# Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and ALSA problem

## sorinev

I've tried and tried and tried and just can't get my sound card to work. It is as mentioned in the thread name. I followed the ALSA guide but alsaconf can't see my card when using the in-kernel ALSA. When I use the seperate-from-kernel drivers, alsaconf finds my card ok, but then when I try to run alsamixer I get this:

```

# alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

```

I googled this for hours and hours yesterday (and searched here, weak as the search function is on this particular forum style) trying everything under the sun, tinkering with this, tinkering with that, changing things here and there, all to no avail. 

Using the 2.6.12-gentoo-r4 kernel.

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## sorinev

Right then. You know what, I give up. I'm not going to spend a 3rd entire day trying to get sound working. If I want to listen to music or watch movies I'll switch back over to XP.

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## Kenji Miyamoto

Do you have alsa-driver, alsa-headers, alsa-lib, alsa-oss, alsa-tools, and alsa-utils version 1.09 or greater installed?

Do you have `ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"` set in /etc/make.conf before emerging the previously mentioned?

Do you have `snd-emu10k1` in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6?

Do you have `alsasound` added with rc-conf in the `boot` runlevel?

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## sorinev

 *Kenji Miyamoto wrote:*   

> Do you have alsa-driver, alsa-headers, alsa-lib, alsa-oss, alsa-tools, and alsa-utils version 1.09 or greater installed?

 

When using the in-kernel (2.6.12-gentoo-r4) alsa, no. they are all 1.0.8 (some have -r1 after the .8 ). When turning off the in-kernel and using the seperate alsa driver, they are of the version of whatever emerge defaultly gives me. 

 *Kenji Miyamoto wrote:*   

> Do you have `ALSA_CARDS="emu10k1"` set in /etc/make.conf before emerging the previously mentioned?

 

Yep.

 *Kenji Miyamoto wrote:*   

> Do you have `snd-emu10k1` in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6?

 

Yep

 *Kenji Miyamoto wrote:*   

> Do you have `alsasound` added with rc-conf in the `boot` runlevel?

 

Yep.

When using in-kernel alsa, output of "qpkg -I -v | grep alsa" looks like: 

media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.8 *

media-libs/alsa-oss-1.0.8-r1 *

media-sound/alsa-firmware-1.0.8-r1 *

media-sound/alsa-headers-1.0.8 *

media-sound/alsa-utils-1.0.8 *

media-sound/alsa-tools-1.0.8-r1 *

media-sound/alsamixergui-0.9.0.1.2-r4 *

media-plugins/gst-plugins-alsa-0.8.8 *

media-plugins/xmms-alsa-1.2.10-r2 *

Is there a way to update the alsa that's inside the kernel? (if so, what's the exact command please, I'm a noob).

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## Kenji Miyamoto

You'll have to recompile your kernel without even ALSA support built-in.  I know this is annoying, but I went through the exact same thing when trying to get sound working.

Synchronize your Portage tree with `emerge --sync` after you recompile your kernel.  Once that's done, you can use `ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~x86" emerge -av alsa-driver alsa-headers alsa-lib alsa-oss alsa-tools alsa-utils`.

Then reboot.

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## sorinev

I tried the method of turning off ALSA in the kernel (unchecked the main ALSA tree, which unchecked everything within the ALSA tree. I then emerge alsa-driver and the rest and it didn't work (which is why I put it back in). 

I will try removing ALSA from the kernel again. In the meantime, portage is synching. After its done I'll try what you said and get back to you.

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## sorinev

Done. Didn't work. I still get 

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory

when trying to open alsamixer. And I still get the no sound message whenever I log on. 

I don't know if its related, but I don't have anything that even remotely looks like my sound card in /sys/module. Just a snd_intel8x0, which I know for a fact I did not select anywhere at anytime.

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## sorinev

As before, alsaconf runs fine. It detects my sound card perfectly and claims that it's configuring it. 

However, in my googling, I noticed a few things of interest, so here they are. 

```

cat /proc/asound/cards

--- no soundcards ---

```

Yeah, ok.

```

 dir /sys/module

8250          ipt_LOG     processor       snd_page_alloc      snd_util_mem

drm           ipt_ULOG    psmouse         snd_pcm             uhci_hcd

ehci_hcd      ipt_recent  scsi_mod        snd_pcm_oss         usb_storage

i8042         lockd       sg              snd_seq             usbcore

ide_cd        nvidia      snd             snd_seq_midi_event  usbhid

ieee1394      ohci1394    snd_ac97_codec  snd_seq_oss         usblp

ip_conntrack  oprofile    snd_intel8x0    snd_timer

```

Nothing relating to my soundcard, like emu10k1 and such.

```

 modprobe snd_emu10k1

WARNING: Error inserting snd_hwdep (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/acore/snd-hwdep.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

WARNING: Error inserting snd_timer (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/acore/snd-timer.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

WARNING: Error inserting snd_pcm (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/acore/snd-pcm.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

WARNING: Error inserting snd_ac97_codec (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-codec.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

WARNING: Error inserting snd_seq_device (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq-device.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

WARNING: Error inserting snd_rawmidi (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/acore/snd-rawmidi.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

FATAL: Error inserting snd_emu10k1 (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r4/alsa-driver/pci/emu10k1/snd-emu10k1.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

```

Umm....

```

lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

snd_seq_midi_event      5696  -

snd_util_mem            3168  -

nvidia               3465212  -

```

There we are again, no sound card. 

```

dir /dev/sound

sequencer  sequencer2

```

Somehow, I think there should be more there.

```

# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.

# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.conf-rc,v 1.4 2004/11/16 01:31:22 eradicator Exp $

# ALSA portion

# OSS/Free portion

##

## IMPORTANT:

## You need to customise this section for your specific sound card(s)

## and then run `update-modules' command.

## Read alsa-driver's INSTALL file in /usr/share/doc for more info.

##

##  ALSA portion

##

##  OSS/Free portion

##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

## alias sound-service-1-0 snd-mixer-oss

## alias sound-service-1-3 snd-pcm-oss

## alias sound-service-1-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

# Set this to the correct number of cards.

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.9a ---

alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1

alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1

# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

```

Yet we see that alsaconf did see and configure my card. It even listed it properly when I ran alsaconf and the menu came up. (Oh, and I've tried adding various things to that last file, no help).

And that's all I can think of last night. I know there might have been another file or command I checked that was useful, but that was last night and I've since forgotten. 

Anyways.

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## EzInKy

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> I googled this for hours and hours yesterday (and searched here, weak as the search function is on this particular forum style) trying everything under the sun, tinkering with this, tinkering with that, changing things here and there, all to no avail. 
> 
> 

 

I had the same problem and found a fix for mine on another thread. Apparently the extra parameter was coming from the old alsa config file in the modules directory. The line in question had a mode parameter, which I commented out. I also found that alsaconf had written garbage in my alsa file that had errors in it, so I removed the alsa file and replaced it with alsa.old.

The line was this one:

```

#options snd  device_mode=0666

```

This was the garbage in my alsa file: 

```

# ALSA portion

# module options should go here

# ALSA portion

# OSS/Free portion

   

# card #1

# OSS/Free portion - card #2 (cmipci)

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

options snd_cards_limit=1

options joystick=1

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.9a ---

alias snd-card-0 snd-*** err [lib/liblow.c(329)]:

alias sound-slot-0 snd-*** err [lib/liblow.c(329)]:

# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

```

Where the problem stems from, I'm not sure. Perhaps modules-update? Perhaps a newer version of alsaconf? Anyway, after making sure only one file named "alsa" was in the modules directory, and ensuring that it was correct and didn't have the above ***err lines I ran...

```

# modules-update

# /etc/init.d/alsasound restart

# alsamixer

# sfxload path_to_ct4mgm.sf2

```

...and sound now works. I tested with a reboot and got an error about not being able to restore values, control #6 I think it was, rerun alsamixer, reloaded my sound fonts, and audio worked perfectly again.

This is my working /etc/modules.d/alsa file:

```

# ALSA portion

# module options should go here

# ALSA portion

# OSS/Free portion

   

# card #1

# OSS/Free portion - card #2 (cmipci)

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

options snd_cards_limit=1

# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.5 ---

#options snd  device_mode=0666

alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1

alias sound-slot-0 snd-emu10k1

# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

options joystick=1

```

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## terrifiedkiller

i cant get my sound blaster audigy 2 zs to work either i set up my kernel to modualize alsa and the driver for the sound card (emu10k1) and now alsaconf wont detect any sound card at all  :Sad:  and the module fails to load at bootup

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