Problems I have run into while configuring openSuSE 11.3 installed on Toshiba Satellite Pro

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1

Since the installation of openSuSE 11.3 I’ve been trying to configure the system to my liking. Here are a few problems I have run into:

  1. The sound capture device (microphone) does not work (either in Skype or krecord).

  2. The Hotkeys (Fn-Keys) of my computer do not work under Linux (e.g., I cannot turn up and down the sound volume or the screen brightness, etc) while they do under Windows 7.

  3. While trying to configure my Desktops, the configuration tool crushes with the message: “Executable: systemsetting PID: 16183 Signal: 11 (Segmentation fault)”.

  4. When I try to configure my console and apply transparent windows I get the message: “your desktop does not appear to support transparent windows”.

Any thoughts or ideas to help me solve them will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

2
  1. Open the mixer >> HeadPhone
  2. Weird, it does work here (Dell)
  3. Enable Desktop Effects
3

For problem #2 try going into a terminal and type xev then press enter. Now try pressing your hot keys. Does any additional output come out from the terminal when you press the keys?

4

It gives:

KeyRelease event, serial 34, synthetic NO, window 0x3400001,
root 0xe2, subw 0x0, time 19966685, (-270,424), root:(321,447),
state 0x10, keycode 13 (keysym 0x34, 4), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (34) “4”
XFilterEvent returns: False

5

Nope, neither worked… :frowning:

6

How about Open the mixer (kmix in console) and add microphone? Maybe you need to unmute the microphone?

7

If it gives this output when you press the hotkeys then that means that openSUSE is recognizing that it is being pressed you just need to configure the settings so when you press the hotkey it will do that action

8

And how do I do that?

9

What Desktop Enviornment are you using? e.g. KDE or GNOME

10

It’a a KDE Desktop.

11

Reference getting your mike to work, I would like to try and help, but I do not know the 1st thing about this hardware. Can you provide more information?

Is this an external mic? An internal mic ? Both ?

Please configure your mixer exactly the way you think it should be configured for your mic to work.

Note when testing your mic, I recommend you use a terminal with this command:

  arecord -vv -fdat foo.wav

“foo.wav” is an arbitrary name I made up. Instead you could call it whatapain.wav or whichwaythewindblows.wav or anything …

Then assuming mic does not work, please provide the information recommended to be provided here: Welcome to multimedia sub-area - openSUSE Forums and I will quote this for you:

please post … the following information:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

and select the SHARE/UPLOAD option and after the script finishes it will give you a URL to pass to the support personnel. Please post here the output URL/website-address that gives. Just the URL/website-address. You may need to run that script twice (the first time with root permissions to update in the /usr/sbin directory, and the second time to get the URL).
.
Note if for some reason that gives you no website/url/address then run it with the no-upload option:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload

and post the file /etc/alsa-info.txt it creates to Pastebin.com and press SUBMIT on that site and again post here the URL/website-address it provides.

.
… some clarification on running the script “alsa-info.sh” … when you run:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

you should get something like this (if it asks for an update, select NO):
http://thumbnails33.imagebam.com/9280/a5973e92794041.jpg](ImageBam)

followed by this (select the SHARE/UPLOAD option):
http://thumbnails30.imagebam.com/9280/5e84f992794044.jpg](ImageBam)

followed by this (its quickest if you simply select ‘NO’ to seeing the output - you will see it on the web page) :
http://thumbnails32.imagebam.com/9280/214da092794048.jpg](ImageBam)

followed by this (where in RED is the URL).
http://thumbnails23.imagebam.com/9280/d9858092794051.jpg](ImageBam)

Just post the URL you get (similar to the RED URL in my example, but yours will be different).

Again, if you can not get that, then run this with the no upload option:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload

which will create the file /tmp/alsa-info.txt. Copy that file and paste it on Pastebin.com and press submit. That will give you a URL address. Please post that URL here.

Also provide the following:

  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -qa ‘alsa’ #and post output here
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -qa ‘pulse’ #and post output here
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -q libasound2 #and post output here
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: uname -a #and post output here
  • for openSUSE-11.2 or newer
    , in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf #and post output here>

Note that if for some reason the “/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh” script does not give you a website address/URL then run it with the no upload option this way:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh --no-upload

and that will create the file /tmp/alsa-info.txt. Open that file with a text editor and paste it here: New - Pastie and press paste and post here the website address/URL it provides.

That will provide more information that can help in figuring out your problem.

12 
    I have both external and internal mic. Thanks for all the trouble you went thru
    to quote a previous solution. I managed to configure my kmix by adding mic's 
    channel; it hadn't been selected as a default upon installation.
13

First: What is the graphics chip/card in the laptop. You may need a 3d party driver for it.
Second: about the systemsettings crash, not normal. Create a new user, login as that user and see if it crashes there. If not, something is wrong in your KDE settings.
Third: don’t mess with manual settings, for the keyboard they are in the Systemsettings. Most likely selecting a Toshiba keyboard config will solve those matters. Did so for me on dozens of Toshibas.
Fourth: can you post output of ‘zypper lr -d’ ? It may also be, your KDE is corrupted.

14

My graphics card is:

Intel GMA HD Graphics up to 1696MB

I did what you suggested and it crashed again.

Here goes the output:


# | Alias                               | Name                                | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type   | URI                                                             | Service
--+-------------------------------------+-------------------------------------+---------+---------+----------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+--------
1 | Updates for openSUSE 11.3 11.3-1.82 | Updates for openSUSE 11.3 11.3-1.82 | No      | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.3/                       |        
2 | openSUSE-11.3 11.3-1.82             | openSUSE-11.3 11.3-1.82             | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | cd:///?devices=/dev/sr0                                         |        
3 | repo-debug                          | openSUSE-11.3-Debug                 | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/11.3/repo/oss/  |        
4 | repo-non-oss                        | openSUSE-11.3-Non-Oss               | No      | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.3/repo/non-oss/    |        
5 | repo-oss                            | openSUSE-11.3-Oss                   | No      | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.3/repo/oss/        |        
6 | repo-source                         | openSUSE-11.3-Source                | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/11.3/repo/oss/ |
15

My yast keyboard configuration tool doesn’t offer such an option, as to choosing Toshiba keyboard.

Oh, by the way; while typing these lines all of a sudden the cursor moves at different places on it own, as if I had no control over it. E.g., while typing “t” of “typing” it skipped two lines over and went to a different spot. Anything to do with the keyboard configuration?

16

@Knurpht: that made me curious, since I have a Toshiba as well. Which “systemsettings” are you talking about? The KDE Personal Settings - Keyboard & Mouse, or Yast2? I can’t find a “Toshiba” preset in either.

17

Ok on KDE 4.5 the settings for hotkeys are under Settings->Shortcuts and Gestures->Global Keyboard Shortcuts. Then select the application you want to edit shortcut keys for - e.g. amarok. Then click on one of the actions on there, click the custom option and press the button with the picture of a spanner on it. Now press the hot key. Repeat this for any other hot keys. Then click apply at the bottom right. Then the hot keys should work. If you are on KDE 4.4 let me know and i’ll power on my other computer with KDE 4.4 and give you instructions for KDE 4.4

18

Yes, my KDE is 4.4.4 version. Thanks for your extra effort.