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

Mon Feb 13 01:30:44 UTC 2012
Mark LaPierre <marklapier at aol.com>

On 02/12/2012 05:46 PM, Marko Vojinovic wrote:
> On Sunday 12 February 2012 18:03:03 Ljubomir Ljubojevic wrote:
>> On 02/12/2012 05:07 PM, Mark LaPierre wrote:
>>> Hey all.
>>>
>>> This morning I found that my audio playback is randomly sprinkled with
>>> sound skips and dropouts.  I went to /var/log/yum.log and found this:
>>>
>>> Feb 09 20:18:22 Updated: lame-3.99.4-2.el6.rf.i686
>>>
>>> I'm not saying that caused the problem but it's all I could find that
>>> changed.
>>
>> lame-3.99.4-2.el6.rf.i686 is RepoForge package, and if he is the
>> culprit, you have to take it on their mailing list.
>
> Lame should not be responsible for the missing /dev/dsp. It is likely that
> something else got updated as well (what else is in the yum.log?), or that
> something crashed (pulseaudio, alsa, the kernel... :-) ).
>
> The simplest way is to try to logout and login, and see if that helps. If not,
> reboot. If not, reboot to an older kernel. If not, read logs for pulseaudio
> etc.
>
> Btw, I am writing off the top of my head here, but I think that mplayer should
> not even try to use /dev/dsp. Try it with
>
>    mplayer -ao pulse file.wav
>
> That should force mplayer to use pulseaudio (which should be the default by
> now, IIRC). If necessary, put it in mplayer's config file.
>
> HTH, :-)
> Marko
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>

totem works great after lame downgrade.  Thanks for the clue guys.

mplayer -ao pulse file.wav says:
MPlayer 1.0rc4-4.4.6 (C) 2000-2010 MPlayer Team

Playing file.mp3.
Audio only file format detected.
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 48.0 kbit/3.40% (ratio: 6000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
No such audio driver 'pulse'
Could not open/initialize audio device -> no sound.
Audio: no sound
Video: no video


Exiting... (End of file)

aplay file.mp3 says:
Playing raw data 'file.mp3' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono

Still just makes a nasty hiss.

Still no /dev/dsp.  Maybe there isn't supposed to be one for my sound 
hardware?

lspci says:
Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 
AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)


-- 
     _
    °v°
   /(_)\
    ^ ^  Mark LaPierre
Registerd Linux user No #267004