ok thanks
From the diagnostic script I note a 32-bit openSUSE-11.4 with the 2.6.37-1 default kernel and the 1.0.23(driver)/1.0.24.2(utilities) alsa installed. You have two sound modules being loaded, which is the snd-hda-intel and the snd_cmipci. Pulse audio is running. And your two sound devices recognzed by alsa are the:
!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------
0 [NVidia ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
HDA NVidia at 0xfe020000 irq 21
1 [CMI8738 ]: CMI8738 - C-Media CMI8738
C-Media CMI8738 (model 37) at 0xcc00, irq 18
The nVidia sound device is an ALC888 hardware audio codec. I do note that one of the IEC958 switches are OFF (ie simple mixer control-1) and hence if you are trying to play digital audio, I speculate that could be causing a problem.
Your /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf file has some entries to configure the NVidia (snd-hda-intel) sound device:
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel
# M71A.golWCaVMRzB:MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High Definition Audio
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
and it has no entry to configure the CMI8738 (but clearly it is still loading the snd_cmipci module). That is expected since alsa will try to automatically configure one’s sound device even if there is no corresponding entry in the 50-sound.conf file.
You noted you get start up sound sometimes … I assume that is coming from the nVidia sound device. Is that correct. We need to know it is coming from the correct device.
On my PC with two sound devices, I configure BOTH sound devices in the 50-sound.conf file, and then I use that file, YaST, and pavucontrol application to ensure I play sound through the correct card (and its corresponding features).
I believe there are various approaches you could take here.
You could configure BOTH cards (with nVidia set as card 0, and CMI8738 as card 1) and then post the /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf and we can ensure the alias in that file is properly setup.
You MUST (no matter what) setup your codecs to play back audio. Which means follow caf4926’s guide here: Multi-media and Restricted Format Installation Guide and then once complete there, install and run jdmcdaniel3’s multimedia check script “mmcheck” with guidance given here: MultiMedia Checker or mmcheck - Check Your openSUSE MultiMedia Setup in Just 16 Steps and then if you are missing any apps according to the mmcheck script, you should install the missing apps.
Now most multimedia applications (such as vlc or xine or mplayer) have configuration or preference sections where one selects the output audio mode. So you need to launch those multimedia apps and tune their configuration/preferences. I typically select the alsa OSS emulation but you need to be cognizant of the choices there, so that if a specific multimedia player does not work, you can go back and tweak the settings. In the case of xine you need to install the xine-ui user-interface application (and select ‘master of the known universe’ permissions). In the case of mplayer I recommend smplayer front end.
To help, you also need pavucontrol installed, and when playing audio.
Then when audio is playing (or supposed to be playing) you need to launch pavucontrol and in pavucontrol select the appropriate output audio device, as that can over rule what is in YasT and in the 50-sound.conf file. I’m working from my openSUSE-11.3 PC right now so I can’t give you a screen shot of that, but I can later.
Now its always possible that there is a configuration problem with your nVidia sound device’s ALC888 but if you are getting start up sound on occasion, then clearly the ALC888 works ok. Rather the problem is in either your codecs, in your media players configuration/settings or in the way pulse audio is tuned. Hence we need to know that.
