Re: Sound Problems (Sound is Often Gone)

[Hal Vaughan <hal@thresholddigital.com>]

On Monday 14 July 2008, Arthur A wrote:
> Hal Vaughan wrote:
> > On Monday 14 July 2008, Andrei Popescu wrote:
> >> On Sun,13.Jul.08, 18:29:25, Hal Vaughan wrote:
> >>> I'm using Kubuntu, but not the latest version, the one before it
> >>> (Gutsy, I think) and KDE 3.5.8 and have been using OSS.
> >>
> >> Should we assume alsa doesn't work on your machine?
> >
> > I may be behind the times, but I thought that OSS was superseding
> > Alsa. Am I wrong?  I've never really done anything with sound
> > before and haven't really kept track of it.  Would I be better off
> > installing Alsa?  I'm not wedded to using OSS and have no problem
> > switching to something that would work better.
> >
> > Hal
>
> My understanding was:
>
> Hardware <----> ALSA <--> OSS <--> Apps
>
> Which was replaced on gnome with something like
>
> Hardware <----> ALSA <--> ESD & Gstreamer <--> Apps
>
> Which is now being replaced by
>
> Hardware <----> ALSA <--> Pulse Audio <--> Gstreamer & Apps
>
> I'm not sure how helpful and accurate that is. KDE, AFAIK, doesn't
> look anything like this after the ALSA part.
>
> Did you walk through the Complete Sound Troubleshooting Guide on the
> UbuntuForums?
>
> I know that under Hardy Heron they half-deployed pulse audio, the
> main pieces are there but apps to control the pulse sound server
> aren't installed by default (LTS = Long Troubles with Sound).
>
> I've never used KDE, but a quick google search leads me to believe
> nothing of my experience with gnome, ubuntu or debian can be directly
> applied.

Thanks for the info.  It's a HUGE help.  I have no idea where I got the 
idea that Alsa was outdated but it's likely I read a post on a list 
like this (or even this one) from someone who seemed to know what they 
were saying.

Just the info on how Alsa fits in gives me a better sense of what is 
going on.

It'll take me a bit to go through and process even the few suggestions 
I've gotten, but all of this gives me more to work with.

I'll post if/when I solve this.

Hal