Sound system looks OK but no sound from speaker

[Robert S]

I've just installed VL on a ageing notebook (Gateway SOLO 2150).  I've used alsaconf to set up the sound card and all looks OK.  However when I try commands such as "play /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav" no sound comes out of the speaker.  Ditto if I try to play a CD using xine.  I have checked that the sound is unmuted in using the "alsamixer" command.

some tech details:

:# lspci|grep audio
00:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs Ectiva EV1938

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound
alias snd-card-0 snd-ens1371
alias sound-slot-0 snd-ens1371

# lsmod |grep snd
snd_seq_midi            7200  0
snd_seq_dummy           3716  0
snd_seq_oss            32128  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7168  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48720  6 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            38048  0
snd_mixer_oss          15232  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ens1371            21664  2
gameport               12296  1 snd_ens1371
snd_rawmidi            20128  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_ens1371
snd_seq_device          7692  5 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd_ac97_codec         98084  1 snd_ens1371
ac97_bus                2944  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                69764  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              19972  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    45796  15 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ens1371,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               7008  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8712  1 snd_pcm

# groups robert
robert lp wheel floppy audio video cdrom games scanner users

:# ls -l /dev/sound/
total 0
crw-rw--w- 1 root audio 14, 12 2008-06-29 17:35 adsp
crw-rw--w- 1 root audio 14,  4 2008-06-29 17:35 audio
crw-rw--w- 1 root audio 14,  3 2008-06-29 17:35 dsp
crw-rw--w- 1 root audio 14,  0 2008-06-29 17:35 mixer
crw-rw--w- 1 root audio 14,  1 2008-06-29 17:35 sequencer
crw-rw--w- 1 root audio 14,  8 2008-06-29 17:35 sequencer2

Can anybody help here?

[kc1di]

Which version of Vector did you install?
if it's SOHO (KDE) Check and make sure the volume is turned up and not muted in the mixer.

if it's vl 5.9 Standard run alsamixer and check to make sure volumes set ok.

[Robert S]

Its 5.9 (standard).  Yes - I have run alsamixer and the controls aren't muted. Also the volume is turned up.

Its a tough one this.

If I put headphones on I hear a "click" when the ALSA daemon starts.  Hmmmm.

[bigpaws]

The sound card has several posts of problems. Not many solutions

I noticed from lsmod that you have the AC97 modules loaded, which maybe
creating a conflict. So remove those and test again.

There was a post that some had luck changing from ALSA to OSS sound server.

Bigpaws

[Robert S]

Thanks.

I've tried downloading the closed source oss drivers.  Installed kernel-headers, kernel-source, gcc, make etc.  Get lots of errors and module won't build.  Also chewed up my alsa modules 

Any other ideas?

[bigpaws]

I have been googling for a couple hours. No real
success. I found this might work:

http://frodo.syminet.com/~deep/vibralin.html

Bigpaws