[CentOS] Sound drop out with totem. mplayer Can't open audio device /dev/dsp[partially SOLVED]

Sat Feb 18 05:00:42 UTC 2012
Mark LaPierre <marklapier at aol.com>

On 02/17/2012 11:43 PM, Mark LaPierre wrote:
> On 02/13/2012 12:15 AM, John Stanley wrote:
>> On Sun, 2012-02-12 at 20:30 -0500, Mark LaPierre wrote:
>>
>>> No such audio driver 'pulse'
>>> Could not open/initialize audio device ->   no sound.
>>> Audio: no sound
>>> Video: no video
>>>
>>>
>>> Exiting... (End of file)
>> ------------------------------------
>> You should get this: `mplayer -ao pulse my.mp3`
>>
>> Opening audio decoder: [mpg123] MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III
>> AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
>> Selected audio codec: [mpg123] afm: mpg123 (MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I,
>> II, III)
>> ==========================================================================
>> AO: [pulse] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
>> Video: no video
>> Starting playback...
>> A:  41.3 (41.3) of 254.0 (04:14.0)  0.5%
>>
>>
>> MPlayer interrupted by signal 2 in module: play_audio
>> A:  41.3 (41.3) of 254.0 (04:14.0)  0.5%
>>
>> Exiting... (Quit)
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> With ALSA:
>> mplayer -ao alsa my.mp3
>>
>> ==========================================================================
>> Opening audio decoder: [mpg123] MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III
>> AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
>> Selected audio codec: [mpg123] afm: mpg123 (MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I,
>> II, III)
>> ==========================================================================
>> AO: [alsa] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
>> Video: no video
>> Starting playback...
>> A:  12.7 (12.7) of 254.0 (04:14.0)  0.4%
>>
>>
>> MPlayer interrupted by signal 2 in module: play_audio
>> A:  12.8 (12.7) of 254.0 (04:14.0)  0.4%
>>
>> Exiting... (Quit)
>> ----------------------------------------
>>
>> On a corectly configured DAW Machine with pulseaudio you should be able
>> to run:  `padsp mplayer my.mp3`
>>
>> AO: [oss] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
>> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>> Video: no video
>> Starting playback...
>> A:  11.1 (11.1) of 254.0 (04:14.0)  0.4%
>>
>>
>> MPlayer interrupted by signal 2 in module: play_audio
>> A:  11.2 (11.1) of 254.0 (04:14.0)  0.4%
>> ----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> On EL6 you should be using ALSA for mplayer as alsa targets pulse.
>>
>>> aplay file.mp3 says:
>>> Playing raw data 'file.mp3' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
>>>
>>> Still just makes a nasty hiss.
>>
>> `aplay -f dat my.wav` is what you want. "little indianess" byte words.
>>
>>> Still no /dev/dsp.  Maybe there isn't supposed to be one for my sound
>>> hardware?
>>
>> I said previously there is NO ""/dev/dsp"" and there want be one for
>> EL6.  If perhaps you had one then you really have someing funny going
>> on.
>>
>>> lspci says:
>>> Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237
>>> AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
>>
>> Those cards can be nothing but problems.  Some say that there are common
>> in linux but I say nothing but common trouble.
>>
>> When did you update the the kernel last?  Something good is `alsa-info`
>> and read the instructions on the terminal and where to run it and get
>> the standard output of it.  You could try a diffeernt "codec" besides
>> "lame" like mpg123.  Does asound.conf point to the pulses conf file?
>>
>> It is a normal thing that pulseaudio will pop and skip and snap crackle
>> when it does not have enough of a Buffer or Priority and when a card is
>> going bad.
>>
>> Since in the above mplayer can not access pulse last thing you could do
>> is reinstall all the pulse packages.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> CentOS mailing list
>> CentOS at centos.org
>> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>>
>
> I downgraded lame back to the previous package and rebooted the machine.
>    That fixed the skipping and dropouts from totem/gstreamer.
>
> Shortly after that I got a kernel upgrade notice on my auto update tool.
>    I installed that but declined the upgrade to lame.  After reboot that
> still worked.  Last night I reinstalled the lame upgrade and did another
> cold start.  Still no skipping and dropouts from totem/gstreamer.
>
> mplayer still doesn't want to hear it.
> mplayer -ao pulse my.mp3 ====>  No Joy
> mplayer -ao alsa my.mp3 ====>  No Joy
>
> padsp mplayer my.mp3 works.
> It says:
> AO: [oss] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
> Sound it good.
>
> `aplay -f dat my.mp3` just makes a hissy noise, but it's a different
> hissy noise than `aplay my.mp3` does.
>
> My alsa information is at:
> http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=522b3664bd765b464440dabd18c7b2dda0a5e154
>

Oh hold the phone!  aplay doesn't support mp3.  It works fine with wav 
files.  Duhhh! I guess I should RTFM.

-- 
     _
    °v°
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    ^ ^  Mark LaPierre
Registerd Linux user No #267004