[solved] karmic audio trouble

[doctordruidphd]

Interesting problem with audio on karmic. This is a 64-bit system I migrated from 64-bit JJ.
I have both alsa and pulseaudio set up, and both are listed in SystemSettings>Multimedia.
Neither works. If I try to test alsa, I get a message saying "alsa does not work, falling back to pulseaudio". If I try pulseaudio, nothing happens. The volume indicator in the volumecontrol>playback panel moves, but in the Volume Meter (playback) panel, it does not. None of the applications like Amarok or alsaplayer produce any audio.
There is apparently no asoundconf command; if I type asoundconf, it says I need to install alsa-utils, but that is already installed, and reinstalling doesn't fix.
Here's the kicker: the login and logout sounds work!

Are we going to get a karmic forum any time soon?

[3vi1]

Re: karmic audio trouble

Start alsamixer and make sure that all of your audio sources aren't muted. I ran into that with one of my systems after upgrading to the previous version.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: karmic audio trouble

Thanks for the tip. That's one of the first things I tried.
Nonetheless, after today's updates, it's working now.
Someone is watching... (thanks)

[hteles]

Re: [solved] karmic audio trouble

Hi,

Are you talking about the output device?
My devices are a INTEL(ICH6) and Pulse Audio.

As backend i'm using Xine!

I can't understand why you've got alsa in the first place

[doctordruidphd]

Re: [solved] karmic audio trouble

I admit I am no expert on alsa, but:

ALSA stands for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. It is a suite of hardware drivers, libraries and utilities which provide audio and MIDI functionality for the Linux operating system.

from: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page

As I understand it, ALSA is basically an i/o manager and driver system, not a device per say.
It provides the interface between the kernel and your sound card.

A "device" in the unix world (and I am extrapolating to linux) is basically a table that points to a driver, that in turn invokes a series of modules to communicate between the kernel and a piece of hardware. Bottom line, without ALSA or some other manager/driver system, you don't talk to your sound card at all.

Hover your mouse over the "devices" listed in SystemSettings>Multimedia, and it will list the sound system each device is using.