no sound card detected! Ahhhhh

philgac · n00b Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 2

Hi, I need some help with my sound card. I originally configured my onboard sound card on my x86_64 system with the nvidia intel8x0 driver. Just splurged on a new sb audigy2 plat pro and can't seem to get the drivers working right! ahhhh. I have recompiled my kernel 2.6.12.5 multiple times. I have alsa compiled into the kernel. I have umerged alsa a few times and re-emerged it everytime. I just recently deleted my modules file of the kernel, recompiled it and things still aren't quite working. When I try to open a .mp3 in xmms the computer is unable to open the audio port for some reason... When that occured, I realized that the default card was still the onboard. I couldn't find an easy way to configure the SB card as the default, so I disabled the onboard audio in the bios.

Here's my alsa.conf:
# ALSA portion
alias char-major-116 snd
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore

##
## IMPORTANT:
## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)
## and then run `update-modules' command.
## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
##
## ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
## OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

# OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
## OSS/Free portion - card #2
## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

# Set this to the correct number of cards.
options snd cards_limit=1
______________________

my lsmod shows that the drivers all load up, but my "cat /proc/asound/cards" says that it detects no sound cards. I know that the card is there because of the dmesg command.

My problems are these:

1. When I try to open alsamixer I get the message: alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

2. When I try to open xmms I get this message: "Couldn't open audio! Please check that: your soundcard is configured correctly, you have the correct output plug-in selected, no other program is blocking the sound card.

If you need more info to help me out, just let me know. Thanks for any help in advance.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject:

philgac,

Please post the content of /dev/snd and /dev/sound. The former is your real ALSA device files and the latter your ALSA OSS emulation device files.

To set the order of sound cards, make both low level driver modules as modules and load them in the desired order in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6. The first named module will be for the first sound card. You can do the same thing for etheernet cards if you have more than one. This file is the first used to load modules and its under your control.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

jschellhaass · Guru Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: 341

Is there any reference to your old sound card in /etc/modules.conf?

jeff

philgac · n00b Joined: 10 Sep 2005 Posts: 2

Umm, so I took a look at those two folders: /dev/snd and /dev/sound.

In /dev/snd I have one thing: timer. In the /dev/sound folder I have: audio dsp dsp1 mixer sequencer sequencer2. I just did a basic list command, so if you would like something more than that, let me know! I am still unsure as to what the heck is going on!!!

And to jeff's question, here's my modules.conf when it comes to alsa, exactly how I personally configured it. Let me know if you see anything wrong with it, I'm a newbie ya know...

##
## IMPORTANT:
## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)
## and then run `update-modules' command.
## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.
##
## ALSA portion
alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371
## OSS/Free portion
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1
##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
## OSS/Free portion - card #2
## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss
## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss
## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

# Set this to the correct number of cards.
options snd cards_limit=1

Thanks for the help guys!

stuartguthrie · n00b Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 58

This script gives everything in your sound setup including kernel settings etc.

Probably worth loading and running.

http://alsa.opensrc.org/?page=aadebug

stuartguthrie · n00b Joined: 19 Jun 2005 Posts: 58

When I remove all the comment lines and diff your modules.d to mine I get:

diff alsa1 alsa2
1a2
> # OSS/Free portion
3c4,5
< alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
---
> alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

So I use a different sound card.. Plus you have this extra setting?
> alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0

I too had a LOT of troubles and was going crazy. My post is on the multimedia forum called 'debugging alsa'

HTH

Stuart