I am a complete newbie who recently installed openSUSE 11.3 (64-bit). My desktop is KDE. Motherboard is MSI X58 Eclipse. Audio card (came with MB) is Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme H/W.
As the title of my message indicates, there’s no sound coming out from the speakers. I know that both speakers and sound card work fine because I just tested them under Windows XP.
I launched YaST, chose the Sound icon, clicked on Add, selected Creative Labs. The sound card model that comes close to the one I have should be X-Fi. So I chose that, selected Quick Automatic Setup and I get the following error message:
***An error occurred during the installation of X-Fi. The kernel module snd-ctxfi for sound support could not be loaded. This can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
I then went to Open Source - SoundCard Support (Creative Labs’ Open Source - SoundCard Support) but I did not download any drivers because of the following warnings:
**** THIS IS AN UNSUPPORTED BETA DRIVER. There is no technical support for this driver.
This beta driver has only been tested on the following 32-bit / 64-bit Linux distributions: Ubuntu® 7.10, openSUSE® 10.3 and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5.1 (64-bit only).
We recommend that only experienced users install this driver. Do not install this driver on a system used to perform critical tasks.
I am completely inexperienced with Linux, so I am seeking guidance as to what I need to do in order to get sound to my speakers.
When testing your PC for sound functionality, try one of these tests as both a regular user, and with root permissions from a terminal:
first:
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav
second, try again:
speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav
third:
speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -t wav -l3
fourth, this next command has a volume meter at the bottom of its output with a changing number of #'s and %'s to show volume levels so run this command and tell me if the number of #'s and %'s are changing:
aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_*
fifth: and also:
aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Do any of those give an indication of sound ? Note it is typically 1/2 of those do not work. You only need ONE to work to prove your sound functionally setup.
Also try those with and without headphones.
If that does not work, then try moving your /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file to /home/your-user-name/50-sound.conf.mybackup
and then restart your PC and test your sound (do NOT go into YaST sound) again as noted above.
I tried executing your suggested commands but I always end up getting error messages.:
speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav
speaker-test 1.0.23
Playback device is plug:front
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels WAV file(s)
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav
speaker-test 1.0.23
Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels WAV file(s)
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -t wav -l3
speaker-test 1.0.23
Playback device is hw:0,0
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels WAV file(s)
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_*
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
aplay: main:654: audio open error: No such file or directory
aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
aplay: main:654: audio open error: No such file or directory
As for the suggestion to move file 50-sound.conf, I managed to copy it to /home/~ like you suggested but I am unable to delete it from /etc/~ because the option Move To Trash is grayed out. I don’t quite understand why because I am the only user and have Administrator privileges --as far as I know!
I have reached Step #3 mentioned in the SDB;Audio Troubleshooting link you gave me. I have run the ALSA Information Script and part of the report obtained shows the following:
**!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------
0 [HDMI ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfb9ec000 irq 35
1 [Generic ]: HDA-Intel - HD-Audio Generic
HD-Audio Generic at 0xfbafc000 irq 16
!!PCI Soundcards installed in the system
!!--------------------------------------
It shows that I have a Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme sound card. But that card is not shown under Applications -> Configure Desktop -> Multimedia. I have tried to add the sound card manually but I get the error described in my original post.
No, and I think that is part of the problem that I have… There is no mention of a Creative Labs’ Sound Blaster when I look in Yast -> Hardware -> Sound!
I tried adding the sound card manually but I get the error described in my original post.
ALSA’s report proves that the system detects the sound card, but for some reason openSUSE is unaware of its existence and won’t let me add it manually…
Typically, regular users in Linux do NOT have Administrator permissions. That is the MS-Windows way and it is misleading if one thinks to do things that way in Linux. In Linux for desktop users, there are typically a minimum of 2 users. One administrator (root) and one the regular user (in my case oldcpu). The regular user should NOT have administrator permissions, but rather should ‘switch to administrator’ when required.
You need to learn how Administrator permissions are used in Linux else you will be frustrated and stymied in everything you do.
Sould Configuration lists the following sound cards for my system:
0 Sapphire HD4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual Slot Fansink
1 SB1040
The first one I recognize it as being my video card, so I do not understand why it is listed by Sound Configurator. The second one I have no idea what it is.
At this point, I do not have any kind of sound coming out from the speakers. I tried both playing internet radio and music CDs. No sound whatsoever.
I tried to manually add my sound card but I get the error message mentioned in my original post.
Well… According to this link: Matrix:Vendor-Creative Labs - AlsaProject
my sound card, X-Fi Xtreme Audio (PCIe), is not supported by the ALSA project.
I think this pretty much settles the issue, unless somebody knows a way around it.
As far as I can tell, everything is set correctly in Kmix. However, I discovered that my sound card is not supported by the ALSA project… See my other posting under this thread.