On 04/03/2017 06:34 PM, Kay Schenk wrote: > ---see below -- > > On Mon, Apr 3, 2017 at 9:53 AM, ken <gebser at mousecar.com> wrote: > >> On 04/02/2017 01:31 PM, Kay Schenk wrote: >> >>> >>> On 03/29/2017 06:43 AM, ken wrote: >>> >>>> On 03/28/2017 08:53 PM, ken wrote: >>>> >>>>> The www has failed me with this, so I'm trying you guys. Sound worked >>>>> great out of the box when I installed 7.2... Yay! I could watch all >>>>> kinds of videos, like on facebook and youtube. And I could listen to >>>>> most podcasts too. But then something happened. It was either a >>>>> kernel upgrade or that I installed vlc (for watching videos on DVD) >>>>> and the whole stack of codecs for it... I don't know exactly when, but >>>>> at some point I no longer had sound with youtube and other web >>>>> videos. The videos played fine, just no sound. Note that using vlc, >>>>> both video and the audio with it play just fine. I need to select the >>>>> audio driver (from a list in a vlc menu), however, else the sound >>>>> won't work in vlc either. >>>>> >>>>> If I go into the Applications menu, then System Tools -> Settings -> >>>>> Sound, under "Choose a device for sound output:" there are no devices >>>>> listed. There used to be. >>>>> >>>>> If I run "aplayer file.wav", nothing plays (no sound at all) and I get >>>>> the error "main:786: audio open error: No such file or directory". >>>>> If, on the other hand, I run "aplay file.wav -D plughw:0" (i.e., >>>>> specify the/a device), I do get sound, the file does play. >>>>> >>>>> I ran alsa-info.sh and it posted tons of info from it on my setup at >>>>> http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=1dba91886be054df4816000768 >>>>> a0f5b109947a48. >>>>> Yet it still doesn't tell me what's missing. >>>>> >>>>> Anyone here have an idea...? or thoughts about where to look next? >>>>> >>>>> tia, >>>>> ken >>>>> >>>> Still poking around my system for a solution, I found this comment at >>>> the top of /usr/lib/systemd/system/alsa-state.service and two other >>>> files in the same directory: >>>> >>>> # Note that two different ALSA card state management schemes exist and >>>>> they >>>>> # can be switched using a file exist check - >>>>> /etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf . >>>>> >>>> The /etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf file consists of one line: >>>> >>>> # Remove this file to disable the alsactl daemon mode >>>> I understand that a daemon continually runs, waiting for an event and >>>> then acts in some way in response, but it has to mean something more in >>>> this context. Anyone familiar with the internals of this? >>>> >>>> >>>> I am not on systemd right now. I'm on CentOS 6.8. However, on an >>> openSUSE version I was. Sound problems were the bane of my existence >>> forever it seemed. So it maye take you a while to troubleshoot this. Using >>> JUST alsa you should be able to play sound files at the command line. See: >>> http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page >>> >>> >>> I think I may have installed pulse-audio to get things working under >>> systemd with my GUI. What is your GUI? This may be a factor. >>> >>> Thanks for the thought. This is quite plausible. I did a little reading >> at the site you suggested and then at another which was linked off of >> that. I didn't find anything helpful at either place yet... well, except >> that in the audio stack alsa is just one layer; jack and pulseaudio ride on >> top of it. Apparently sound on linux can use all of them-- and others on >> both of the same layers-- all at the same time. This is probably what >> makes the configuration of them all so challenging. >> >> In the middle of reading those sites I decided to see if audacity (a quite >> sophisticated and solid program) could somehow handle sound. I installed it >> and fired it up. Out of the box it didn't work. But I simply had to >> choose the correct device from audacity's drop-down menu and, viola, it >> would produce sound from a loaded file. Cool. >> >> Right after that, I tried running "aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Right.wav" >> and that worked. Previously it didn't, although (as noted above) that >> same command when specifying the device did (i.e., "aplay >> /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Right.wav -D plughw:0"). So apparently >> installing and/or running audacity fixed something, but not everything. >> >> Another trippy discovery: I used rpm to verify all the files installed >> with all the alsa* packages and there were absolutely no changes to any of >> them... they're all exactly as they were when first installed. Since sound >> worked exquisitely when I first installed 7.2 on this box and no alsa files >> have been changed since then, it's hard to find the fault with alsa. >> >> Although aplay is back to working without having to specify the device, I >> still don't get sound out of youtube videos (even though I checked the >> settings and restarted Firefox), and gnome3's System Settings -> Sound >> still lists no devices at all. These are two major failures. >> >> Does anyone know how to restart audio in systemd? That might still be >> worth looking into. >> >> Before doing audacity, I tried gnome's mplayer. Geez, is that a stinky >> pile of code. Just selecting a directory where a file could be selected >> ended up locking up the app; I had to do a kill to get it off my screen. >> Does that actually work for anyone? If so, what kind of files or net >> locations does it work for? >> >> Thanks once more for your thoughtful suggestions. >> > Here ya go! A lovely sysvinit to systemd cheatsheet! > > > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SysVinit_to_Systemd_Cheatsheet > > Well assuming your sound is started at this level. It should be in your > systemd scripts. (I can't help with this as I have not used systemd in a > WHILE). Thanks much.