Re: if I were a newbie how would I get sound?

[Brad Sawatzky <brad+debian@swatter.net>]

On Sun, 17 Dec 2006, Douglas Tutty wrote:

> I'm gradually getting Etch installed on my new box and I'm ready to get
> sound working.  I figure I'll try out vlc as an all-singing-all-dancing
> media player.  However, looking through the package lists none of the
> media players depend on alsa.
> 
> There's no mention of sound in either the installation manual or
> debian-reference.
> 
> I'm assuming I need alsa so I installed it and note that lsmod shows the
> sound modules are loaded.
> 
> If I was a total newbie, how would I know how to play sound?

Make sure the relevant sound controls are unmuted and turned up using your
favorite sound mixer.  For example:
 % alsamixergui

If you can use alsaplayer and hear sound, you're good to go.  Run it from a
shell as:
 % alsaplayer <foo.mp3>
where foo.mp3 could be any sound file (.wav, .ogg, ...)

Or if you don't have a sound file handy, just try speaker-test:
  % speaker-test

VLC uses plugins for its sound, so you'll need to install one:
  % sudo apt-get install vlc-plugin-alsa

HTH,
-- Brad