soundblaster in debian looks good no sound

[ruwach]

OK - i just installed a soundblaster live ls 5.1 pci into my box here and then installed debian sarge with the debian installer ( kernel 2.4.25 )
it auto detected my card and loaded sound, soundcore and the emu10k1 and the ac97_codec.
i started xmms and it appears to be playing a file but there is no sound. i have the OSS driver selected there. i have already done a chmod 777 on /dev/dsp and /dev/mixer and /dev/sound but still cant get anything to play.

aumix hasn't helped me any either.
the card is found durring boot time and lsmod shows that the OSS drivers are loaded.

i tried soundconfig, but it freaked on me saying that it was going to search something on the pci or whatever... i have forgotten/

any help would really be appreciated.
thanks

[sharth]

try as root to skip any permissions insanity.

and try "cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp"

[ruwach]

ok i logged in as root - same results

did the cat /dev/random > /dev/dsp and nothing happened. the prompt didn't even come back. like it was waiting on something

[sharth]

Thats a good thing that the prompt didn't come back. It leads me to believe that sound is working fine, it's something else thats being screwed up. Make sure that the speakers are plugged in correctly (working correctly and what not).

also, if you use onboard sound as well as a pci card, try using both and see if one of them does work.

[ruwach]

ok, i got sound, but out of the mic plug in on the sound card- weird . discovered that by accident. Still, it sounds terrible. OK, so what now ? can i damage the sound card by using it like this ? should i try alsa instead of OSS, that means a kernel recompile in debian right ? i dont think i can go up to 2.6 because the last time i tried that it messed up XFree by not being able to load certain modules? What would you suggest /

thanks

[psi42]

If you have a live cd handy, try booting from it and see if you have the same problem.

[sharth]

Well, no recompile is necessary, so lets give alsa a whirl.

:edit:
Well, actually everything below you "don't" need to do. just apt-get install alsa-modules-`uname -r` and then rmmod the incorrect modules (the sound ones) and then you should be good. might been to run /etc/init.d/alsa restart but besides that... can't think of much else.

:end edit:



apt-get install kernel-header-`uname -r` alsa-source alsa-utils alsa-base kernel-package

and then follow the debconf questions.

and then cd /usr/src/linux-`uname -r` (i think).

and then make-kpkg modules-image

and then dpkg -i ../alsa-modules*.deb

[ruwach]

hey thanks, guys. i will try them both. Gotta dl a live cd then i will try to see what it comes up with for modules.

ok, next question :

Sharth - is "uname" a direct quote. or does it mean something system specific - like "foo" - i mean... do i type the word "uname -r" ?

thanks

[psi42]

Originally posted by ruwach

is "uname" a direct quote. or does it mean something system specific - like "foo" - i mean... do i type the word "uname -r" ?


uname is a real command :)

[sharth]

the little quote like things that surrounded uname are called back-ticks (i think). they are the key on US keyboards which is located with the tidle (~) key and are to the left of the list of numbers (right below esc on my keyboard).

by encompasing a command in these backticks, it will take the output, and place it in the command as if it were part of it.

example.sharth@debian:~$ uname -r
2.4.25-epia2
sharth@debian:~$ echo "uname -r"
uname -r
sharth@debian:~$ echo "`uname -r`"
2.4.25-epia2

[ruwach]

Ok , here is what happpened so far/

i did an apt-get alsa-modules 2.4.25-1-386 and watched it so some stuff. i did an lsmod and rmmod on emu10k1, sound, soundcore and ac97_codec modules. i then tried to do a /etc/init.d/alsa restart and it failed to set up mixer settings. nothing happening so i rebooted.. As it rebooted it loaded all the OSS modules that i had removed earlier and alsa failed to load. i tried the alsa restart again and it failed and told me to run alsactl restore manually to find out what happened. so i did that and it said " no soundcards found"

ok. whats the next step ?

thanks for all of your help..!!

[ruwach]

well, i got sound set up right in ALSA ! getting rid of the OSS modules is what hooked me up. i can do more with the card now, but it still sounds bad at anything louder than about 70% on volume. it is perhaps a function of the speakers. the last sound card i had just seemed to put out more power than this one, but i can use that soundcard with this motherboard because those slots are not on this one. These speakers only plug into the sound card, not to an external power source. Do newer cards require more amplification than what this does ?
ok, thanks for all of your help, i can at least hear again, but let me know if you have any suggestions.

thanks again

[c-pol]

How do you remove the OSS modules? I have this same problem.