Re: An inquiry

[Florian Kulzer <florian.kulzer+debian@icfo.es>]

On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 19:10:04 -0700, Stephen Mazurek wrote:
> [I am writing in plain text.  I hope that eliminates the HTML. If not,
> then I'm not sure I know how google formats gmail.]

The HTML part is gone (thanks!), but now I have to pester you about the
top-posting: http://people.cornell.edu/pages/kk288/du-guidelines.html
(point 5 on that page)

>  Output of lsmod | grep snd
> snd_intel8x0           32316  1
> snd_pcm_oss            39456  0
> snd_mixer_oss          15584  1 snd_pcm_oss
> snd_intel8x0m          16844  0
> snd_ac97_codec         93220  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m
> ac97_bus                2432  1 snd_ac97_codec
> snd_pcm                72612  4
> snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0m,snd_ac97_codec
> snd_timer              21284  1 snd_pcm
> snd                    48548  9
> snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0m,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
> soundcore               7680  1 snd
> snd_page_alloc         10248  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm

That looks OK; the important modules are snd_intel8x0 and snd_pcm_oss.

> Output of  cat  /dev/snd/stat   No such file or directory.

Note that it is "/dev/sndstat" instead of "/dev/snd/stat". From the rest
of you data I would be willing to bet that the output you get from
cat'ing the right file will be OK, too.
 
> Output of  cat /proc/asound/cards
> 
> 0 [I82801DBICH4   ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
>                       Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1981B at irq 11
>  1 [Modem          ]: ICH-MODEM - Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem
>                       Intel 82801DB-ICH4 Modem at irq 11

Sometimes the modem is selected as card 0, which can lead to the sound
output being sent to the (usually unconnected) modem by default. In your
case the order of sound card and modem is correct.

> Playback device is default
> Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
> Sine wave rate is 440.0000Hz
> Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
> Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
> Period size range from 1024 to 1024
> Using max buffer size 16384
> Periods = 4
> was set period_size = 1024
> was set buffer_size = 16384
>  0 - Front Left
> Time per period = 2.665516

[...]

> So speaker-test gave not sound.

On the other hand, it did not complain about any problem with the sound
device either. This often means that the sound output does in fact work,
and the only problem is that the volume is set too low.

Run the speaker-test command again and keep it running. Then open
another X terminal (or switch to another console) and run "alsamixer".
You should see bar-graph representations for the volumes of all the
different ALSA playback controls. You can move from one control to the
next one with cursor left/right and you can change the levels with
cursor up/down. Try to increase the levels until you hear something.
Also watch out for muted ("MM") channels; you can toggle their state by
pressing the space bar. The relevant controls will probably be called
"Master", "PCM" and "Headphon(es)". In some rare cases it can be
necessary to mute the headphones in order to hear anything from the
regular speakers.

> I'd suspect that there should be a /dev/snd/stat for the sound to
> work.

Just a simple typo (see above).

> Thanks for these tests.  I have my Linux books back on the shelf but
> they are not too helpful with sound.

The ALSA wiki is a good place for more detailed information:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php?page=AlsaOpensrcOrg

-- 
Regards,            | http://users.icfo.es/Florian.Kulzer
          Florian   |