Slackware 10 sound, after swaret...

[psych-major]

In what I discovered to be a very common problem, I lost my sound after updating Slack with swaret. There are many posts on the subject, but I found two bits of advice that proved successful, so I thought I would put them here to help future searchers. Here goes:

First, download and install the latest alsa drivers per the instructions here:

[edit] The article I linked had a couple arguably confusing steps. I have refined it and it is available here
[/edit]

http://linuxtipps.sourceforge.net/sh...tutorial/2.htm
Follow these instructions to the letter, they work!

Next, to have sound as a non-root user, change permissions on the following files:
chmod 777 /dev/mixer
chmod 777 /dev/mixer0
chmod 777 /dev/dsp
chmod 777 /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa
chmod -R 777 /dev/snd

Obviously chmod 777 is wide open and probably not secure, but I'm lazy and you're free to experiment, Besides, this post is about getting the ^&%$#@ sound back, not security! {;^)

Sound should now work and you can go back to annoying your co-workers with your vast Mp3 collection.

If you still have no sound, open a console and enter alsamixer. up and down arrows adjust the levels, and the m key toggles the various channels off and on. Hit escape to save and return to the console.

This was an enormous help to me and I hope it helps someone else, because it would be a shame for someone to give up on a great distro like Slack over something silly like sound...

--my system:
-MSI barebones system retrieved from office dumpster
-Celeron 466
-192 megs RAM
-onboard Intel video w/1meg RAM
-AC'97 sound
-10gig Maxtor drive - 5gig Windoze 2K and 5gig FAT for storage
-10gig Maxtor drive - Slackware 10.0 brought 'current' via swaret (same dumpster as above)
Phillips 15" LCD monitor (no, I won't divulge the location of the dumpster)
Lite On 52X cd writer (Actually bought this)

[dannybunkins]

i thank you for this thread as it has saved me from hours of searching.

[whk]

This is a must read!!
listen all nOObs, swaggars, slaggers, pondscumbs and wanabe's
you gotta read this.

Psych - Major you are in the lead for Guru of the Year
I gotta give the crown to you - sorry je_fro

I wonder how many people quit because of permissions?

[JamminJoeyB]

Or you could.

A. back up your rc.alsa file before updating your Slackware system with swaret. If after you update you don't have an rc.alsa copy it back. This was covered about a year ago in a post on this board. Maybe I'll post a link to the thread later when i have time to search for it.

B. Don't allow swaret to update alsa. You can do that in the swaret.conf file.

If sound is working for you why worry about upgrading to the latest and greatest.

I would only worry about it if I was installing a new kernel.

Permissions are the number 2 gotcha on sound. I think the number one gotcha is pnp in the bios. Most new users of linux do not know that Linux does not use pnp and it needs to be disabled in the bios for Linux to properly detect your hardware. There should be a warning about that at the beginning of every distro's install.

[STORMPROOF]

Thanks psych-major I did have this same problem with one of my slackers.

[psych-major]

Thanks for all the comments, guys, We aim to please!

JamminJoeyB,
After this happened the first time I EXCLUDED alsa in my swaret.conf file but I have also had to re-read my own post because for some reason Dell laptops, of which I have 2, don't seem to have sound upon a fresh install, In both cases alsaconfig found the card but wouldn't get it to work and re-installing alsa has worked. Weird...