No sound on speaker and headphone

[maerky]

Hello people.

Just installed VL 5.8 SOHO yesterday and I find it very fast (for a distro that runs KDE) and very responsive to my computing needs.

One problem though, it seems ALSAconf is detecting my soundcard but no sound is coming out.  I tried changing the settings in KMIX, Alsamixer, and even gamix.

Initially I tried it on my headphone, now on speakers still no sound.

I even tried restarting alsa but to no avail.

I tried playing audio CD in KsCD, it shows that its playing but there is no sound.

lspci shows that my sound card is:
00:02.7 Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [Si
S] AC'97 Sound Controller (rev a0)

Please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[retired1af]

Each new install disables my sound card as well. I find it's always muted in alsamixer. Scroll to the right and see if you find your card listed.

[maerky]

Thanks for the reply.  Now its working.  VL 5.8 SOHO will stay in my HD for a while.

 

Very nice distro.  First time for me to try one that is based in Slackware as I've started with Kubuntu 5.04 back in 2005.

[tronkel]

Maerky wrote:

One problem though, it seems ALSAconf is detecting my soundcard but no sound is coming out.  I tried changing the settings in KMIX, Alsamixer, and even gamix.

I have got the same problem in Vector 5.8 SOHO final. Sound card is ESS 1869. Alsaconf detects this OK but does not confirm with the usual test sample when exiting. I can hear system sounds OK but there is no sound output in Skype. Microphone definitely works OK though in Skype. No playback from sound recorder. Is there a missing library somewhere or could it be a kernel problem? Does a fix exist for this as yet? Would love to get this sorted out since (sound problem apart) this latest version is otherwise terrific. Noticeably fast even with KDE.

Tronkel

[spadge63]

I installed Vector SOHO today.  I'm a first time Linux user and everything went well except there's no sound.  I'm looking at my Alsamixer in the terminal and it shows my sound card as an Intel ICH5.  I toggled the the master volume from "00" to "MM" and back again.  I even went into KMix and could see the Alsamixer adjusting the volume as I adjusted it in KMix.  Still no sound.  I tried reinstalling and that didn't work.  I sure could use some help with this.  I'd sure hate to go back to my old OS.

[lagagnon]

I have got the same problem in Vector 5.8 SOHO final. Sound card is ESS 1869. Alsaconf detects this OK but does not confirm with the usual test sample when exiting. I can hear system sounds OK but there is no sound output in Skype. Tronkel

If you hear system sounds then there is most certainly nothing wrong with the kernel, alsa, your sound card or anything else other than probably a mixer problem or a Skype configuration problem. Can you play an audio CD? If not, run alsamixer or kmix and adjust settings using a playing music CD until you get sound. Do the same with Skype and its configuration settings.

[lagagnon]

I even went into KMix and could see the Alsamixer adjusting the volume as I adjusted it in KMix.  Still no sound.  I tried reinstalling and that didn't work. 

Run kmix or alsamixer, put a music CD in your CDROM drive and boot up KsCD and play the CD. Fiddle with kmix settings until you get sound.

[tronkel]

Still no joy at all with sound. KsCD hangs the system. Audio CDs will not play. Amarok and JuK seem to hang as well.
Should the KMix volume control icon appear in the KDE kicker? Normally this is the case in most systems if the sound card is  functioning properly. So no usable sound system here.

Sound was fine in this system when I had Vector Linux 5.8 Gold (XFCE desktop) installed on this same computer. I wonder what has changed since 

[stoichyu]

From previous experiences, a music player will usually hang the system if the output device isn't free so something must be using it. Also, doesn't KDE use arts for system sounds, maybe that conflicts with alsa? Or am I just being ignorant... As for skype, try to see if your home directory has a .asoundrc file(it's hidden) and delete that.

[tronkel]

Iagagnon wrote:

If you hear system sounds then there is most certainly nothing wrong with the kernel, alsa, your sound card or anything else other than probably a mixer problem or a Skype configuration problem. Can you play an audio CD? If not, run alsamixer or kmix and adjust settings using a playing music CD until you get sound. Do the same with Skype and its configuration settings.

I went into sound configuration in Kcontrol and changed the hardware to use OSS instead if ALSA. This now enables me to play audio CDs but I still seem to have a problem with playing back recorded sound files (using microphone) and also with Skype. Skype has always functioned better using OSS on this system here. Skype online help appears to be useless in this case at any rate.

Any inspired ideas would be much appreciated !

Thanks for any advice

Tronkel

[tronkel]

Thanks for all the suggestions on the sound problem. This is a good forum.

Finally got something sorted out. I uninstalled alsa-utils using Gslapt then re-installed. I then set alsa as the sound driver in Control Center. Then restarted alsaconf which then saw the soundcard. Then set Skype to use OSS. Then started alsamixer and toggled capture on using the spacebar and then muted most of the unused channels using the 'M' key. Must make sure the master volume channel is un-muted though. Then went to KMIX and made sure that both switches in the OUTPUT tab show yellow (active state). Then store the alsamixer settings using the command 'alsactl store' (no quotes)

I could then hear recorded sound from microphone, play CDs and use Skype.

A couple of problem remain though. When KDE starts, there is tremendous feedback whistling from the speakers. This seems to settle down after a few seconds though. Sometimes need to start KMIX to turn down the master volume setting.

Skype sound quality is still a bit jerky, so may need to do more tweaking here. At least sound is working now, so that is progress. I can now stick comfortably with Vector 5.8 final.

Vector is an awesome distro now.  KDE works as fast as JWM does in Puppy Linux and certainly more responsive than Icewin.
To thrash Kubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04  , all Vector needs is the apt-get system and forthcoming CRM repository facility. May be difficult to implement though - but who knows what can happen. With most of what is needed in software already included in Vector this is not a major issue for me under normal circumstances. So Vector stays on my hard-disk. 

[Triarius Fidelis]

Well, it's strange that KDE performs better than IceWM...

Anyway, if you record audio, your post reminded me that it can sometimes be helpful to tweak the input channel so that it isn't overly sensitive.