I’ve just booted into xen, and I have no sound. My using an Acer Aspire 5315. Any ideas why this might be?
Sound works fine with the default kernel…
Does your xen use a different kernel? It could be your alsa is compiled for the default kernel.
You clever man! (I’m assuming you are a man, anyway)
You’re not wrong. 
You could try working your way through the openSUSE audio troubleshooting guide …
SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE
… I’m not clear how much the guide will help, as I did not write that guide with the idea of a xen kernel in mind. Nor do I have any experience with xen. I do not know of any custom rpm packaged versions of alsa for the xen kernel. … I checked the multimedia area, and there is nothing specific for alsa for xen:
Index of /repositories/multimedia:/audio/openSUSE_Factory
If appropriate application of the various steps in the audio troubleshooting guide don’t work, you could be in custom alsa compilation territory.
I think the easiest way would just to use the default kernel, and do without xen. I was just doing the “what is this xen thing about” thing, which I do every time I install a new version of openSUSE.
I’ve never got very far with it though…
Basically i dont think you need much sound with the xen Kernel. The main reason to boot into the xen Kernel is to install a new VM . After you have done that you boot back into the default kernel and work with your VM.
I just tried this but running the default kernel (non Xen) and doesn’t allow you to start the VM’s.
I have a simular problem where my sound is working when using my default but when booting and using the Xen kernel, sound stops.
I’m using 11.2 with latest kernel. Linux johan 2.6.31.8-0.1-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2009-12-15 23:55:40 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
some additional info I found in messages when trying to use sound with Xen kernel
Feb 3 04:35:16 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-sink.c: ALSA woke us up to write new data to the device, but there was actually nothing to write!
Feb 3 04:35:16 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-sink.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver ‘snd_hda_intel’. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Feb 3 04:35:16 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-sink.c: We were woken up with POLLOUT set – however a subsequent snd_pcm_avail() returned 0 or another value < min_avail.
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_avail() returned a value that is exceptionally large: 1441151880758558656 bytes (104573379102 ms).
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: Most likely this is a bug in the ALSA driver ‘snd_hda_intel’. Please report this issue to the ALSA developers.
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: snd_pcm_dump():
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: Soft volume PCM
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: Control: PCM Playback Volume
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: min_dB: -51
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: max_dB: 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: resolution: 256
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: stream : PLAYBACK
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 4416
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 736
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 16689
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 736
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 4971973988617027584
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 4971973988617027584
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: Slave: Hardware PCM card 0 ‘HDA Intel’ device 0 subdevice 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: Its setup is:
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: stream : PLAYBACK
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: access : MMAP_INTERLEAVED
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: format : S16_LE
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: subformat : STD
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: channels : 2
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: rate : 44100
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: exact rate : 44100 (44100/1)
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: msbits : 16
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: buffer_size : 4416
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_size : 736
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_time : 16689
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: tstamp_mode : ENABLE
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_step : 1
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: avail_min : 736
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: period_event : 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: start_threshold : -1
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: stop_threshold : 4971973988617027584
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: silence_threshold: 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: silence_size : 0
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: boundary : 4971973988617027584
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: appl_ptr : 2064497
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-util.c: hw_ptr : 2060065
Feb 3 04:36:01 johan pulseaudio[7104]: alsa-sink.c: snd_pcm_mmap_commit: Device or resource busy