[Alsa-user] Single speaker sound

[Hactar <eb...@ga...>]

"Luca Hall" <luc...@ho...> wrote:

> Im using alsa driver 0.5.11 with onboard 82c686a sound chip. All of my
> system sounds work fine along with everything else, execpt for the cd sound.
> The sound will only come out of the speaker that gets direct power to it.
> Ive tried 2 different wires from cd to motherboard, checked all connections,
> and also tried 3 sets of speakers. Ive used alsamixer gnome and kde mixers
> but no good.

> entrophy@darkstar:~> cat /etc/modules.conf
> alias char-major-14 off

> alias sound-slot-0 off
> alias sound-service-0-0 off
> alias sound-service-0-1 off
> alias sound-service-0-3 off
> alias sound-service-0-8 off
> alias sound-service-0-11 off
> alias sound-service-0-12 off

> alias char-major-116 off

These lines are superceded by later lines, and can be removed.

> alias sound off

> alias midi off

Hm, I don't have these, but OK.

> alias sound-slot-1 off
> alias sound-service-1-0 off
> alias sound-service-1-1 off
> alias sound-service-1-3 off
> alias sound-service-1-8 off
> alias sound-service-1-11 off
> alias sound-service-1-12 off
> alias sound-slot-2 off
> alias sound-service-2-0 off
> alias sound-service-2-1 off
> alias sound-service-2-3 off
> alias sound-service-2-8 off
> alias sound-service-2-11 off
> alias sound-service-2-12 off
> alias sound-slot-3 off
> alias sound-service-3-0 off
> alias sound-service-3-1 off
> alias sound-service-3-3 off
> alias sound-service-3-8 off
> alias sound-service-3-11 off
> alias sound-service-3-12 off

> alias snd-card-0 off
> alias snd-card-1 off
> alias snd-card-2 off
> alias snd-card-3 off
> alias snd-card-4 off

Since you have "sound_cards_limit=1", you can remove these.

> # ALSA native device support
>                     alias char-major-116 snd
>                     options snd snd_major=116 snd_cards_limit=1
>                     alias snd-card-0 snd-card-via686a
>                     #next line might need to have snd_id, if so...
>                     options snd-card-interwave snd_index=0 # see below
>

I think having an entry "snd_id" would add a link /proc/asound/<id> ->
card0.

But none of this modules.conf-messing would affect your CD sound problem.
I think the cable manufacturer skimped on the ground wires -- there's
supposed to be two ground wires (one for each channel) -- and instead of
two, there's only one (which is not connected at all to the other
channel), so the other channel is sending a changing voltage (changing
relative to what?  its ground, which has no wire.) along its solitary
wire.  You either need a CD audio cable with four wires, or one in which
both grounds are tied together at at least one end (I suspect only at the
CD end is required).  Try "alsaplayer"; it pulls digital data from the CD
and gives it to your sound card as PCM.

-- 
-eben             eb...@ga...           http://home.tampabay.rr.com/hactar/
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