The Testing Area :: alsa.dsl for 2.0



Hi Sarah, a few words...
1.  You mentioned that you were using an Audigy 2 sound card from creative labs.  I did some poking around on the Alsa website and found that some versions of the Audigy 2 aren't supported yet or aren't supported until 1.0.11rc2.  I don't know your exact version of Audigy 2, but you can check it out for yourself here:
Alsa Sound Card Compatibility  Maybe this will shed some light.

2.  This doesn't explain why it works with Knoppix 4.0.2, which is what you said a couple posts ago.  I checked the Alsa package included with Knoppix and it is 1.0.9 as well.  I don't know what the kernel is in 4.0.2, however.  It maybe different than the one used for DSL.  Knoppix might come with a more "feature-rich" kernel that may impact Alsa sound in some way (but if DSL had that kernel it probably wouldn't be..."Damn Small" ?!?!? [sorry :D])

Anyway, just some info that might be of help...I do hope you get your sound working!
Hi Sarah
I apologize ahead of time if I sound like a complete dope, but when you ran alsamixer did you use the arrow keys to navagate between outputs and to turn them all up? Also I think the M key turns on the PCM filter.

:o)
!sLeep - typed out a huge response to you yesterday, but obviously didn't post it :o( Short version is, thanks for linking to the ALSA site. I had already checked it out just in case, but it might be useful to others who happen across this thread. Also, it didn't explain why the alsadebs package worked under DSL .9.3 and 1.5 but I couldn't make the alsa.dsl package work under DSL 2+.  I had checked earlier versions of Knoppix too and the sound worked, so I was thinking it was just something weird in the way this particular package was compiled or its default settings or in the way DSL 2+ was doing stuff. I figured it couldn't be that ALSA itself doesn't support the card, because it worked in different distros and previous versions of DSL. I don't have enough experience to troubleshoot very much.

Chuckakan - nope, you're no dop - you nailed it! I had turned it all up using alsamixer several times, but it was the 'M' thing I was missing, don't ask me which one, I just did them all. ;o) Sheesh, and to think that I was just about ready to download and compile stuff! I'm sure it would have been an ... erm.. educational experience, but I'm glad I don't have to do it! ;o)

I'm going to see if I can figure out how to have the alsamixer retain the settings.... [*grin*] just for fun.

Cheers and beers! (And I'm toasting to you, !sLEEP, Clacker and the DSL team!)
Thanks.
Sarah
Sarah,
Are you saying that the sound was working but the outputs were so low that you didn't hear anything?  If that's right I'll be going back to retry my own audio setup.  

-Mark
I'm not certain that was the case. I think it is one of the options you toggle by using 'M' that did it.

I pretty much went through and cranked up everything (which is what I did before reading Chuckakan's post), but I hadn't realised that some of those ones that don't move up and down could be activated by using hitting the 'M' key.

I might go through tomorrow when I'm less tired and see what nailed it, but no guarantees, as I suspect that I might be dragged off to go up north (willingly though ;o) ).

It's worth a shot though if xmms gives every appearance of starting :o)
type 'alsamixer' in a terminal and go from there.

Good luck!
Cheers and beers,
Sarah
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