Another "lost all sound" problem

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rlindau
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Another "lost all sound" problem

Post by rlindau »

I'm running a very old IBM NetVista. Until a week ago, I had been running Kubuntu 8.10 with no (sound) problem. However, when I installed Linux Mint 7 (reformatting HDD in the process), I immediately lost all sound playback.

(I hope I'm not repeating an already-answered question - I've searched / read the recent posts on "no sound" and "lost sound," but the suggestions haven't worked for me - or, I don't understand them well enough to execute. I tried the "general solution for Intel HDA sound" Husse had posted, but it didn't seem to make a difference - http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... sa#p107982 )

Symptom: No sound when I try to play .wav files and audio CDs (e.g., using Movie Player, Gnome Mplayer, and Mplayer Movie Player). No sound when I play clips on sites like Youtube.com.

Here's the "aplay -l" list of playback hardware devices found:
...
card 0: I82801BAICH2 [Intel 82801BA-ICH2], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel 82801BA-ICH2]
...
card 1: Live [SBLive! Value [CT4830]], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
...
card 1: Live [SBLive! Value [CT4830]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
...
card 1: Live [SBLive! Value [CT4830]], device 3: emu10k1 [Multichannel Playback]
...

Here's the soundcard info from lspci-v...
...
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: IBM Device 022c
Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 5
I/O ports at 1400
I/O ports at 1800
Kernel driver in use: Intel ICH
Kernel modules: snd-intel8x0
...
02:09.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
Subsystem: Creative Labs Device 8026
Flags: bus master, fast Back2Back, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
I/O ports at 2000
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: EMU10K1_Audigy
Kernel modules: snd-emu10k1
...

I'm not quite sure which of the following (if any) is the right place to check for obvious problem (i.e., muting), but here's what I see...
* PulseAudio Volume Control - neither the Intel nor the SBlive card is muted on any tab
* PulseAudio Manager - I don't know what I should look at here, if anything
* Gnome Volume Applet - Nothing muted
* Mint Control Center --> Sound --> Devices tab: I've tried various selections, but at present I have "SBLive! ADC Capture / Standard PCM Playback (OSS)" selected for all playback items (I do get a tone from my speakers when I hit "test")
* Mint Control Center --> Sound --> Multimedia Selector: Output plugin is set to "PulseAudio Sound Server" (I get a tone when I hit "test")

I want to use the SBLive, not the Intel.

Can anyone suggest next steps I should take?

Thanks in advance for your patience / help - Rob L
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
lagagnon

Re: Another "lost all sound" problem

Post by lagagnon »

Try opening "alsamixer" in a terminal, find Audigy Analog/Digital Output Track and press the "m" key to unmute it.
rlindau
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Re: Another "lost all sound" problem

Post by rlindau »

lagagnon wrote:Try opening "alsamixer" in a terminal, find Audigy Analog/Digital Output Track and press the "m" key to unmute it.
Thanks. I just tired, looking both at card 0 (Card: Intel 82801BA-ICH2, Chip: Analog Devices AD1881A) and card 1 (Card: SBLive! Value [CT4830], Chip: TriTech TR28602). I don't see anything that looks like "Audigy Analog / Digital Output Track" under either (I imagine it would be under the card 1, if anywhere). I unmuted and pushed up the gain on everything I do see, without apparent effect.

Should I be looking for another card, or indeed is the SBLive! the one I need to focus on?

Thanks again for your help, Rob L
lagagnon

Re: Another "lost all sound" problem

Post by lagagnon »

First of all decide which is the "better" sound chip, then go into your BIOS and turn off the chip you do not want. Perhaps alsa is confused. Then insert a music CD, play it, open alsamixer and keep unmuting and increasing the sliders until you get sound.
rlindau
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Re: Another "lost all sound" problem

Post by rlindau »

Thanks. I'm away from home for the week, will give it a shot this weekend upon my return home and report back. Regards, RL
rlindau
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(resolved) Another "lost all sound" problem

Post by rlindau »

lagagnon wrote:First of all decide which is the "better" sound chip, then go into your BIOS and turn off the chip you do not want. Perhaps alsa is confused. Then insert a music CD, play it, open alsamixer and keep unmuting and increasing the sliders until you get sound.
Thanks! Turning off the onboard sound chip via the BIOS indeed did the trick; the SBLive card worked immediately after I did so. Regards, Rob L
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