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

Sat Feb 18 04:43:22 UTC 2012
Mark LaPierre <marklapier at aol.com>

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.
>
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>

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

-- 
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    ^ ^  Mark LaPierre
Registerd Linux user No #267004