(un)sound problem...

[Calum]

sound used to work on the slackware machine, but now for some reason it won't. i have just come back from holiday, nobody else in the house has root access but me, but i can't remember it not working before. whatever. when i try to do anything involving sound, i get nothing. i can't think what the problem is:

Code: Select all

bash-2.05b$ amp g\ love\ and\ special\ sauce\ -\ meaningless\ \(live\).mp3

amp 0.7.6, (C) Tomislav Uzelac 1996,1997
THIS PROGRAM COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
PLEASE READ THE DOCUMENTATION FOR DETAILS

Playing: g love and special sauce - meaningless (live).mp3

Properties:    mono 22050Hz
Coding Method: MPEG2.0 layer3
Bitrate:       32kbit/s
Unable to open the audio device
Broken pipe
bash-2.05b$ ls -l /dev/mixer* /dev/dsp* & lsmod
[1] 3050
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            4 Jan  2 11:53 /dev/dsp -> dsp0
crwxrwxrwx    1 root     sys       14,   3 Aug 29  2003 /dev/dsp0
crw-rw--w-    1 root     sys       14,  19 Aug 29  2003 /dev/dsp1
crw-rw--w-    1 root     sys       14,  35 Aug 29  2003 /dev/dsp2
crw-rw--w-    1 root     sys       14,  51 Aug 29  2003 /dev/dsp3
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root            6 Jan  2 11:53 /dev/mixer -> mixer0
crwxrwxrwx    1 root     sys       14,   0 Aug 29  2003 /dev/mixer0
crw-rw-rw-    1 root     sys       14,  16 Aug 29  2003 /dev/mixer1
crw-rw-rw-    1 root     sys       14,  32 Aug 29  2003 /dev/mixer2
crw-rw-rw-    1 root     sys       14,  48 Aug 29  2003 /dev/mixer3
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
soundcore               3332   0 (autoclean)
usb-storage            66560   0
printer                 7744   0
uhci                   24528   0 (unused)
usbcore                58976   1 [usb-storage printer uhci]
3c59x                  26096   1
ide-scsi                9424   0
agpgart                44100   0 (unused)
lp                      6752   0
parport_pc             14724   1
parport                23264   1 [lp parport_pc]
apm                     9640   2
[1]+  Done                    ls -l /dev/mixer* /dev/dsp*


hmm. looks like i have a broken pipe, whatever that is...
i think i also have alsa installed, and configured, since i have the audioslack.com repository in my slapt-getrc and i installed audacity from there. but i have used audacity several times, evidencing the fact that it must have worked before, presumably with alsa.

what sort of troubleshooting need i attempt here, and what can i do about the trouble it might illuminate?
here's my modules.conf in case you're interested, really not sure which files i need to look at to fix this...

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.6 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias snd-card-0 snd-cmipci
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cmipci
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

[Void Main]

I don't see any audio drivers loaded in your list of modules (if that's a complete list).

[worker201]

Assuming that the module for the sound card you want is loaded, you just have to enable it. The modules.conf file should contain commented lists of everything that could be built into the kernel or built as a module. So for the module to be loaded, you have to uncomment the correct line, and pass your arguments (irq, dma, etc). I got sound to work for me a couple times in Slackware - unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced all my old notes. Misplaced in the garbage, probably, since the computer I had Slackware on died horribly. Gotta save that stuf...

[Calum]

I don't see any audio drivers loaded in your list of modules (if that's a complete list).

looks like alsa is not working on this machine, but is kind of installed, not a problem, i just would like it to go back to having working OSS, which it was after i installed the alsa stuff.

void main, thanks for your answer, you got me to think which is what was required. i had seen 'soundcore' and thought that was what i wanted, but now you mention it, there's no sound card driver in that list, so a quick 'modprobe cmpci' (for a c-media sound card) and i'm working again. now to add it to my /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file...

thanks all...