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

[John Stanley]

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.