose the legacy device:

Wizard:
Warning: Probing legacy ISA cards might make your system unstable!

What the heck! I chose the YES option:

Wizard:
Probing legacy ISA cards
│ Please select the drivers to probe: │

│ [*] opl3sa2 Yamaha OPL3SA2+ │
│ [*] cs4236 Cirrus Logic CS4235-9 │
│ [*] cs4232 Cirrus Logic CS4232 │
│ [*] cs4231 Generic CS4231 │
│ [*] es18xx ESS ES18xx AudioDrive │
│ [*] es1688 ESS ESx688 AudioDrive │
│ [*] sb16 Sound Blaster 16 │
│ [*] sb8 Sound Blaster 1.0/2.0/Pro

So I chose the Yamaha OPL3SA2+ first to see what would happen:

Wizard:
Shall I try all possible DMA and IRQ combinations?
With this option, some unconventional configuration
might be found, but it will take much longer time.

Chose yes.

Here is the final output from the shell:

shaunsmithers:~# alsaconf
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-hda-intel snd-hda-codec snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-page-alloc.
Building card database...
Probing legacy cards.. This may take a few minutes..
Probing: opl3sa2 cs4236 cs4232 cs4231 es18xx es1688 sb16 sb8
shaunsmithers:~#

Went to the control centre/sound and multimedia/sound system and changed hardware option to autodetect which re-started the sound system but still would not produce sound. Then selected ALSA which came back with:

Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (No such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

None of the other options worked either (OSS, Enlightened sound deamon, jack audio connection kit, network audio system, threaded open sound system).

I am unsure of what to do next. A re-load of the system is not an option as I am not at home and the disks are not with me. The sound was working until a few days ago, and I am not sure what I did to stop the sound - it may have been loading some video drivers for a mini disc video recorder using x-over.

Any help I can get would be really appreciated!

Thanks guys.
Shaun.

jimallyn · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject:

Does your computer have two sound cards in it, or a plugin sound card in addition to an on-board sound system? Using two sound systems can be a problem. If you have two sound cards in the computer, remove one of them, just leaving the better of the two. If your computer has onboard sound in addition to the plugin sound card, disable the onboard sound. To do that, you need to go into the BIOS setup. Usually, as the computer boots up, it will tell you what key to hit to go into the setup; often it's the Delete key, but sometimes F5 or F8 or some other key. In the setup, there's usually options to disable onboard sound and other devices.

If you have two sound systems in the computer and it worked before with the two of them, I don't know why it would quit, but I do know that having two sound systems can be a problem.

Jim
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subseashaun · Xplorer Joined: 17 Mar 2007 Posts: 10

Thanks Jim. My bios is accessed using F2.

I have one card installed according to the hardware detection:

Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Model: HD Audio Controller
Description: Intel Corporation HD Audio Controller
Driver: snd-hda-intel
Driver loaded: No
Bus type: PCI

I will reboot again and look for any errors in the process - there may be a clue there.

Thanks again for your help.
Shaun.

subseashaun · Xplorer Joined: 17 Mar 2007 Posts: 10

Just noted the driver isnt loaded, but even if it is there is still no sound - boo hoo!

Doctore · Posted: Tue May 06, 2008 4:19 am Post subject:

Some questions, subseashaun.
-Which "Xandros" version are you using (3.01/3.02/4.0/4.1/4.2/4.5)?
-What is the brand and model/s of your motherboard and soundcard/s?
-And, if the soundcard worked before, what did you do before it stopped working?
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subseashaun · Xplorer Joined: 17 Mar 2007 Posts: 10

Hi Doctore.

Here's the details:
Im running Xandros 4.0 with the SP1 installed which makes it 4.1.

CPU is an Intel Core Duo processor T5550 1.83GHz

Sound card details are:
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Model: HD Audio Controller
Description: Intel Corporation HD Audio Controller
Driver: snd-hda-intel
Driver loaded: Yes
Bus type: PCI

I had no driver for some reason and tried the alsa driver from XN to see if that would work.

I am not sure exactly when the sound was lost as I don't use it much unless I am skypeing, but the last time I did any changes or loaded software was a Sony cd for a video camera I had bought, loaded using x-over. but it wasn't needed as I found I could get play back through xine with the drivers for vbo files installed. So I uninstalled them.

Whatever I have tried, it keeps coming back with mixer system not found or doesn't exist.

I am on the road at the moment so usually use skype to keep in touch with home and collegues - keeps the phone bill down! And of course, I don't have the system disc with me!

If you'v'e got any suggestions, I'd really appreciate them.

Thanks,
Shaun.

Doctore · Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 12:33 am Post subject:

The processor model points to an laptop. But neither that or the soundcard information
gives much clues about the brand and model of your motherboard and soundcard chipsets.

Are you sure sound worked before? If not, then it could be hardware/driver compatibilty
issue which probably can be solved by downloading and compiling the correct driver.

However, its easier to try another distribution with never kernel build. "Xandros" new
"4.5-OC" (kernel 2.6.24) might work better. Why not give that a try? Download it here:
http://www.geekconnection.org/xandros_4.5/SDK-2008.03.03_06.30-4.5-oc-i386_cdr.iso
Or here: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=215613
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