Advanced Linux Sound Architecture

I have 3 sound cards on one box and I cannot play audio from youtube in
any browser or play a file with flashplayer. If I remove the PID for
pulseaudio I can play a wav file using
aplay, but not with pulseaudio running.
Skype always works.
Using flashplayer with pulseaudio not running, it says it can't connect,
obviously still looking for pulseaudio.
/dev/dsp is the Intel HDA
/dev/dsp1 is the Audigy, used to control of a Sofware Defined Radio (SDR).
/dev/dsp2 is the Logitech 9000 Pro camera mic

# flashplayer
/home/lancelot/dwhelper/AdaptiveBlue-CreatingCustomSmartLinkWidgets813.flv
WARNING: environment variable G_FILENAME_ENCODING set and it is not UTF-8
Currently in use: 1 blocks containing 63.9 KiB bytes total.
Allocated during whole lifetime: 248 blocks containing 7.4 MiB bytes total.
Sample cache size: 0 B
User name: lancelot
Host Name: slipstream
Server Name: pulseaudio
Server Version: 0.9.15
Default Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 96000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.pci_1102_8_sound_card_1
Default Source: alsa_input.usb_device_46d_990_7BBC20E7_if2_sound_card_2
Cookie: 6cbce82b

The audio is being sent to /dev/dsp1 instead of /dev/dsp. I've changed
default.pa sink and source to point to /dev/dsp, restarted alsa and
pulseaudio, no luck there.
The SDR works fine using /dev/dsp (hw:0) as sound output and mic,
/dev/dsp1 (hw:1) as RX in and TX out to the SDR as defined in the SDR
program's config file.

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: EMU0404 [E-mu 0404b PCI [MAEM8852]], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC
Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
  Subdevices: 32/32
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
  Subdevice #8: subdevice #8
  Subdevice #9: subdevice #9
  Subdevice #10: subdevice #10
  Subdevice #11: subdevice #11
  Subdevice #12: subdevice #12
  Subdevice #13: subdevice #13
  Subdevice #14: subdevice #14
  Subdevice #15: subdevice #15
  Subdevice #16: subdevice #16
  Subdevice #17: subdevice #17
  Subdevice #18: subdevice #18
  Subdevice #19: subdevice #19
  Subdevice #20: subdevice #20
  Subdevice #21: subdevice #21
  Subdevice #22: subdevice #22
  Subdevice #23: subdevice #23
  Subdevice #24: subdevice #24
  Subdevice #25: subdevice #25
  Subdevice #26: subdevice #26
  Subdevice #27: subdevice #27
  Subdevice #28: subdevice #28
  Subdevice #29: subdevice #29
  Subdevice #30: subdevice #30
  Subdevice #31: subdevice #31
card 1: EMU0404 [E-mu 0404b PCI [MAEM8852]], device 2: emu10k1 efx
[Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 1: EMU0404 [E-mu 0404b PCI [MAEM8852]], device 3: emu10k1
[Multichannel Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I thought this was limited to one box, but I have the same problem on 2
other boxes where there is only one sound card and I am trying to play
the same flash file.
(flashplayer:28964): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to locate theme engine in
module_path: "murrine",
Currently in use: 15 blocks containing 113.9 KiB bytes total.
Allocated during whole lifetime: 5048 blocks containing 125.3 MiB bytes
total.
Sample cache size: 0 B
User name: boycie
Host Name: Boycie
Server Name: pulseaudio
Server Version: 0.9.15
Default Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: alsa_output.platform_pcspkr_sound_card_0
Default Source: alsa_input.pci_1106_3059_sound_card_0
Cookie: 3c0fed06

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: V8235 [VIA 8235], device 0: VIA 8235 [VIA 8235]
  Subdevices: 4/4
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
card 0: V8235 [VIA 8235], device 1: VIA 8235 [VIA 8235]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I opened bug #525259 on openSUSE bugzilla.
Help much appreciated.
Regards
Sid.


-- 
Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, Licensed Private Pilot
Emeritus IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support
Specialist, Cricket Coach
Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks

Hello,

for the last years I have had my soundblaster live working perfectly with alsa.

However recently something changed. I regularly capture from Line-in, which i mute.

so:

amixer set Capture 3
amixer cset name="Capture Source" 4
amixer set Line 0 off

However Line is no longer muted, it is only marginally softer than on level 30.

Now when I mute PCM (amixer set PCM 0 off) Linein gets muted as well. (PCM too). If I only want to mute my PCM device I have to issue amixer set Wave 0.

What I'd like to know is how to mute Line again, without muting PCM.

I use linux kernel 2.6.29 with alsa-lib 1.0.19.

Kind regards,

Henk.

I'm using alsa under Debian Lenny. I don't know whether i have flaky
hardware ( Intel 82801CA-ICH3 ) but i find that playing sound files
works only intermittently. When it doesn't work, aplay and speaker-test
both hang with no sound. I can fix this by running alsaconf, but that's
a pain as it is interactive. I'd settle for a non-interactive way of running
alsaconf. Please advise. TIA

Charles

Thanks for following up on this.

HoverHell <hoverhell <at> gmail.com> writes:
> Well, I get sound of it, pretty nice stereo quality. But for
> everything else...
> I had to use alsa's softvol since alsa driver gets no mixers from it.
> No luck as of yet getting volume handle or IR remote working (see
> thread in lirc-users regarding the IR).

I need a USB card for a home media system, and I don't care too much
about volume controls or the remote. This is not an issue for me.

> I didn't try actually using surround sound, so don't know about that.
> Although 5-channel output does work.

What's the difference between 5-channel and surround (apart from 5 vs. 6
channels)?

Which kernel version do you run?

> So, I wouldn't personally recommend getting this device since there
> probably are more linux-compatible and more cheap USB alternatives
> (non-Creative).

According to the graphs on hardware.info, the X-Fi's perform fairly
better than the ALSA-recommended TerraTec Aureon 5.1 USB MKII. So I'd
buy the former if possible. Do you have any other card to recommend for
this purpose? Price is not a matter as long as it's under $100. ;)

Thanks,
-- 
cc

2009/7/24 Robert Hancock <hancockrwd@...>:
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 9:56 AM, Dave Pawson<dave.pawson@...> wrote:
>> 2009/7/24 Clemens Ladisch <cladisch@...>:
>>
>>> Is there any error message in the system log when you do this:
>>>        rmmod snd-hda-intel
>>
>> $ rmmod snd-hda-intel
>> ERROR: Module snd_hda_intel is in use
>
> OK, that didn't quite work. Can you post the output of lsmod? Also,
> make sure that any audio applications have been stopped (if your
> distro uses Pulseaudio you might have to do pulseaudio -k as the
> logged-in user to stop it first).

Just needed to stop the pulseaudio applet.

[root@... ~]# rmmod snd-hda-intel

guessing that removed the 'snd-hda-intel' module (from the kernel?)



[root@... ~]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
fuse                   49780  2
sco                     9324  2
bridge                 41488  0
stp                     1944  1 bridge
llc                     4780  2 bridge,stp
bnep                   10888  2
l2cap                  18884  3 bnep
bluetooth              44768  5 sco,bnep,l2cap
sunrpc                152348  1
nf_conntrack_ftp        6284  0
ip6t_REJECT             3160  2
ip6t_ipv6header         1820  2
nf_conntrack_ipv6      11368  10
ip6table_filter         3132  1
ip6_tables             10712  2 ip6t_ipv6header,ip6table_filter
ipv6                  232324  32 ip6t_REJECT,nf_conntrack_ipv6
dm_multipath           13636  0
uinput                  6496  0
snd_hda_codec_atihdmi     3040  0
snd_hda_codec_realtek   189376  0
snd_hda_codec          54280  2 snd_hda_codec_atihdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hwdep               6584  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_seq_dummy           2448  0
snd_seq_oss            27224  0
snd_seq_midi_event      5564  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                45148  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          5988  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            37176  0
snd_mixer_oss          12776  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                62200  2 snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
iTCO_wdt               10464  0
iTCO_vendor_support     2736  1 iTCO_wdt
snd_timer              17888  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
firewire_ohci          19456  0
snd                    49056  11
snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               5404  1 snd
firewire_core          36556  1 firewire_ohci
atl1e                  28780  0
pata_marvell            3208  0
usblp                  10616  0
crc_itu_t               1580  1 firewire_core
i2c_i801                8060  0
pcspkr                  2156  0
asus_atk0110            8240  0
hwmon                   2148  1 asus_atk0110
serio_raw               4852  0
snd_page_alloc          7644  1 snd_pcm
floppy                 48044  0
ata_generic             4264  0
pata_acpi               3620  0
radeon                482224  0
drm                   166732  1 radeon
i2c_algo_bit            4804  1 radeon
i2c_core               18016  4 i2c_i801,radeon,drm,i2c_algo_bit




-- 
Dave Pawson
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http://www.dpawson.co.uk