New PPC G4 Install No Sound

[motsteve]

I take it that you want me in the sound config of Yast. I got there and did an add and got the Manual Sound Card Selector. Choosing Alsa I have for sound card model: Dummy soundcard, Midi serial u16550 and Virtual rawmidi device. Am I in the wrong place?

Also, I ran alsaconf a few days ago and got no sound during the test. I don't know if this helps, but my volume control right now is connected to the OSS mixer for PowerMac Tumbler. The volume settings are about 75%, but the speaker setting is all the way down and if I set it higher I get a muted condition indicated with a red cross. If you've never seen this mixer (I know there are many) it only has three sections: Volume, speaker and PCM-2. The help for this window basically says set the settings and close.

[motsteve]

I'm sorry about the pastebin mess up on my part. I just remember from the SDB that the number was important. I have never ever had mixers to deal with before as I've always used default settings for everything and only changed the volume as need be. I guess I'll just go find out about compiling the Alsa tools. Thank you for your help, I've learned a lot today.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by motsteve

I take it that you want me in the sound config of Yast. I got there and did an add and got the Manual Sound Card Selector. Choosing Alsa I have for sound card model: Dummy soundcard, Midi serial u16550 and Virtual rawmidi device. Am I in the wrong place?

Typically Gnome users have an application called 'alsamixer'. If you type that at an xterm/terminal/konsole, I think if you are a gnome user you will be presented with a plethora of settings you can adjust. KDE users have an application called 'kmix' that they run.

I confess the application "OSS mixer" does not ring a bell.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by motsteve

I guess I'll just go find out about compiling the Alsa tools.

If you do have to compile, keep posting here wrt your trials and tribulations and I am confident users will pitch in to help.

I'm away on business for two days starting tomorrow, so I won't be able to help for a brief interlude.

Since you are going to be compiling a driver, you will need the kernel-source rpm installed for your kernel version. You will also need to install the rpm for the kernel headers known as linux-kernel-headers. You also need to have installed gcc, gcc++, gcc42, gcc42++ and make. I also like to install the application "checkinstall".

Note when it comes to custom compiling, typically one downloads a compressed archive affectionately known as a "tarball" (with an extension that may be something like application.tar.bz2) to their home directory. Lets say you download it to /home/your-user-name/compilations.

Uncompress that into your home directory, while its in /home/your-user-name/compilations. The tarball when uncompressed should end up in its own subdirectory (perhaps called alsa-driver-1.0.16). You need to open an xterm/konsole and change to that directory with something like: cd /home/your-username/compilations/alsa-driver-1.0.16

Then read the readme.txt and install.txt files. Typically full of very confusing stuff, but sometimes there is something important that registers.

Then compile with something like:
./configure
make
su #enter root password when prompted
make install

or alternatively, instead of "make install" type "checkinstall".

The difference between "checkinstall" and "make install" is "make install" will put the driver/application directly on your hard drive, but there will be NO database tracking of it, and you must ALWAYS keep the compilation directory you made, so you can remove it (with "make uninstall") if it becomes necessary.

BUT if you instead run "checkinstall", it will ask for some easy to fill in information (select Y for documentation, and type in some arbitrary words in the description), and when it then executes it will create a custom rpm designed for your PC. After a successful run of "checkinstall" the application/driver will NOT be installed, but instead will be stored in something like /usr/src/packages/RPMS/PPC ?? (I'm guessing for a PPC). You can then copy that rpm to your /home/username directory, and install it with: rpm -Uvh application-precise-name.rpm

... and the new rpm you installed will be tracked by the rpm database.

I always use "checkinstall" (instead of "make install") but sometimes "checkinstall" doesn't work. Other times, it will work if one first runs "make install" and then runs "checkinstall".

Do that for each of alsa-driver, alsa-lib, alsa-firmware (and alsa-utils and alsa-oss, although they are not as important). When done, and the rpms installed (if you used checkinstall) then reboot your PC and test your audio.

[motsteve]

I got so frustrated that I did a find on alsamixer.(May the guy who decided not to have a locate command in Suse rot in hell!). Anyway, from the terminal I executed the command "alsamixer" and a funky control panel popped up in the terminal window. I couldn't control anything, but I decided to do a man alsamixer and I got a man page! The operation of the panel is something out of the days of MSDOS, but I set everything to what I thought would be correct. I did a test using the sound control in the control panel and the sound test produces tone. So much for gui control. :-). Now I'm off to see if Banshee works.

Thanks for the help again. I'll keep the info on the compiling also, as I'm a radio design engineer and not a software engineer.

[subhan222]

this is the output ...

No sound, even no icon in YAST

ANY IDEA ?

subhan222@linux-70u7:~> rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-tools-debuginfo-1.0.18-1.13           
alsa-debuginfo-1.0.18-8.7                  
alsa-oss-debuginfo-1.0.17-1.37             
alsa-debugsource-1.0.18-8.7                
kalsatools-debuginfo-1.5.0-499.130         
kalsatools-debugsource-1.5.0-499.130       
alsa-tools-1.0.20-5.2                      
alsa-utils-1.0.20-6.2                      
alsa-plugins-1.0.18-6.12                   
alsa-utils-debuginfo-1.0.18-6.4            
alsa-tools-debugsource-1.0.18-1.13         
alsa-oss-1.0.17-2.8                        
alsamixergui-debuginfo-0.9.0rc1-584.132    
alsa-utils-debugsource-1.0.18-6.4          
alsa-driver-kmp-default-1.0.20.20090531_2.6.27.21_0.1-1.1
alsa-plugins-debuginfo-1.0.18-6.12                       
alsa-oss-debugsource-1.0.17-1.37                         
alsa-plugins-debugsource-1.0.18-6.12
alsa-firmware-1.0.20-5.1
subhan222@linux-70u7:~> rpm -qa | grep pulse
pulseaudio-module-x11-0.9.12-9.6
vlc-aout-pulse-0.9.9-1.4
libpulse0-0.9.12-9.6
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-jack-0.9.12-9.6
libxine1-pulse-1.1.15-23.3.3
pulseaudio-utils-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-esound-compat-0.9.12-9.6
libpulse-browse0-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-lirc-0.9.12-9.6
libpulsecore4-0.9.12-9.6
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-0.9.12-9.6
subhan222@linux-70u7:~> rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.18-8.7
subhan222@linux-70u7:~> uname -a
Linux linux-70u7 2.6.27.21-0.1-default #1 SMP 2009-03-31 14:50:44 +0200 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
subhan222@linux-70u7:~> cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
alias sound-slot-0 snd-hda-intel
subhan222@linux-70u7:~>

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by subhan222

this is the output ...

No sound, even no icon in YAST

ANY IDEA ?

Why have you joined someone else's thread? Why not start your own? Is there something technical that I am supposed to understand about your set up compared to that of someone else's, which is why you have joined their post? There are hundreds of threads in our forum where users have no sound. Why this thread?

If one has no sound, it is much easier to provide support if one starts a new thread, unless there is something very very specific (not just "no sound" as there are hundreds of users with no sound that we try to help ).

Anyway, back to your problem, thanks for the information. But I need more than that to understand your PC setup. With your PC connected to the internet, please run the following twice:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

the first time run it with root permissions. It will ask you if you wish to update, ...select YES and update. Then the second time run it as a regular user. It will provide you a URL when it is complete. Please post the URL here. JUST the URL.

With that, and with the information you have already provided, I may be able to make an assessment as to why you have no sound.

Also, what is your test for "no sound" ?? The test sound function in yast is broken for some sound devices (its a known bug). I recommend you try one of the 3 tests noted in the opensuse audio troubleshooting guide: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - How to Test your sound - openSUSE Do any of these 3 tests (2 in the guide, and one in a link provided in the guide) yield sound ?

[subhan222]

22-Jun-2008

sorry to kick in the old thread, i thought my problem is similar.

but if thats the way things work here i will create a new thread. I thought user needs to get benefit from existing thread and discuss a similar issue in one thread is better. but anyway.

i will raise a new one.

answer to the /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh


linux-70u7:/home/subhan222 # /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
bash: /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh: No such file or directory

thanks for being so nice

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by subhan222

i thought my problem is similar.

OK, .. but I'm struggling to see the similarity ... Is it just no sound ? Same hardware?

Originally Posted by subhan222

but if thats the way things work here i will create a new thread. I thought user needs to get benefit from existing thread and discuss a similar issue in one thread is better. but anyway.

Maybe the users benefit, but I can't provide help in that environment. I make too many mistakes when I mix up users. And in truth, I find the users are worse than me. They apply fixes from someone else's system which are inappropriate, and mess up their systems more. When it comes to tuning one's audio, I'm not a believer for lumping everything in one impossible to read thread.

BUT, and this is very important, that is JUST ME. Please do continue to post on this thread. Others may chime in and help. .. I simply know its not easy for me and I will not.

Originally Posted by subhan222

answer to the /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

linux-70u7:/home/subhan222 # /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
bash: /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh: No such file or directory

This does not make sense. Did you re-type that? Copy and paste it instead please. I think you made a typo.

On my openSUSE-11.1, if I type:

oldcpu@athlon:~> whereis alsa-info.sh
alsa-info: /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

which indicates that script is located in /usr/sbin.

So please, this time, copy and paste:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh