[SOLVED] No sound, xfce4-mixer gives error

moonfrog · 11-04-2009, 01:38 AM

I've been searching and tweaking for hours, even rolled a fresh kernel by hand with my sound card compiled in. This is a new install.

The error I get when trying to start xfce4-mixer is:

Quote:

GStreamer was unable to detect any sound devices.
Some sound system specific GStreamer packages
may be missing. It may also be a permissions problem.

I'm in the audio group.
When I run dmesg I find:

Quote:

] Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.20.
] VIA 82xx Audio 0000:00:11.5: PCI INT C -> Link[LNKC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
] VIA 82xx Audio 0000:00:11.5: VIA VLink IRQ fixup, from 5 to 11
] VIA 82xx Audio 0000:00:11.5: setting latency timer to 64
..........................
] ALSA device list:
] #0: VIA 8237 with ALC655 at 0xd400, irq 11

alsamixer starts up fine and looks normal, but has no effect.

I've installed Gentoo several times and never had this happen,
however it's always been with KDE and different use flags.

I don't know much about use flags, here are the ones I have now:

Quote:

USE="xcomposite -gnome -kde -minimal -qt3 -qt4 X branding dbus hal jpeg lock session startup-notification thunar"

Dralnu · 11-04-2009, 02:03 AM

emerge --info would be nice, but I'll go through the few alsa troubleshooting steps I remember, since you said alsamixer had no effect it may be worth something.

1) Do you have support for your soundcard built in?
2) Is everything you are trying to use compiled with alsa support? (USE=alsa for packages with that option)
3) Soundcard plugged in/physically installed?
4) Speakers/headphones plugged in?
5) Master and/or PCM muted?
6) Master and/or PCM turned down?
7) Is alsa using your real card? (alsamixer, upper right hand corner should tell you the card name. If it says dummy, its the wrong card)
8) Can you get some audio output using another program? (as in using mp3blaster to play an mp3. If it gives output and the other doesn't, it would be a software issue)
9) Are you sure you have the right soundcard support built in? (particually difficult when dealing with the intel HD drivers, at least in my experience)

moonfrog · 11-04-2009, 02:35 AM

Thanks for your response, and telling me about emerge info.
Here's the output:

Code:

Portage 2.1.6.13 (default/linux/x86/10.0, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2, 2.6.31.5 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.31.5-i686-AMD_Athlon-tm-_Processor_LE-1640-with-gentoo-1.12.11.1
Timestamp of tree: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:20:01 +0000
ccache version 2.4 [enabled]
app-shells/bash:     4.0_p28
dev-lang/python:     2.6.2-r1
dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r7
sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.6-r2
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.63-r1
sys-devel/automake:  1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.6a
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.27-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="ccache distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.lug.udel.edu/pub/gentoo/ "
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X acl berkdb branding bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cups dbus dri fortran gdbm gpm hal iconv jpeg lock modules mudflap ncurses nls nptl nptlonly openmp pam pcre perl pppd python readline reflection session spl ssl startup-notification sysfs tcpd thunar unicode x86 xcomposite xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="radeonhd"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

It shows alot of use flags that I didn't give it and don't want.

I only have Flashplayer to test with right now.
And I'm fairly sure the kernel's right because I compile new one's often.

After I sleep I'll install a sound app or two and see what happens.

Dralnu · 11-04-2009, 02:39 AM

As I thought; the alsa USE flag isn't set. Try setting it, then run the the list and see what happens

moonfrog · 11-04-2009, 02:53 AM

Thanks, I thought it was a use flag but didn't want to keep stabbing in the dark.

I tested my Flashplayer again and...Sound!

But I still get the error with xfce4-mixer, presumably the alsa flag will fix that.
While my PC runs newuse world I'll get the sleep I so badly need.

edit: alsa flag fixed xfce4-mixer.

Much Appreciation.