KMIX ON HP DV6-1040

English Applications
1

Hello, I have trouble in getting Kmix up and running. (some) System details:
Linux 2.6.31.12-0.1-desktop x86_64
openSUSE 11.2 (x86_64)
4.3.5 (KDE 4.3.5) “release 0”
4 GiB RAM
It appears that Kmix is installed, as the Kmix icon start bouncing, but after a few seconds it disappears.
I do not know whether the problem was there before I installed Skype, but it became apparent after Skype installation (trying to get the microphone working).

Help/Hints would be greatly appreciated!
Jan Christian

2

Make sure kmix is not already actually running and has been auto hidden in the systray autohide
can you see it in the system process table if you filter to kmix?

If it’s not running
Open a terminal and enter

kmix

what happens in the terminal, report back

3

Hello caf4926,

here is the response to “kmix”:
<unknown program name>(6158)/: KUniqueApplication: Cannot find the D-Bus session server: “Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.”
<unknown program name>(6157)/: KUniqueApplication: Pipe closed unexpectedly.

“cnf kmix” yields:
Program ‘kmix’ is present in package ‘kmix’, which is installed on your system.
Absolute path to ‘kmix’ is ‘/usr/bin/kmix’. Please check your $PATH variable to see whether it contains the mentioned path.

“/usr/bin/kmix” (run as su) yields the same response as “kmix”.

Thanks for looking into the matter!
Jan christian

4

It is very strange that it can not find the file “kmix”. Has something happened to your PC’s path ? Have you tried this immediately after a reboot ?

5

Hello again!

Something has happened, yes. But what, I have no clue.
Here is the outcome from echo “$PATH”:
/home/JCA/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/opt/kde3/bin:/usr/lib64/jvm/jre/bin:/usr/lib/mit/bin:/usr/lib/mit/sbin:/home/JCA/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/opt/kde3/bin:/usr/lib64/jvm/jre/bin:/usr/lib/mit/bin:/usr/lib/mit/sbin:/usr/bin/kmix

Note that I have added the last entry ‘/usr/bin/kmix’ since my previous posting. Now entering “kmix” (as su) yields no response, but (strangely?)
applications > multimedia > sound mixer gives the bouncing icon and exit.

Best regards,
Jan Christian

6

IMHO that is not a proper entry, and should not be added.

This bouncing icon is consistent behaviour with the kmix failure behaviour seen in a konsole/terminal.

You should not have to run kmix as user root.

What happens when you type kmix as a regular user, WITHOUT what I believe to be an inappropriate /usr/bin/kmix entry in your PC’s path.

And apologies, but I did NOT see the answer to my question … do you get the same behaviour IMMEDIATELY after a reboot (when you do NOT have that /usr/bin/kmix entry in the path).

7

Hello oldcpu!

And apologies, but I did NOT see the answer to my question … do you get the same behaviour IMMEDIATELY after a reboot (when you do NOT have that /usr/bin/kmix entry in the path).

I owe YOU thanks and an apology: Sorry for not replying properly!
A new try with $PATH as
“/home/JCA/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/games:/opt/kde3/bin:/usr/lib64/jvm/jre/bin:/usr/lib/mit/bin:/usr/lib/mit/sbin” IMMEDIATELY after a reboot yields the bouncing icon.

“JCA@linux-mo60:~> kmix” returns the prompt with kmix running as a process with zero cpu ( “2441 ? 00:00:00 kmix” from ps)

killing process 2441 and running as su yields
"linux-mo60:/home/JCA # kmix
<unknown program name>(5577)/: KUniqueApplication: Cannot find the D-Bus session server: “Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.”

<unknown program name>(5576)/: KUniqueApplication: Pipe closed unexpectedly."

Any further help would be appreciated: Are we looking at the right place?
Jan Christian

8

For starters, please do not run kmix as user root.

9

Note, if one runs many applications with root permissions, there is a risk one can mess up their PCs permissions, which means applications may not properly run as a regular user, and that can be a royal mess to sort, well beyond my feeble knowledge levels to sort.

10

What is the output of:

rpm -q kmix
whereis kmix
11

Hello oldcpu,

here is the outcome:

linux-mo60:/home/JCA # rpm -q kmix
kmix-4.3.5-0.1.4.x86_64
linux-mo60:/home/JCA # whereis kmix
kmix: /usr/bin/kmix /usr/bin/X11/kmix

For the record: I did not (as far as I can tell) not run any program as su until the mess was a fact.

Best regards,
Jan Christian

12

I do not know the problem. I’m suspicious of a bad install.

13

Hello again!

I have questions to your last comment:

I’m suspicious of a bad install.

Bad install of kmix, of Skype, or of “Whole Linux”?
Do you have any suggestions as to how to proceed?

Thanks in advance!
Jan Christian

14

Suspicous of Linux. You should not get such an error wrt kmix.

Out of curiousity, what happens if you try to run kmix when specifying the path … ie something like:

./usr/bin/kmix

Please do so as a regular user and NOT as root.

I’m not at a linux PC so I can not check that syntax to confirm it correct so you may need to play a bit with the syntax.

15

Hello oldcpu,

first answering your question:
Executing “./usr/bin/kmix” starts a process ‘kmix’ that runs in the background and consumes no resources.

However, utilizing Yast and trying to configure the sound card yields an error

An error occurred during the installation of
SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
The kernel module snd-hda-intel for sound support
could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect
module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.

A big step for Jan Christian, hopefully a small step for
you!

Best regards,
Jan Christian

16

Additional info: My codec is IDT 92HD71B7X.

Best Regards,
Jan Christian

17

Does this mean kmix now works ?

This is a typical yast error message. To get rid of this simply remove the /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file, and try again in YaST to configure. Note when you do that kmix will likely be “killed” when alsa restarts, and it will have to be run again.

18

Hello oldcpu,

you asked

Does this mean kmix now works ?

It means exactly what I stated in my message: There is a process “kmix” doing nothing (not even consuming CPU-time). How to utilize KMix I do not know, There is no window showing any trace of kmix (except for the terminal window, where you can see that kmix has been started).

Your advice

To get rid of this simply remove the /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file, and try again in YaST to configure.

was successfully followed, but without any influence on KMix.

Now my silly question of today: Do I have to enable Pulse Audio?

Thanks and Regards,
Jan christian

19

And my answer of the day: No.

20

To re-iterate my previous assessment, to ensure there is no misunderstanding as to my view on this, and I quote:

Perhaps I should be a bit stronger in my view. I am VERY suspicious of a bad Linux install.