youngtomedison
11-16-2007, 11:20 PM
I'm running Debian Etch with KDE 3.5. The installation is roughly 5 months old.
I started up my computer today (a P-IV with 1 gig of RAM) with my heart set on listening to some internet radio (wfmu.org if you must know).
When XMMS started up, it flashed me a message saying that the sound card was not available.
I logged out and logged back in as root.
I checked the Users and Groups screen to see if privileges for my usual username had been enabled. Sure enough, the box for audio device privileges was unchecked, even though I did not uncheck it. So, I rechecked it, then hit APPLY.
I logged out of root and logged back in under my usual name.
When KDE came back up, it flashed me the following message:
Sound server informational message
Error while initializing the sound driver
device/dev/dsp can't be opened (Permission denied)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device
I logged back in as root, thinking I might have made a mistake. Everything was OK. My user privileges screen showed that my usual username had sound-system permissions enabled; the box was checked, just as I left it.
When I logged out of root and back to my usual username, I got the same error message which you see above.
I went to the KDE control center and tried to re-start the sound server. Same error message as you see above.
While I was in root, I tested XMMS by playing an MP3 from my hard driove. It worked fine.
I should mention that last night, my computer malfunctioned oddly while I was running Iceweasel (web browser). My machine went flakey on me, and my desktop went nuts (icons on my lower toolbar started getting moved by my mouse pointer even though I wasn't trying to move them). I shut down the machine by turning it off because the GUI had gone bonkers, and I could not shut down normally.
What is going on? Have I got a virus, an Internet bomb of some sort, or what else could have disabled my sound card privileges without my knowledge? What else should I be concerned about?
And more importantly, how can I fix it? Is my installation now hopelessly corrupt? Am I looking at a grand-mal hard drive wipe-and-reinstall? My hard drive (a Seagate 80 GB EIDE drive) is 4 years old. Is it time to junk it and replace it?
I'm a recovering Windows user, so I might need more detailed explanations as to what command-lines I need to use.
I started up my computer today (a P-IV with 1 gig of RAM) with my heart set on listening to some internet radio (wfmu.org if you must know).
When XMMS started up, it flashed me a message saying that the sound card was not available.
I logged out and logged back in as root.
I checked the Users and Groups screen to see if privileges for my usual username had been enabled. Sure enough, the box for audio device privileges was unchecked, even though I did not uncheck it. So, I rechecked it, then hit APPLY.
I logged out of root and logged back in under my usual name.
When KDE came back up, it flashed me the following message:
Sound server informational message
Error while initializing the sound driver
device/dev/dsp can't be opened (Permission denied)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device
I logged back in as root, thinking I might have made a mistake. Everything was OK. My user privileges screen showed that my usual username had sound-system permissions enabled; the box was checked, just as I left it.
When I logged out of root and back to my usual username, I got the same error message which you see above.
I went to the KDE control center and tried to re-start the sound server. Same error message as you see above.
While I was in root, I tested XMMS by playing an MP3 from my hard driove. It worked fine.
I should mention that last night, my computer malfunctioned oddly while I was running Iceweasel (web browser). My machine went flakey on me, and my desktop went nuts (icons on my lower toolbar started getting moved by my mouse pointer even though I wasn't trying to move them). I shut down the machine by turning it off because the GUI had gone bonkers, and I could not shut down normally.
What is going on? Have I got a virus, an Internet bomb of some sort, or what else could have disabled my sound card privileges without my knowledge? What else should I be concerned about?
And more importantly, how can I fix it? Is my installation now hopelessly corrupt? Am I looking at a grand-mal hard drive wipe-and-reinstall? My hard drive (a Seagate 80 GB EIDE drive) is 4 years old. Is it time to junk it and replace it?
I'm a recovering Windows user, so I might need more detailed explanations as to what command-lines I need to use.