Sound starts only sometimes after boot

[Anthony Campbell <ac@acampbell.org.uk>]

After each boot it is a matter of luck whether sound comes up or not. It
works about one time in four, though once it has worked it continues to
do so until the next boot.

If it fails, speaker-test gives the following:

 	ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:996:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

Googling shows a number of people with similar errors though not
identical. I found a Ubuntu page which said it was solved by installing
libasound2-plugins, but this did not help me.

The modules loaded seem to be the same whether sound works or not. I
get:

snd_pcm_oss            41760  0 
snd_mixer_oss          18816  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ens1371            27328  2 
snd_usb_audio          91296  0 
snd_usb_lib            20224  1 snd_usb_audio
gameport               17040  3 ns558,snd_ens1371
snd_seq_midi           11072  0 
snd_seq_midi_event     11904  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_ac97_codec        115416  1 snd_ens1371
snd_rawmidi            26784  3 snd_ens1371,snd_usb_lib,snd_seq_midi
ac97_bus                6272  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                81672  5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_usb_audio,snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq                54304  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              25744  3 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device         11668  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd_hwdep              12040  1 snd_usb_audio
snd                    63688  13 snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_usb_audio,snd_ac97_codec,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep
soundcore              12064  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         13072  1 snd_pcm


I think success in giving sound may depend on the sequence in which the
modules are loaded, but I don't know how to take things any further. 

Anthony


-- 
Anthony Campbell - ac@acampbell.org.uk 
Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux
http://www.acampbell.org.uk (blog, book reviews, 
and sceptical articles)