I broke alsa...

NeverThere · 05-10-2011, 09:14 AM

Hello.

Recently after upgrading all my packages, I started having issues with my on-board sound-chip taking the default sound device slot away from my PCI card.

I had previously just indexed the onboard sound to an index of -2. I didn't disable it altogether, because I use it for the front side headphone jack. After double-checking, I realized that something must have changed in the package behavior itself as my config file was still intact.

I purged all alsa related programs, and reinstalled with no luck. The snd-intel8x0 module kept getting loaded as default. So in an effort to be even more thorough, I ran the commands 'find / -name alsa*', 'find / -name *alsa', 'find / -name *alsa*', and starting deleting files.

Big mistake. After removing a lot of those found files, I reinstalled alsa yet again.

Here's my long winded problem, I received this message upon attempting to run several alsa apps, including 'alsamixer'.

Code:

ALSA lib conf.c:3617:(snd_config_update_r) Cannot access file /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf
ALSA lib control.c:882:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL default
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

Apparently, I deleted something that came from the kernel, and wasn't just replaced by a package. I also noticed that the alsa-base.conf, and alsa-blacklist.conf, don't seem to come with any of the alsa packages either.

Is there any way for me to fix this?

widget · 05-10-2011, 02:58 PM

Well, you do have a problem.

I think that until this is fixed that it would be a good idea to disable the integrated audio manager. Just let the box worry about the sound card for a while.

Have you run, as root;

Code:

dpkg --configure -a

just in case?

I would also try;

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure alsa-base

and run that for every alsa related package you can think of.

EDDY1 · 05-10-2011, 04:31 PM

Op has to also have rw permissions to src, If you don't have permission the directory won't be created.

chmod will give him the permissions necessary.
sudo chmod -R g+w /usr/src
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-files-807792/

NeverThere · 05-10-2011, 04:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by widget

Well, you do have a problem.

I think that until this is fixed that it would be a good idea to disable the integrated audio manager. Just let the box worry about the sound card for a while.

Have you run, as root;

Code:

dpkg --configure -a

just in case?

I would also try;

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure alsa-base

and run that for every alsa related package you can think of.

No dice. I eventually even tried an 'apt-get --reinstall' of the kernel with no success. I have absolutely no idea what packages (if any) create the '/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf', '/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf', or the '/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-blacklist.conf' files. Since even a full kernel reinstall didn't work, I've decided to just download the latest snapshot iso of Debian testing.

Thanks for the attempts at helping though. They are much appreciated.

EDDY1 · 05-10-2011, 07:00 PM

Quote:

I have absolutely no idea what packages (if any) create the '/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf',

Alsa modules are built in user space, you have to have group write permissions to src. Without it you cannot create the necessary directory

artur.szilagyi · 05-16-2011, 10:49 AM

Quote:

I have absolutely no idea what packages (if any) create the '/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf',

I had the same problem, but I could solve it by reinstalling asound2 package
good luck

artur.szilagyi · 05-16-2011, 10:50 AM

Quote:

I have absolutely no idea what packages (if any) create the '/usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf',

I had the same problem, but I could solve it by reinstalling asound2 package
good luck