Well, I spoke to soon. After installing gstreamer-ffmpeg, and creating an .asoundrc file, I thought everything was perfect. All my music applications were handling MP3s, FireFox was playing sounds, everything was sweet.
And so I played some music in Rhythmbox. That lasted about four or five songs, and then suddenly, the sound cut out. And at the same time, my keyboard became unresponsive. I could close applications with my mouse, but couldn't type anything in any application.
So I rebooted. And when I did, I got a "new hardware detected" old- school interface. It said my Kenwood Audio device had been removed, and I could either remove it's configuration, keep it, or do nothing. I chose to keep it. Then the boot up continued.
When finally logged in again, I tried playing some music. No go. So I checked the System Settings | Soundcard Detection utility, and guess what - the Kenwood device is gone. There are no more tabs, there's just one device option, the SB Live device which may or may not be the default motherboard sound device. In any case, it has no speakers and it's not the Kenwood Audio device, which is still attached to my computer and is the device I want to use.
What happened to my sound card and how do I get it back?
Dave
Hmm... Today after rebooting, I checked my Sound Device Detection application mainly out of desperation, and my Kenwood Audio Device was listed again.
I don't know why it went away or how I got it back, so while I'm happy that it's currently working, I'm a little nervous that it may go away again.
I guess this matter may be put to rest unless I lose my sound card again, but I would of course be interested if anyone had any idea about what was going on so that I could be less worried about it.
Dave
--- Dave Gutteridge dave@tokyocomedy.com wrote:
Hmm... Today after rebooting, I checked my Sound Device Detection application mainly out of desperation, and my Kenwood Audio Device was listed again.
I don't know why it went away or how I got it back, so while I'm happy that it's currently working, I'm a little nervous that it may go away again.
I guess this matter may be put to rest unless I lose my sound card again, but I would of course be interested if anyone had any idea about what was going on so that I could be less worried about it.
Dave
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Dave,
for giggles check your sound card itself to make sure it is seated properly. It could be little bit lose.
Steven
"On the side of the software box, in the 'System Requirements' section, it said 'Requires Windows or better'. So I installed Linux."
for giggles check your sound card itself to make sure it is seated properly. It could be little bit lose.
My Sound device is actually connected by USB. I've double checked to make sure the cable is connected okay.
I'm also considering another possibility. I had the sound cut out again on me, and it was at a time when a download was completing and the file was being saved. I think playing sound at the same time as the CPU is doing a lot of work overwhelms the system a bit.
Just a theory at this point.
Dave
--- Dave Gutteridge dave@tokyocomedy.com wrote:
for giggles check your sound card itself to make
sure
it is seated properly. It could be little bit
lose.
My Sound device is actually connected by USB. I've double checked to make sure the cable is connected okay.
I'm also considering another possibility. I had the sound cut out again on me, and it was at a time when a download was completing and the file was being saved. I think playing sound at the same time as the CPU is doing a lot of work overwhelms the system a bit.
Just a theory at this point.
Dave
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
dave,
if i remember correctly the way you have the sound set up with firefox that it is CPU hog? correct if i wrong wrong.
Steven
"On the side of the software box, in the 'System Requirements' section, it said 'Requires Windows or better'. So I installed Linux."
if i remember correctly the way you have the sound set up with firefox that it is CPU hog? correct if i wrong wrong.
I think you are right. My system seems to have slowed down. As I type this right now in Evolution, it's moving slowly. And I'm not even playing any sound!
If I understand correctly, in order to get sound to work in FireFox, I transferred some of the sound processing over to the CPU by configuring an .asoundrc file.
That seems to be coming with a price of overall lowered performance, and the sound occassionally cutting out.
Is there a solution to this that doesn't require buying a new computer?
Dave
On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 13:56 +0900, Dave Gutteridge wrote:
if i remember correctly the way you have the sound set up with firefox that it is CPU hog? correct if i wrong wrong.
I think you are right. My system seems to have slowed down. As I type this right now in Evolution, it's moving slowly. And I'm not even playing any sound!
If I understand correctly, in order to get sound to work in FireFox, I transferred some of the sound processing over to the CPU by configuring an .asoundrc file.
That seems to be coming with a price of overall lowered performance, and the sound occassionally cutting out.
Is there a solution to this that doesn't require buying a new computer?
If the on-board soundcard is a true SB Live! then you should give using it a try as it *does* support hardware mixing.
If the on-board soundcard is a true SB Live! then you should give using it a try as it *does* support hardware mixing.
I don't quite understand this issue of hardware mixing.
XMMS and Xine both played on my USB Kenwood device. Does that mean that those applications don't require any mixing anywhere? They do it on their own?
And then FireFox didn't work with my Kenwood device, meaning that FireFox needs some kind of other software to do the sound mixing?
I guess why I'm lost is that no matter what, for any sound to play, CentOS needs to detect and have support for the audio device. Since it detects and outputs sound through my Kenwood device for some programs, why do other programs not use the same settings?
Also, part of the reason I'm attached to using my USB Kenwood device is that it takes a digital signal all the way to my Kenwood stereo, and doesn't get analog until it gets to the speakers. It has great sound, and they are the only speakers I have (living in Tokyo means space is at a premium). If I go the SB Live on-board route, the only option is to run a cable from the sound card to the auxiliary input, which is analog, and then amplify it through the speakers. It's noticeably not as good.
Dave
On Sat, 2005-09-24 at 01:44 +0900, Dave Gutteridge wrote:
If the on-board soundcard is a true SB Live! then you should give using it a try as it *does* support hardware mixing.
I don't quite understand this issue of hardware mixing.
SB Live! can have multiple programs open it and the built-in electronics will handle mixing the input streams into a single output stream. USB audio doesn't require the device to do this, and I'm not even sure if it's possible for USB audio devices to do so.
XMMS and Xine both played on my USB Kenwood device. Does that mean that those applications don't require any mixing anywhere? They do it on their own?
And then FireFox didn't work with my Kenwood device, meaning that FireFox needs some kind of other software to do the sound mixing?
I guess why I'm lost is that no matter what, for any sound to play, CentOS needs to detect and have support for the audio device. Since it detects and outputs sound through my Kenwood device for some programs, why do other programs not use the same settings?
xmms and xine both support ALSA properly, so you can point them wherever you need the output to go.
The Flash plugin supports OSS, so getting it to go where you need is a matter of fiddling around with your module settings, or changing definitions in ALSA to get it pointing to the right place.
Also, part of the reason I'm attached to using my USB Kenwood device is that it takes a digital signal all the way to my Kenwood stereo, and doesn't get analog until it gets to the speakers. It has great sound, and they are the only speakers I have (living in Tokyo means space is at a premium). If I go the SB Live on-board route, the only option is to run a cable from the sound card to the auxiliary input, which is analog, and then amplify it through the speakers. It's noticeably not as good.
Well, if the Kenwood has a digital input then you should be able to have the SB Live! generate a digital-only signal and feed it into the Kenwood.
The Flash plugin supports OSS, so getting it to go where you need is a matter of fiddling around with your module settings, or changing definitions in ALSA to get it pointing to the right place.
Well, I'm quite confused now. I decided that I would rather have a quicker and more stable environment than have sound working in FireFox, so I removed the .asoundrc file, thinking that would put me back to where I was. After all, it was simply creating that file that transferred sound mixing to the CPU (as far as I could tell). However, after doing so, I'm still getting sound in FireFox! One thing that was odd, was that after I removed the .asoundrc file, when I went to test FireFox, it asked me to reinstall the Flash plug in. So, did reinstalling Flash somehow improve my set up? Are the settings of the no longer existing .asoundrc file still somehow in effect? My computer seems to be running stable again, so it feels like sound is no longer being handled on the CPU. But then how is sound working in FireFox again?
Well, if the Kenwood has a digital input then you should be able to have the SB Live! generate a digital-only signal and feed it into the Kenwood.
The only digital input that the Kenwood has that I know of is the USB. I don't think i can run a USB from the SB Live card to the Kenwood. Actually, I looked at the back of the computer last night, and much to my surprise, I actually do have a sound card. Sound Blaster I believe. I thought I removed it years ago when I got my Kenwood. I remember it was a bit of a struggle getting Windows to find the right driver to run the Kenwood via USB. I have no idea how CentOS is doing it, just that it works and it works well. Or at least it did until I started mucking with it. Right now the status is that after having created and then removed the .asoundrc file, it now cuts out once in a while, and loses the Kenwood audio device.
Although I'm learning some, and your explanations help me understand piece by piece, I'm still baffled by the end results I'm getting.
Dave
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Dave Gutteridge -
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams -
Steven Vishoot