Re: Need help with sound on Lenny desk-top host
On 2009-06-27_11:50:02, Andrei Popescu wrote:
> On Fri,26.Jun.09, 21:24:42, Paul E Condon wrote:
> >
> > * make sure the sound channel levels are up and unmuted (using alsamixer),
> > I not sure. alsamixer display did not look familiar and it was not at all clear what the
> > iconic display was indicating. Further I wasn't able to change the appearance of the
> > display by clicking of any of the icons/features... How should one start alsomixer?
> > Command line? click on an Icon that I have not found? How?
>
> With <left> <right> you switch between channels. <up> <down> will adjust
> the sound levels and <m> will mute/unmute the respective channel (it
> will show [OO] if it's active and [MM] if it's muted). If you're still
> not sure everything is ok try alsamixergui.
>
> > * make sure arts and esound are not running,
> > How? Do they appear in the ps -ef display if they are running? They were neither in
> > that display. But is that how to 'make sure'?
>
> Please post the output of
>
> ps aux | egrep -i 'arts|esd'
>
> > * make sure no OSS modules are loaded,
> > The string 'OSS' does not appear in the output of lsmod. Is that sufficient? Or do
> > these OSS modules have individual names that should be searched for?
>
> Please post the output of
>
> lsmod | grep oss
>
> > * check whether the command
> > cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp
> > works for root.
> > What should this command do? Make a noise? Blink a light? What? In fact it does nothing
> > for about 5seconds and then terminates with the error message:
> > "cat: write error: No space left on device"
> > Is this behavior what is meant by 'working'? Likely, not, IMHO, but what should be
> > done about it?
>
> Uhh, that's a bug in the release notes (I'll report as soon as I can
> come up with a patch), you can't have /dev/dsp if you don't have oss
> modules loaded. Try this instead:
>
> speaker-test -c2 -l1
>
> You should hear a "whush" (I don't know how to describe "pink sound" in
> english) coming from the left speaker, than the right and then it will
> stop.
>
> Regards,
> Andrei
> --
> If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
> (Albert Einstein)
Thanks. You clarified the whole thing enormously. My system is now
working.
No need for me to post results. They showed the several issues were as
they should be. Your replacement last step using speaker-test, at
first, produced no sound. This lead me to question my 'make sure the
speakers are turned on' action. A careful inspection the the rear of
my compute, in a better light, lead me to discover the cable plug on
the back of the computer was plugged into the microphone input hole,
not the line-out hole. Once the plug got into the correct socket,
things worked just fine.
Since you are intending to patch the last bullet point in the release
note, I suggest that you also recast the other bullet points where you
suggest specific commands to type and the specific results to be
expected.
Its OK, even good, to keep a higher level explanation of what
issue the specific command/result will address, but it is really
helpful to a confused non-expert to be told specifically what to do
and what result to expect (as you have already done for me)
Note:
man speaker-test, in English, refers to the default wave form as pink
noise. but says
"Pink noise is perceptually uniform noise -- that is, it sounds like
every frequency at once.If you can hear any tone it may indicate
resonances in your speaker system or room."
Why pink? Why not blue, or green, or - white? I doubt that the term
has a serious technical definition in telecommunications theory, which
is the technological origin of ideas of noise. I would call it the
sound of radio receiver static, but modern radio receivers have
inter-station noise blanking, so this suggestion is an indication of
my advanced age. Or, the sound of wind in a forest. Or, the sound of
wind in a desert.
You may be able to avoid discussions with pedants like me about word
descriptions of the sound of noise by suggesting the test be
speaker-test -c2 -t wav
On my computer with my locale settings this gives a woman's voice
repeating, until I type cntrl-C, in English,
"Front Left ... Front Right "
Your computer, in your locale, should have different wav files in
/usr/share/sounds/alsa, and should give an equivalent sound track, but
in your 'locale' language. If so, you can avoid all word description
of what noise sounds like in different cultures.
Thanks, again.
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
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