No audio with video

[instantaneouz]

After installing openSUSE 11.3 I am finding that I cannot recieve any audio with video with any application.

I can hear certain types of audio, it seems any audio that is not attached to video. I can hear the welcome chime through my speakers after I log in to openSUSE and I can also listen to .MP3 files played with Amarok. I can watch videos with multiple players, YouTube videos etc., but there is no audio happening with the video.

I am thinking now this may actually be a hardware problem, since it seems to persist with different software, and only with audio attached to video. I'm thinking maybe there is a problem with my graphics card and its driver (or a lackthereof), although I'm unsure of why I can still watch video. I don't receive any error messages or anything, nor have I attempted to manually install any drivers for my existing hardware. I tried cranking every volume control I could find, including the system volume, but still no volume with video (its weird, its like I can hear it a tiny bit when I crank it, perhaps this is just the internal system beep speaker trying to fill in for the gfx card?).

The card I'm currently using is an NVIDIA card and although its not exactly old, I have read about some problems with NVIDIA being reluctant to produce drivers for Linux in the past. After some brief googling of NVIDIA and Linux, I was surprised to see that NVIDIA has an entire portion of their site devoted to UNIX/Linux and open source drivers (perhaps they're doing better now).

Can anyone please offer up some assistance here? Is there any way that I can troubleshoot this problem, or do you think the solution is simply purchasing another graphics card from a vendor that has a good reputation for Linux support?

Any assistance at all would be helpful here, I'm kinda lost for ideas here and I don't know much about drivers for Linux.

Thank you.

[jdmcdaniel3]

You did not say which nVidia card you have, but if it is new, it is worth installing the proprietary video driver. Here is another thread where I talk about this.

Nvidia and nomodeset kernel parameter

Since you are asking about audio, I did not post the video instructions here. You did not mention what kind of audio chipset that you have. It might be helpful to know what it is. Also, you did not mention which desktop you are using. If it is KDE, you can open the kMixer (Open the Speaker and press the Mixer button). In KMix, open Settings and the Configure Channels option. Drag anything that looks hopeful from the left box to the right box. Once in the right box, you can close this Windows and then see what you have in the main mixer. Look for anything that is muted and unmute it. Then try your videos again.

Now you did not give specifics on what kind of movies you are talking about or which player you were trying with which movie. Posting an example using Firefox could be helpful to understand the problem. For instance, I have a thread on Viewing iTunes Movies and it takes a certain setup to get this to work, even if you can play a regular movie. In fact, it would be helpful to know if you can play a standard DVD movie in Kaffeine or Totem or what ever it is you have installed to see if it works. Here is the the link to my iTunes thread. Don't get too worried if this does not work, but it might be interesting to know the results.

Viewing Apple Movie Trailers

Thank You,

[instantaneouz]

Thank you jdmcdaniel3 for your reply.

I just tried installing an NVIDIA driver that was supposed to support my card via Yast, however it did not seem to make a difference.

I also just tried un-muting every possible channel via kMixer, as you suggested. There were 3 channels muted, however after I un-muted them I still do not see any difference, I still can't get audio with video.

Audio chipset I'm using appears to be: 82801l (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller, if that's what you're asking for. Graphics card is NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS, which is not exactly new, but not exactly old either.

I tried using Kaffeine with standard .MPG and .AVI video files. I also tried using VLC Media Player with the same types of files. I used Google Chrome to attempt to watch random YouTube videos, there is no point in providing screenshots because there is no visible problem, no error message or any difficulties with playing video.

I will read the link you provided and try anything suggested there now and will report back with my findings.

[instantaneouz]

Alright I got that figured out, the driver says it cannot find any precompiled kernel modules for my card, nor can it find any online via ftp. It states it will have to compile a module, however when it attempts to it claims that it cannot find "cc", and to check that GCC is installed. Is there a standard dev package that I can install for GCC?

[instantaneouz]

Alright so apparently GCC is installed now, I no longer get that error.

The error I'm getting now says something like:

Unable to find kernel source tree for the currently running kernel.

I didn't build this kernel from source, I installed it from an ISO.

It's looking more and more likely that there is no sufficient driver for my card and this kernel, I think openSUSE has substituted a driver for an older card.

[caf4926]

nVidia Driver via Repo in 11.3 - Guide

[instantaneouz]

Thanks caf4926 but that was one of the first things I tried after following steps at the NVIDIA website for openSUSE. I set up the NVIDIA repository and installed what appeared to be some nvidia drivers via Yast -> Software Management. Note that I did not have nomodeset parameter set at that time, however I don't think I can go back, since I already installed those drivers via repos.

Now I am trying to manually install the correct driver, knowing that I now have nomodeset enabled.

Also note this step, the same was given in jdmcdaniel3's post:

In Yast > System > etc/Sysconfig editor go to System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INTRID and change the default no to yes

this setting has always been yes by default, and I don't ever recall changing it.

[caf4926]

Please open a terminal and post result of:

/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard | grep Driver

then as su -
hwinfo --gfxcard

[oldcpu]

As jdmcdaniel3 noted the behaviour here can vary dependent on the desktop, so it is also very important you advise whether you are using KDE or Gnome or some other desktop.

[instantaneouz]

It seems the issue was not driver related at all. I opened up kMixer again and tried cranking all the volume controls up. I noticed one of them "PCM" was turned right down, I guess I didn't realize this earlier when I un-muted it.

As I turned this "PCM" volume control up I found I could start to hear audio from a YouTube video. I tested Kaffeine with an .MPG file and all is well now, I can hear the audio.

Sorry to all who I bothered with my very newbie problem, I can't believe it was over something that stupid. Here I was thinking I'd need to buy a new gfx card.

Thanks again to jdmcdaniel3 and caf4926 for the help. All is well now.