[CentOS] Firfox plugins but no sound

Fri Nov 16 11:06:52 UTC 2007
James Pearson <james-p at moving-picture.com>

Robert Spangler wrote:
>> Then test with the 32 bit aplay:
>>
>> alsaunmute 0
>> /tmp/usr/bin/aplay /usr/share/system-config-soundcard/sound-sample.wav
> 
> No joy. it give the following output:
> 
> ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:549:(snd_pcm_hw_start) SNDRV_PCM_IOCTL_START failed: Broken 
> pipe
> 
> and just sit there until I hit CTL-C
>  
>> Same as mine ... however, I had lots of issues with 32 bit apps and
>> sound on 64 bit CentOS4 (not necessarily this sound card) - in the end I
>> 'upgraded' to the ALSA 1.0.15 kernel drivers, libs and utils - which
>> works much better
> 
> Might have to walk down this same path  Thnx for all your help and time.

The 32 bit kernel support for playback on 64 bit machines for older 2.6 
kernels (including the RHEL4/CentOS4 kernel) didn't work properly until 
ALSA 1.0.15. RHEL4/CentOS4 is based on ALSA 1.0.6

As I said above, I've already been down this route - see:

<http://mailman.alsa-project.org/pipermail/alsa-devel/2007-September/002946.html>

The 1.0.15 alsa-driver from 
<http://mailman.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page> builds 
against the current CentOS4 x86_64 kernels, or you could use the RPMS 
from <http://atrpms.net/dist/el4/alsa-driver/>

I have my own alsa-lib and alsa-utils 1.0.15 RPMS - but you could 
probably use the ATrpms versions as well.

James Pearson