# ALSA - I'm officially stuck [DESPERATE]

## Doctor Corndog

I really didn't want to have to post a question, since there are about a million ALSA posts on here, I figured I could figure it by reading them all, but I'm obviously missing something here. I'll just post what happens, and I have M'd the OSS's and the ALSA in my Kernel, selected the ac97 also.

alsaconf

Running modules-update...

Loading driver...

* Loading ALSA modules ...

*   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ] 

*   Loading: snd-pcm-oss ...                                             [ ok ]

*   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ] 

* Restoring Mixer Levels ...

* No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!    [ ok ]Setting default volumes...

Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state.

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...

alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

 nano -w /etc/modules.d/alsa file

# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.

# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.co$

# 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

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

##  OSS/Free portion

## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1

##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

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 1.0.10 ---

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

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

nano -w /etc/conf.d/alsasound

# ENABLE_OSS_EMUL:

# Do you want to enable in-kernel oss emulation?

# no - Do not load oss emul drivers

# yes - Load oss emul drivers if they're found

ENABLE_OSS_EMUL="yes"

# RESTORE_ON_START:

# Do you want to restore your mixer settings?  If not, your cards will be

# muted.

# no - Do not restore state

# yes - Restore state

RESTORE_ON_START="yes"

# SAVE_ON_STOP:

# Do you want to save changes made to your mixer volumes when alsasound

# stops?

# no - Do not save state

# yes - Save state

SAVE_ON_STOP="yes"

nano -w /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

# /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:  kernel modules to load when system boots.# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6$#

# Note that this file is for 2.6 kernels.

#

# Add the names of modules that you'd like to load when the system

# starts into this file, one per line.  Comments begin with # and

# are ignored.  Read man modules.autoload for additional details.

# For example:

# 3c59x

snd-intel8x0

snd_seq_oss

snd-mixer-oss

 modprobe -l

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/soundcore.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/pci/snd-intel8x0.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-codec.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-bus.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/snd.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/snd-timer.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/snd-pcm.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/snd-page-alloc.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/seq/snd-seq.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/seq/snd-seq-device.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-pcm-oss.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/net/s2io.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/firmware/dcdbas.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/acpi/hotkey.ko

That's all I can think of to add at the moment, very very very tired. If you would like more info, just ask. I would be happy to tell all.  Must rest, please help  :Smile: Last edited by Doctor Corndog on Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## artificio

Hmm.. 

```
lspci -v | grep -i audio
```

Lists your sound card, correct?

I wonder if something else is using the card. Have you tried just loading only the intel_8x0 module?

----------

## Doctor Corndog

```
# lspci -v | grep -i audio

0000:00:04.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a2)

```

Okay, I'm refeshed! I got more than 4 hours of sleep, what a difference it makes. I'll do as you ask, and only put snd-intel8x0 into my /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6. Be right back

----------

## Doctor Corndog

okay, I gave that a shot, same results as before. Here are the changes and the results.

nano -w /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

```
# /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:  kernel modules to load when system boots.# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6$#

# Note that this file is for 2.6 kernels.

#

# Add the names of modules that you'd like to load when the system

# starts into this file, one per line.  Comments begin with # and

# are ignored.  Read man modules.autoload for additional details.

# For example:

# 3c59x

snd-intel8x0

```

alsaconf

```
Running modules-update...

Loading driver...

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ] *   Loading: snd-pcm-oss ...                                             [ ok ] *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ] * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

 * No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!    [ ok ]Setting default volumes...

Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state.

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...
```

/etc/init.d/alsasound restart

```
* WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

 * Storing ALSA Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...                [ !! ] * Unloading ALSA ...

ALSA lib seq_hw.c:455:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory

can't open sequencer                                                      [ ok ] * Unloading ALSA modules ...                                             [ ok ] * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ] *   Loading: snd-pcm-oss ...                                             [ ok ] *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ] * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

 * No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!    [ ok ]
```

lsmod

```
Module                  Size  Used by

nvidia               4852784  12

snd_seq                55776  0

snd_pcm_oss            52320  0

snd_mixer_oss          18112  1 snd_pcm_oss

snd_intel8x0           27680  0

snd_ac97_codec        105496  1 snd_intel8x0

snd_ac97_bus            4480  1 snd_ac97_codec

snd_pcm                89800  3 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec

snd_timer              23752  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    52552  7 snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

snd_page_alloc         11792  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
```

alsamixer

```
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
```

Any suggestions?

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Should I just start over with the Driver installation instead of the Kernel installation of ALSA. If so, how do I make ensure a clean start?

----------

## morodoch

 *Quote:*   

> Should I just start over with the Driver installation

 

I reckon that's not a bad shout. Adjust your kernel config as per the howto, make & install your kernel emerge alsa-driver, reboot.

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Just wanted to make sure that was they way to do it over, sounded too easy. Alright, I reckon I'll be back...  :Sad: 

----------

## Doctor Corndog

I hate it when I'm right.

Okie Dokie. here's what I've done thus far. I went ahead and redid my kernel, and I nixxed out everything to do with sound, and tred to do an emerge alsa-driver. Said I had no sound card support, so I went back and built in sound card supoprt in the device drvier section [*] . 

Tried again. Alsa-Driver took, and I then emerged alsa-utils

Good to go.

Now, I tried to run alsamixer... same damn thing!!! UGH! I'm breaking out the beer for this one. I've been at this for about 5 days now... everything else is perfect. I can even load up UT2004 (my favorite game) with the full graphics, but I refuse to play until I have sound. 

Here's a recap of what I did, and what resulted:

alsaconf

```
Running modules-update...

Loading driver...

* WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

* Re-caching dependency info (mtimes differ)...

* ALSA is not loaded

* Loading ALSA modules ...

*   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                                                       [ ok ] 

*   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                                           [ ok ] 

* Restoring Mixer Levels ...

* No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!    [ ok ]

Setting default volumes...

Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state.

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...
```

alsamixer

```
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
```

/etc/init.d/alsasound restart

```
* WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

 * Storing ALSA Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...                [ !! ] 

 * Unloading ALSA ...

ALSA lib seq_hw.c:455:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory

can't open sequencer                                                      [ ok ] 

 * Unloading ALSA modules ...                                             [ ok ]

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ]

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ] 

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

 * No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!    [ ok ]
```

grub BRAIN .config

```
Fried
```

  :Smile: 

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Alright, now I'm getting somewhere.. no where good, but at least a start. I managed to get alsamixer to start... here's the rundown. 2 hours to go before the spousal-unit arrives. I would really like to play some UT before she gets home!!!  :Wink: 

I did a udev

and then:

alsamixer

I unmuted everything I needed to, and turned them up.

Then I did a:

/etc/init.d/alsasound restart

```

 * WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

 * Storing ALSA Mixer Levels ...                                          [ ok ] 

 * Unloading ALSA ...                                                     [ ok ]

 * Unloading ALSA modules ...                                             [ ok ] 

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ] 

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ]

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...                                             [ ok ]
```

Okay.... confused.. why what helped... but okay

so, I run the standard:

cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp

```
bash: /dev/dsp: No such device

```

BUT!!!!

if I do:

cat /dev/urandom > /dev/sound

nothing happens! Which is better, I guess... no errors... but no sound.

Also, when I restart alsasound, I hear a pop in my speakers... so...

Yeah... help?

----------

## morodoch

/dev/dsp is the OSS device - to get it with alsa, you need to emerge the driver with the oss USE flag - this may be what's causing your problem.

```
echo 'media-sound/alsa-driver oss' >> /etc/portage/package.use

emerge alsa-driver

/etc/init.d/alsasound restart
```

----------

## Gentree

 *Quote:*   

> /dev/dsp is the OSS device - to get it with alsa, you need to emerge the driver with the oss USE flag - this may be what's causing your problem.

 

NO , you need to emege alsa-oss.

There is every chance that the game will use oss so you test is a good idea, but to see if you have alsa working on its own try playing an mp3 

```
* Loading ALSA modules ... 

*   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                                                       [ ok ] 

*   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                                           [ ok ] 

* Restoring Mixer Levels ... 

* No mixer config in /etc/asound.state, you have to unmute your card!    [ ok ] 

Setting default volumes... 

Saving the mixer setup used for this in /etc/asound.state. 

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...
```

unless I have lost track of where you are you are now using portage alsa-driver, so what are these "ALSA modules". I seems likely that the kernel modules are still there even though you did not chose to build them this time. 

try look in/around /usr/lib/modules/drivers and delete them.

I did post a lot of detail about this about 6mths back, but like you say there's a hell of a lot of "alsa dont work for me" post, so you can be forgiven for not finding it.

If you go for portage alsa you need to indicate your sound card in /etc/make.conf

eg

```
### additional ALSA stuff ###

#define drivers req when compiling alsa-driver _package_

ALSA_CARDS="ens1371 cmipci #es1938 "  # not snd-ens1371 !

```

I would favour built-in if you are getting stuck, I think it's clearer what is happening , but both should work just as well once you've got around the yotchas.

Kernel method :

uninstall everything alsa-ish 

add everything you need to kernel , rebuild , reboot

in chosing modules : use alsa, alsa-oss and _disable_ oss , add you sound card driver.

restart alsa , test.

portage alsa:

turn off all but sound card support. rebuild reboot.

delete the kernel module files

emerge alsa-oss alsa-driver alsa-lib alsa-utils 

restart alsa ; test/

HTH   :Cool: 

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Here's what's in my /usr/lib/modules/drivers

apm_drv.o        dummy_drv.o     nvidia_drv.o         sis_drv.o

ark_drv.o        fbdev_drv.o     r128_drv.o           tdfx_drv.o

ati_drv.o        glint_drv.o     radeon_drv.o         tga_drv.o

atimisc_drv.o    i128_drv.o      rendition_drv.o      trident_drv.o

chips_drv.o      i810_drv.o      riva128.o            tseng_drv.o

cirrus_alpine.o  linux           s3_drv.o             vesa_drv.o

cirrus_drv.o     mga_drv.o       s3virge_drv.o        vga_drv.o

cirrus_laguna.o  neomagic_drv.o  savage_drv.o

cyrix_drv.o      nv_drv.o        siliconmotion_drv.o

I don't see anything in there that looks like it's sounds related, any ideas?

And how would you suggest uninstalling everything ALSA-ish, I haven't needed to uninstall anything yet.... if I go the Kernel route?

----------

## morodoch

 *Quote:*   

> NO , you need to emege alsa-oss. 

 

Is that true? I don't have it emerged, and OSS emulation seems to work fine for me?

----------

## agent_jdh

 *morodoch wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   NO , you need to emege alsa-oss.  
> 
> Is that true? I don't have it emerged, and OSS emulation seems to work fine for me?

 

No, it's not.  You were right earlier.  Emerge'ing alsa-driver with the oss USE flag is what's wanted.  The alsa-oss package provides alsa-fied oss libs that apps can use, but not the actual oss emulation itself, that's done in the driver.

----------

## agent_jdh

 *Doctor Corndog wrote:*   

> Here's what's in my /usr/lib/modules/drivers
> 
> apm_drv.o        dummy_drv.o     nvidia_drv.o         sis_drv.o
> 
> ark_drv.o        fbdev_drv.o     r128_drv.o           tdfx_drv.o
> ...

 

I can't quite believe you were told to look in /usr/lib/modules/drivers ... take a look - a bit of common sense tells you that those are graphics card/chip drivers used by the X server.  Nothing whatsoever to do with alsa, or indeed sound.

The kernel modules are stored in (note _no_ /usr) - /lib/modules/2.6.whatever.kernel.you.have

My advice would be to delete that directory, cd to /usr/src/linux, make clean, make menuconfig - make sure the alsa drivers are not being built, make && make modules_install, copy over bzImage etc etc, reboot, emerge alsa-driver, check alsaconf works OK, make sure alsasound init script is in the boot runlevel (rc-update show), reboot and you should be good to go.

Sometimes 'old' mixer settings that are now defunct can confuse the alsa mixer restore state at boot, just run alsamixer and escape out, should save the new, relevant settings

----------

## die_vms_die

The alsasound script can load driver and save/restore sound.

Take all snd things out of modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.

In /etc/modules.d/alsa 

```
##  ALSA portion

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

```

modules-update

rc-update add alsasound boot.

Reboot, probably get warning to unmute channels, but use alsamixer or kmix, whatever.  Subsequent reboots should save and restore volumes.

Assuming you using intel8x0 driver from kernel, emerging alsa-utils which pull in alsa-lib and alsa-headers is it.

Configuring X should be much worse  :Smile: 

----------

## agent_jdh

 *die_vms_die wrote:*   

> In /etc/modules.d/alsa 
> 
> ```
> ##  ALSA portion
> 
> ...

 

alsaconf util creates a more thorough entry, and also runs modules-update for you.

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Alright, I went ahead and deleted /usr/lib/modules/kernelxxx

went to /usr/src/linus and make my menuconfig, with only sound card support (I used the * instead of the M - should I use an M, instead)

emerged my nvidia-kernel

emered my alsa-driver

ran alsaconf

```
Running modules-update...

Loading driver...

 * WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

 * ALSA is not loaded

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ]

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ]

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: load_state:1250: Cannot find soundcard '0'...

 * Errors while restoring defaults, ignoring                              [ ok ]

Setting default volumes...

```

alsamixer

```
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device
```

hmmm?

FYI - here are some updates on some files & settings

/etc/modules.d/alsa

```
# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.

# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.co$

# 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

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

##  OSS/Free portion

## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1

##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

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 1.0.10 ---

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

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

/etc/conf.d/alsasound 

```
# ENABLE_OSS_EMUL:

# Do you want to enable in-kernel oss emulation?

# no - Do not load oss emul drivers

# yes - Load oss emul drivers if they're found

ENABLE_OSS_EMUL="yes"

# RESTORE_ON_START:

# Do you want to restore your mixer settings?  If not, your cards will be

# muted.

# no - Do not restore state

# yes - Restore state

RESTORE_ON_START="yes"

# SAVE_ON_STOP:

# Do you want to save changes made to your mixer volumes when alsasound

# stops?

# no - Do not save state

# yes - Save state

SAVE_ON_STOP="yes"
```

/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

```
# /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:  kernel modules to load when system boots.# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6$#

# Note that this file is for 2.6 kernels.

#

# Add the names of modules that you'd like to load when the system

# starts into this file, one per line.  Comments begin with # and

# are ignored.  Read man modules.autoload for additional details.

# For example:

# 3c59x

```

 modprobe -l 

```
/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-codec.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-bus.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/pci/snd-intel8x0.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq-device.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd-timer.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd-pcm.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd-page-alloc.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/net/s2io.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/firmware/dcdbas.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/acpi/hotkey.ko
```

lsmod

```
Module                  Size  Used by

nvidia               4852784  12

snd_seq                56736  0

snd_intel8x0           26856  0

snd_ac97_codec        105432  1 snd_intel8x0

snd_ac97_bus            4480  1 snd_ac97_codec

snd_pcm                88776  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec

snd_timer              23752  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    50448  5 snd_seq,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

snd_page_alloc         11856  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
```

/etc/init.d/alsasound restart

```
 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ]

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ]

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: load_state:1250: Cannot find soundcard '0'...

 * Errors while restoring defaults, ignoring                              [ ok ]
```

----------

## Doctor Corndog

okay... now... if I do a killall udev it says:

```
udev: no process killed
```

then I do a udevstart... and everything works fine... ????

I can now go into alsamixer and unmute everything. I just played a WAV file on Gnome... UGH! I'm so frickin confused. There's still no sound in UT2004 though...

----------

## Gentree

 *Doctor Corndog wrote:*   

> 
> 
> ```
> # lspci -v | grep -i audio
> 
> ...

 

Sorry for the inaccurate info on the driver location, I was posting from memory since the forum search is so challenged I couldnt even locate my own post.

Anyway using kernel alsa is a lot easier to see what's going on , sound choise.

[M] vs [*] wont change anything that will make it work or not but does make it easier to see the modules using lsmod, this can help debugging it.

Ahh, just got your post about udev.

You have a udev tarball issue. 

grep -e TARBALL -e RC_DEVICES /etc/conf.d/rc

If is shows TARBALL="yes" edit the file and change  to "no" . 

udev is supposed to handle all devices live , tarballing makes it fixed and will stop it working!

I think this is historical . When udev was first brought into Gentoo it did not work ! so tarball stopped it messing up the system.

"yes" will slightly speed up boot on condition you never change your hardware, if you do it will stop udev doing it's job.

without the tarball I think you should start seeing the missing devices 

HTH   :Cool: 

----------

## Shadow-Warrior

I have been reading here and my problem is with the ALSA drivers as well. This is the only error that I can get up, I am not quite sure.....your posts in here have helped me. But if you tell me to do something please tell me the code and step by step, I am still learning. I am compiling the audio from the kernel and using a via-82xx. I followed the instructions from the guide off the website so my settings are identical except for being my VIA driver. 

When I type "/etc/init.d/alsasound restart"

```

 * WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

 * Storing ALSA Mixer Levels ...                                                                                                                     [ ok ]

 * Unloading ALSA ...                                                                                                                                [ ok ]

 * Unloading ALSA modules ...                                                                                                                        [ ok ]

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                                                                                                         [ ok ]

 *   Loading: snd-pcm-oss ...

WARNING: Error inserting snd_mixer_oss (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r10/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)

FATAL: Error inserting snd_pcm_oss (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r10/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-pcm-oss.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)                                                                                                                                            [ !! ]

 *   Loading: snd-mixer-oss ...

FATAL: Error inserting snd_mixer_oss (/lib/modules/2.6.12-gentoo-r10/kernel/sound/core/oss/snd-mixer-oss.ko): Unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)                                                                                                                                        [ !! ]

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                                                                                            [ ok ]

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...   
```

I typed out dmesg, if this helps any....I am still confused.

```
Bootdata ok (command line is root=/dev/hda3)

Linux version 2.6.12-gentoo-r10 (root@livecd) (gcc version 3.4.3 20041125 (Gentoo 3.4.3-r1, ssp-3.4.3-0, pie-8.7.7)) #1 SMP Sun Dec 11 16:47:47 EST 2005

BIOS-provided physical RAM map:

 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)

 BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)

 BIOS-e820: 00000000000d8000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)

 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000004fef0000 (usable)

 BIOS-e820: 000000004fef0000 - 000000004fefb000 (ACPI data)

 BIOS-e820: 000000004fefb000 - 000000004ff00000 (ACPI NVS)

 BIOS-e820: 000000004ff00000 - 0000000050000000 (reserved)

 BIOS-e820: 00000000fffe0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)

ACPI: RSDP (v000 PTLTD                                 ) @ 0x00000000000f8360

ACPI: RSDT (v001 Arima  161Fh    0x06040000  LTP 0x00000000) @ 0x000000004fef6b6e

ACPI: FADT (v001 Arima  161Fh    0x06040000 PTL_ 0x000f4240) @ 0x000000004fefae66

ACPI: SSDT (v001 PTLTD  POWERNOW 0x06040000  LTP 0x00000001) @ 0x000000004fefaeda

ACPI: MADT (v001 PTLTD           APIC   0x06040000  LTP 0x00000000) @ 0x000000004fefafb0

ACPI: DSDT (v001  Arima 161Fh    0x06040000 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x0000000000000000

Scanning NUMA topology in Northbridge 24

Number of nodes 1

Node 0 MemBase 0000000000000000 Limit 000000004fef0000

Using node hash shift of 24

Bootmem setup node 0 0000000000000000-000000004fef0000

On node 0 totalpages: 327408

  DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1

  Normal zone: 323312 pages, LIFO batch:31

  HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1

ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x4008

ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000

ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)

Processor #0 15:4 APIC version 16

ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] high edge lint[0x1])

ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x01] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])

IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 1, version 3, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23

ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 high edge)

ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.

ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.

ACPI: IRQ10 used by override.

Setting APIC routing to flat

Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information

Allocating PCI resources starting at 50000000 (gap: 50000000:affe0000)

Checking aperture...

CPU 0: aperture @ e0000000 size 256 MB

Built 1 zonelists

Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda3

Initializing CPU#0

PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 131072 bytes)

time.c: Using 3.579545 MHz PM timer.

time.c: Detected 1804.159 MHz processor.

Console: colour VGA+ 80x25

Dentry cache hash table entries: 262144 (order: 9, 2097152 bytes)

Inode-cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)

Memory: 1282424k/1309632k available (3031k kernel code, 0k reserved, 1243k data, 216k init)

Calibrating delay loop... 3547.13 BogoMIPS (lpj=1773568)

Mount-cache hash table entries: 256

CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)

CPU: L2 Cache: 1024K (64 bytes/line)

CPU 0(1) -> Node 0 -> Core 0

Using local APIC timer interrupts.

Detected 12.528 MHz APIC timer.

Brought up 1 CPUs

time.c: Using PIT/TSC based timekeeping.

testing NMI watchdog ... OK.

CPU0 attaching sched-domain:

 domain 0: span 01

  groups: 01

  domain 1: span 01

   groups: 01

   domain 2: span 01

    groups: 01

NET: Registered protocol family 16

PCI: Using configuration type 1

mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)

ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050309

ACPI: Interpreter enabled

ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing

ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)

PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)

Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKA] (IRQs 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23) *9, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] (IRQs 23) *11, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] (IRQs 22) *10, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] (IRQs 21) *10, disabled.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 *9 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 *11 12 14 15)

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 11 12 14 15) *10

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 *10 11 12 14 15)

ACPI: Embedded Controller [EC] (gpe 1)

SCSI subsystem initialized

usbcore: registered new driver usbfs

usbcore: registered new driver hub

PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing

PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report

agpgart: Detected AGP bridge 0

agpgart: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xe0000000

PCI-DMA: Disabling IOMMU.

IA32 emulation $Id: sys_ia32.c,v 1.32 2002/03/24 13:02:28 ak Exp $

Total HugeTLB memory allocated, 0

inotify device minor=63

Installing knfsd (copyright (C) 1996 okir@monad.swb.de).

Real Time Clock Driver v1.12

Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones

ACPI: AC Adapter [AC] (on-line)

ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)

ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]

ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [SLPB]

ACPI: Lid Switch [LID]

ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1] C2[C2])

serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12

serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1

Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing disabled

mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice

io scheduler noop registered

io scheduler deadline registered

io scheduler cfq registered

input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0

Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 5.9, id: 0x236eb3, caps: 0x904713/0x10008

input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad on isa0060/serio1

floppy0: no floppy controllers found

RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize

loop: loaded (max 8 devices)

Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 6.0.54-k2

Copyright (c) 1999-2004 Intel Corporation.

forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version 0.35.

PPP generic driver version 2.4.2

tun: Universal TUN/TAP device driver, 1.6

tun: (C) 1999-2004 Max Krasnyansky <maxk@qualcomm.com>

netconsole: not configured, aborting

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx

Probing IDE interface ide0...

hda: HITACHI_DK23FA-60, ATA DISK drive

Probing IDE interface ide1...

hdc: Slimtype COMBO LSC-24082K, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive

Probing IDE interface ide2...

Probing IDE interface ide3...

Probing IDE interface ide4...

Probing IDE interface ide5...

ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14

ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15

hda: max request size: 128KiB

hda: 117210240 sectors (60011 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63

hda: cache flushes supported

 hda: hda1 hda2 hda3

hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache

Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20

libata version 1.11 loaded.

Fusion MPT base driver 3.01.20

Copyright (c) 1999-2004 LSI Logic Corporation

Fusion MPT SCSI Host driver 3.01.20

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] disabled and referenced, BIOS bug.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] BIOS reported IRQ 0, using IRQ 21

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKD] enabled at IRQ 21

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:10.3[D] -> Link [ALKD] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 169

PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:10.3, from 0 to 9

ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: EHCI Host Controller

ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1

ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: irq 169, io mem 0xd0002800

ehci_hcd 0000:00:10.3: USB 2.0 initialized, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004

hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 1-0:1.0: 6 ports detected

ohci_hcd: 2004 Nov 08 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)

USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:10.0[A] -> Link [ALKD] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 169

PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:10.0, from 0 to 9

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.0: UHCI Host Controller

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.0: irq 169, io base 0x00001c80

hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:10.1[B] -> Link [ALKD] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 169

PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:10.1, from 0 to 9

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.1: UHCI Host Controller

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.1: irq 169, io base 0x00001ca0

hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:10.2[C] -> Link [ALKD] -> GSI 21 (level, low) -> IRQ 169

PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:10.2, from 0 to 9

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.2: UHCI Host Controller

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4

uhci_hcd 0000:00:10.2: irq 169, io base 0x00001cc0

hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found

hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected

usbcore: registered new driver usblp

drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver

Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...

usb 3-1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2

usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage

USB Mass Storage support registered.

input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB Receiver] on usb-0000:00:10.1-1

usbcore: registered new driver usbhid

drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver

Intel 810 + AC97 Audio, version 1.01, 16:46:51 Dec 11 2005

oprofile: using NMI interrupt.

NET: Registered protocol family 2

IP: routing cache hash table of 8192 buckets, 128Kbytes

TCP established hash table entries: 262144 (order: 10, 4194304 bytes)

TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)

TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)

NET: Registered protocol family 1

NET: Registered protocol family 10

IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver

NET: Registered protocol family 17

powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron processors (version 1.40.4)

powernow-k8:    0 : fid 0xa (1800 MHz), vid 0x6 (1400 mV)

powernow-k8:    1 : fid 0x8 (1600 MHz), vid 0xa (1300 mV)

powernow-k8:    2 : fid 0x0 (800 MHz), vid 0x18 (950 mV)

cpu_init done, current fid 0xa, vid 0x6

ACPI wakeup devices:

SLPB  LID PCI0 PS2K USB1 USB2 USB3 Z00A CRD0 NICD

ACPI: (supports S0 S3 S4 S5)

ReiserFS: hda3: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal

ReiserFS: hda3: using ordered data mode

ReiserFS: hda3: journal params: device hda3, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30

ReiserFS: hda3: checking transaction log (hda3)

ReiserFS: hda3: Using r5 hash to sort names

VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.

Freeing unused kernel memory: 216k freed

Losing some ticks... checking if CPU frequency changed.

Adding 506036k swap on /dev/hda2.  Priority:-1 extents:1

warning: many lost ticks.

Your time source seems to be instable or some driver is hogging interupts

rip __do_softirq+0x54/0xf0

via-rhine.c:v1.10-LK1.2.0-2.6 June-10-2004 Written by Donald Becker

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] disabled and referenced, BIOS bug.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] BIOS reported IRQ 0, using IRQ 23

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKB] enabled at IRQ 23

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:12.0[A] -> Link [ALKB] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 177

PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:12.0, from 9 to 1

eth0: VIA Rhine II at 0xd0002c00, 00:03:25:10:c1:bb, IRQ 177.

eth0: MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x786d advertising 05e1 Link 45e1.

fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.

[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 1159 MBytes.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 185

[fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.20.8 [Dec  6 2005] on minor 0

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] disabled and referenced, BIOS bug.

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] BIOS reported IRQ 0, using IRQ 22

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [ALKC] enabled at IRQ 22

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:11.5[C] -> Link [ALKC] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 193

PCI: Via IRQ fixup for 0000:00:11.5, from 10 to 1

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:11.5 to 64

snd_seq_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_seq_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_seq_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_ioctl_card

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_task_name

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1

[fglrx] Internal AGP support requested, but kernel AGP support active.

[fglrx] Have to use kernel AGP support to avoid conflicts.

[fglrx] Kernel AGP support doesn't provide agplock functionality.

[fglrx] AGP detected, AgpState   = 0x1f000a1b (hardware caps of chipset)

agpgart: Found an AGP 3.5 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 8x mode

agpgart: Putting AGP V3 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 8x mode

[fglrx] AGP enabled,  AgpCommand = 0x1f000312 (selected caps)

[fglrx] free  AGP = 256126976

[fglrx] max   AGP = 256126976

[fglrx] free  LFB = 52719616

[fglrx] max   LFB = 52719616

[fglrx] free  Inv = 0

[fglrx] max   Inv = 0

[fglrx] total Inv = 0

[fglrx] total TIM = 0

[fglrx] total FB  = 0

[fglrx] total AGP = 65536

eth0: no IPv6 routers present

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:11.5[C] -> Link [ALKC] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 193

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:11.5 to 64

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_ioctl_card

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_task_name

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_ioctl_card

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_task_name

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:11.5[C] -> Link [ALKC] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 193

PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:11.5 to 64

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_ioctl_card

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_task_name

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_pcm_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_unregister_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_register_oss_device

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_mixer_oss_notify_callback

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_oss_info_register

snd_mixer_oss: Unknown symbol snd_kmalloc_strdup

```

Umm, alsamixer works fine and I have everything unmuted and volume level raised.

I try to check the audio with this command 

```
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp
```

 or 

```
cat /dev/urandom > /dev/sound/dsp
```

 There is no directory. I check into the dev folder and I don't find a sound folder at all, only these folders: 

```
.udevdb/ cciss/   cpu/     dri/     ida/     input/   misc/    pts/     rd/      snd/     vc/

ataraid/ cdroms/  discs/   fd/      ide/     loop/    net/     pty/     shm/     tts/     vcc/

```

I just don't get what to do, orginally I started out with the non kernel module but that did not work so I completely took it off by unmering ALSA and tried Kernel.....no luck yet. Thanks for any help.

----------

## agent_jdh

Q.  Do you have module autoloading enabled in your kernel?

You really should stick with the alsa-driver ebuild rather than the in-kernel alsa support, it matches the versions of alsa-utils etc that you install via ebuilds as well, which is one of the causes of symbol errors.

I take it there was a typo (?) earlier when you said you deleted /usr/lib/modules/whatever?

You should be able to use sound card support as a module in the kernel btw, but I just compile it in (* it, basically).

I think the best way forward for you is to back out of everything, and start fomr scratch using the alsa guide in the Gentoo Doc section, and follow it _really_ carefully, because it is easy to make a mistake.  Alsa is deceptively simple to get working, but if you screw up one step of it, as you're finding out, it can be a real bitch to get working.

What USE flags do you have btw?

You should probably unmerge all your alsa stuff, rebuild your kernel as per the alsa doc, deleteing your /lib/modules/2.6.* directory first, and make sure the new kernel is installed properly.  Then re-emerge the alsa driver and utils, and run alsaconf again.  There's probably a config file somewhere screwing things up, or an old kernel-level alsa module somewhere.

----------

## agent_jdh

@Shadow-Warrior

Have you checked out-

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml

You really should go with the alsa-driver ebuild route.  And if you have the oss USE flag, it will build alsa with oss emulation, which looks like it might be an issue for you.  Did you compile all the alsa stuff as modules, or straight into the kernel?  If you're going to use the kernel alsa, use it as modules, and let the alsasound boot script load the right ones for you.  You need kernel module autoloading for this to work.

Do not manually load any alsa modules using /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6, and make sure alsaconf has configured your card properly.  If you use alsa-driver ebuild, you can specify what kind of card you have in /etc/make.conf (instructions in the URL above) to build only the driver you need rather than all of them.

----------

## Gentree

 *Quote:*   

> I just don't get what to do, orginally I started out with the non kernel module but that did not work so I completely took it off by unmering ALSA and tried Kernel.....no luck yet. Thanks for any help.

 

be aware of two things :

1. most emerges will install dependancies, these are not remove by emerge -C .... 

if you emerge alsa it will pull in things like alsa-headers , etc. some of these may conflict with the kernel method when swapping back and forth.

```

emerge -S alsa 
```

   should tell you what alsa stuff is installed or not.

2. emerge alsa is a virtual ; it can refer to kernel or the portage version depending which you did last , once you have built it into the kernel emerge alsa will try to reinstall your kernel source (since this is where your alsa source is). This can be confusing and emerge -C alsa may _not_ do what you expect! (Although it will only remove the kernel source code , not your kernel.)

if you want alsa package specify emerge alsa-driver  rather than emerge alsa.

Doctor Corndog,

I've just been rereading your posts , your lspci shows only an nvidia device, where is the intel8x0 that you are trying to configure?  

If you're are sure you have an intel sound card and it does not show on lspci it is likely a hardware fault. Probably a dead card. A quick check would be to boot from a live CD like Knoppix and see if it finds it and if you have sound . If so come back and have another go at alsa.

 :Cool: 

----------

## Shadow-Warrior

I just unemerged the ALSA driver and it did not touch the kernel driver. I installed Cedega and during the tests it showed my ALSA driver to be fine, just the OSS....I really don't want to mess up the ALSA and anything else by deleting my modules folder. (especially taking any risks with my ATI card)  Gonna try setting it to autoload, and see what happens.

----------

## Gentree

So what is your hardware , doc?

```
bash-3.00# cat /proc/asound/cards

0 [AudioPCI       ]: ENS1371 - Ensoniq AudioPCI

                     Ensoniq AudioPCI ENS1371 at 0xd800, irq 3

bash-3.00# lspci -v | grep -i audio

00:10.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 06)

        Subsystem: Ensoniq Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI64V, AudioPCI128

```

Shadow-Warrior:

I just unemerged the ALSA driver and it did not touch the kernel driver.

please post code not descriptions it can mask your errors, say what you actually did. I assume you mean 

```
emerge -C alsa-driver
```

well it should not have touched your kernel , that is why I emphasised the danger of using "alsa" .

have a look at the following:

```
ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/alsa-driver
```

If you are running kernel alsa this should not exist.

```

ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/sound/pci

ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/sound/core/oss

```

the first will show you your hardware drivers, the alsa oss drivers.

[Note the ticks are not the single quote character, substitiute your kernel name manually if you prefer, using uname means this makes sense for any kernel version.]

 :Cool: 

----------

## Doctor Corndog

 *Gentree wrote:*   

> So what is your hardware , doc?

 

Opteron 170

  w/ Swiftech Storm

DFI Lanparty NF4 UT SLI-DR

G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR 500

BFG 7800 GTX OC

  w/ DD Maze 4

Plextor DVD

PC Power & Cooling 510 

Lian Li PC-V2100

----------

## Shadow-Warrior

Gentree: I did not use the command that you provided to unmerge my Alsa drivers, instead I used the following 

```
emerge --unmerge alsa-driver
```

 Yet when I issue the commands you gave for me to check I still have files underneath them, here is what they are:

```
ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/alsa-driver

acore  drivers  pci
```

```
ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/sound/pci

ac97  snd-via82xx.ko
```

```
ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/sound/core/oss

snd-mixer-oss.ko  snd-pcm-oss.ko
```

So obviously it left files behind and I typed in your code, the "emerge -C alsa-driver" but with --pretend and it told me no packages selected for removal. Ok, where to go from there?

----------

## Gentree

```
ls /lib/modules/`uname -r`/alsa-driver 

acore  drivers  pci
```

it's just those files you need to take out my hand.

I was not saying emerge -C alsa-driver would take the out, just warning about the confusion  that virtual packages can cause. This still needs to be done manually , I'd guess there's a reason why portage wont do it but I want bother trying to guess it.

@doc,

sorry I was meaning what was your sound card hardware. I dont understand whether its intel or nvidia from your post .

The confusion seems to be that lspci reports nvidia and you are setting everything for intel8x0 drivers.

Am I misunderstanding your posts or are you confusing your drivers?

 :Cool: 

----------

## agent_jdh

 *Gentree wrote:*   

> 
> 
> The confusion seems to be that lspci reports nvidia and you are setting everything for intel8x0 drivers.
> 
> Am I misunderstanding your posts or are you confusing your drivers?
> ...

 

Onboard sound on nforce mobos uses the intel8x0 alsa driver.

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Okay, I'm back with a little spare time to post some more updates.

Here's what is happening:

I am using the downloadable drivers (emerge alsa-driver)

When booting, it looks like I'm still trying to enable the modules as this is what it tells me ( I could be wrong ):

Loading ALSA modules:

  snd-card-0           [ok]

  snd-seq                [ok]

When it tried to restore my mixer defaults I get this error:

Loadstate 1250 Cannot find sound card 0

When I get into Gnome, I get an error message about not being able to find a sound device.

NOW, here's the rest:

alsaconf

[code]Running modules-update...

Loading driver...

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ] 

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ]

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: load_state:1250: Cannot find soundcard '0'...

 * Errors while restoring default volumes[code]

alsamixer

[code]alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device[/code]

/etc/modules.d/alsa 

[code]

# Alsa 0.9.X kernel modules' configuration file.

# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/media-sound/alsa-utils/files/alsa-modules.co$

# 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

## alias snd-card-1 snd-ens1371

##  OSS/Free portion

## alias sound-slot-1 snd-card-1

##

# OSS/Free portion - card #1

##  OSS/Free portion - card #2

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 1.0.10 ---

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

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

[/code]

/etc/conf.d/alsasound 

[code]# ENABLE_OSS_EMUL:

# Do you want to enable in-kernel oss emulation?

# no - Do not load oss emul drivers

# yes - Load oss emul drivers if they're found

ENABLE_OSS_EMUL="yes"

# RESTORE_ON_START:

# Do you want to restore your mixer settings?  If not, your cards will be

# muted.

# no - Do not restore state

# yes - Restore state

RESTORE_ON_START="yes"

# SAVE_ON_STOP:

# Do you want to save changes made to your mixer volumes when alsasound

# stops?

# no - Do not save state

# yes - Save state

SAVE_ON_STOP="yes"

[/code]

/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 

[code]# /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6:  kernel modules to load when system boots.# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6$#

# Note that this file is for 2.6 kernels.

#

# Add the names of modules that you'd like to load when the system

# starts into this file, one per line.  Comments begin with # and

# are ignored.  Read man modules.autoload for additional details.

# For example:

# 3c59x

[/code]

 modprobe -l 

[code]/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-codec.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/pci/ac97/snd-ac97-bus.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/pci/snd-intel8x0.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/seq/snd-seq-device.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd-timer.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd-pcm.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/alsa-driver/acore/snd-page-alloc.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/net/s2io.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/firmware/dcdbas.ko

/lib/modules/2.6.14-gentoo-r2/kernel/drivers/acpi/hotkey.ko

[/code]

lsmod 

[code]Module                  Size  Used by

snd_seq                56736  0

snd_intel8x0           26856  0

snd_ac97_codec        105432  1 snd_intel8x0

snd_ac97_bus            4480  1 snd_ac97_codec

snd_pcm                88776  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec

snd_timer              23752  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm

snd                    50448  5 snd_seq,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer

snd_page_alloc         11856  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm

nvidia               4852784  12

[/code]

/etc/init.d/alsasound restart

[code]

* WARNING:  you are stopping a boot service.

 * Storing ALSA Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: save_state:1163: No soundcards found...                [ !! ] 

 * Unloading ALSA ...

ALSA lib seq_hw.c:455:(snd_seq_hw_open) open /dev/snd/seq failed: No such file or directory

can't open sequencer                                                      [ ok ]

 * Unloading ALSA modules ...                                             [ ok ]

 * Loading ALSA modules ...

 *   Loading: snd-card-0 ...                                              [ ok ]

 *   Loading: snd-seq ...                                                 [ ok ]

 * Restoring Mixer Levels ...

/usr/sbin/alsactl: load_state:1250: Cannot find soundcard '0'...

 * Errors while restoring defaults, ignoring                              [ ok ][/code]

grep -e TARBALL -e RC_DEVICES /etc/conf.d/rc

[code]RC_DEVICES="auto"

RC_DEVICE_TARBALL="no"

[/code]

alsamixer

[/code]alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

[code]

NOW, if I do a killall udev, then a udevstart.....

I get a working mixer when I run alsamixer again.... I can even run hear things when I unmute the channels. Still nothing in games though. How can I make it so it just boots up normally!!?!

----------

## agent_jdh

I don't know if I asked this before, I can't really be bothered re-reading this thread, but did you emerge alsa-driver with the oss USE flag?  If you want to use alsa and run it with oss-only apps, you need to do this.  Your USE flags in /etc/make.conf should probably contain both alsa and oss.

After modifying this, you can check what ebuilds will be rebuilt with the new USE flags by running 

```
emerge -upDvN world
```

  To actually run that, remove the p and the v.

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Sorry, you did mention that, but it took me a while to figure out what you meant by it. I have now put that into my make.conf, and it says it's emerging 54 files, so we'll see how that does. Thanks again!

----------

## agent_jdh

 *Doctor Corndog wrote:*   

> Sorry, you did mention that, but it took me a while to figure out what you meant by it. I have now put that into my make.conf, and it says it's emerging 54 files, so we'll see how that does. Thanks again!

 

This will probably help quite a bit - your various alsa config files set up by alsaconf are looking to enable oss emulation, yet the alsa-driver ebuild will not have built the oss emul. drivers if it doesn't get emerged with the oss USE flag.  Apps that still use oss for sound simply will not work.

Fingers crossed - I switched back to Alsa recently after a while and had to recompile all my apps with the alsa USE flag ... took ages.

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Now we're rolling... for the most part. After everything was emerged and installed, I went ahead and rebooted the system. Still has errors when trying to retrieve my previous mixer defaults, but I'll work with that. Interestingly enough, once booted, I still didn't have any sound, but, once again if I do a udevstart, everything runs fine. Gnome sounds, MP3s, and Games also... so that is good! I mean, I hardly every reboot my system anyhow, so I can at least have some sound to play some games when I need a break. I still don't know why I have to run udevstart everytime I boot, but at least now I have the symptom narrowed down to one problem. Thanks again for you help, I'm learning quite a bit, as I've only been using Linux for about a week, I know I have a lot yet to learn (getting a Linux book for Xmas!).

----------

## VS Jonno

If I remember correctly, I re-emerged udev and re-ran alsaconf and it worked perfectly for some ungodly reason. I'm a noob too so I really apologise if you try it and it messes things up, but it worked for me.

----------

## agent_jdh

 *Doctor Corndog wrote:*   

> Now we're rolling... for the most part. After everything was emerged and installed, I went ahead and rebooted the system. Still has errors when trying to retrieve my previous mixer defaults, but I'll work with that. Interestingly enough, once booted, I still didn't have any sound, but, once again if I do a udevstart, everything runs fine. Gnome sounds, MP3s, and Games also... so that is good! I mean, I hardly every reboot my system anyhow, so I can at least have some sound to play some games when I need a break. I still don't know why I have to run udevstart everytime I boot, but at least now I have the symptom narrowed down to one problem. Thanks again for you help, I'm learning quite a bit, as I've only been using Linux for about a week, I know I have a lot yet to learn (getting a Linux book for Xmas!).

 

For the mixer errors, try running alsamixer and fiddling with all the settings, then set them all to what you want, and escape out.  It should save the new settings which might hopefully overwrite any old ones that are troublesome.

Udev's been a bit sketchy recently, on ~x86 at least.  Make sure you're not saving/restoring a device tarball in cd /etc/conf.d/rc and that RC_DEVICES is set to udev or auto (I use auto).

----------

## Doctor Corndog

I'll give them both a look tonight when I get a chance, I know I have been setting the alsamixer up after I run udevstart, as everything is muted by default. The settings will hold until I reboot, but I'll check out my /etc/conf.d/rc also.

If all else fails, I suppose I could reemerge udev... though, I do still get a bit timid when emerging anything  :Smile: 

----------

## VS Jonno

Well, I'm sort of an "If it aint broke, tweak it until it breaks. If it's broken, whack it with a mallet." kinda guy. Seems to work sometimes though  :Smile: 

----------

## agent_jdh

 *Doctor Corndog wrote:*   

> I'll give them both a look tonight when I get a chance, I know I have been setting the alsamixer up after I run udevstart, as everything is muted by default. The settings will hold until I reboot, but I'll check out my /etc/conf.d/rc also.
> 
> If all else fails, I suppose I could reemerge udev... though, I do still get a bit timid when emerging anything 

 

emerge --oneshot whatever_application is your friend.  If you do re-emerge udev, make sure to run etc-update.

Just one thing, could you post the output of 

```
rc-update show
```

?

----------

## Doctor Corndog

Certainly

```
alsasound | boot

            bootmisc | boot

             checkfs | boot

           checkroot | boot

               clock | boot

         consolefont | boot

         crypto-loop |

               cupsd |

          domainname | boot default

              esound |

                famd |      default

                 gpm |

              hdparm |

            hostname | boot

             keymaps | boot

               local |      default nonetwork

          localmount | boot

             modules | boot

            net.eth0 |      default

              net.lo | boot

            netmount |      default

                nscd |

             numlock |

             portmap |

           rmnologin | boot

              rsyncd |

               spamd |

                sshd |

           syslog-ng |      default

             urandom | boot

          vixie-cron |      default

                 xdm |      default

```

----------

## fserafin

try to fellow this how to http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/alsa-guide.xml i know it works with the alsa drivers in portage cause i have the same chip set as you 

put this in you /etc/make.conf 

```

# sound card

ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0"

```

----------

## Doctor Corndog

I did follow that guide, and I do have that in my /etc/make.conf.

----------

## agent_jdh

Did you follow the udev guide for setting that up, especially w.r.t. using coldplug?  That may explain why alsa complains about "no such device" at boot.  You should have hotplug and coldplug emerged, with coldplug added to the boot runlevel.

Doc here-

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml

----------

## saturas

i have the same problem as "the doctor" but only after upgrading to kernel 2.6.14-r4

for 2 years i did use only the the configuration for alsa from the kernel with no problem since 2 days ago (when i upgraded)

here is my card 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio (rev 04)
> 
>         Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Unknown device 5230
> ...

 

here are my modules i loaded:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Module                  Size  Used by
> 
> nvidia               4081680  12
> ...

 

as you can see, all looks fine with the modules but i have no sound

when i run #alsaconf, here is the output i get:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Running modules-update...
> 
> Loading driver...
> ...

 

----------

## saturas

i've configured udev coresponding to 

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/udev-guide.xml

and that solved my problem. as agent_jdh said coldplug seem to be the key to the problem  :Wink: 

----------

## Sh4doW

try udevstart ... that did the job for me after about 10+ hours of f*** with alsa-drivers / kernel / ...

----------

## agent_jdh

 *Sh4doW wrote:*   

> try udevstart ... that did the job for me after about 10+ hours of f*** with alsa-drivers / kernel / ...

 

But does it stick after reboot?

----------

## Gentree

 *Doctor Corndog wrote:*   

> Certainly
> 
> ```
> alsasound | boot
> 
> ...

 

hey man you still struggling with this?

you dont even have alsasound set to start with the system . No wonder it does not run.

```
rc-update add alsasound default
```

some places say add it to boot but I've never seen the relevance of sound to booting the pc. It seems most appropiate once it switches to default run level: the user interface.

from the guide you said you had followed   :Rolling Eyes: 

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> # rc-update add alsasound boot
> 
>  * alsasound added to runlevel boot
> ...

 

also from that page:

```
Important: If you have issues starting up alsamixer and get errors such as alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory, this is usually an issue with udev setting up the devices. Run killall udevd; udevstart to reload /dev entries and fire up alsamixer. It should solve the issue.

```

As already pointed out you will also need coldplug added to boot.

This is why you are having to run udevstart manaully.

HTH   :Cool: 

----------

## Sh4doW

 *agent_jdh wrote:*   

>  *Sh4doW wrote:*   try udevstart ... that did the job for me after about 10+ hours of f*** with alsa-drivers / kernel / ... 
> 
> But does it stick after reboot?

 

it does not ... i've put udevstart in start.local ...

----------

## geta

EDIT: I'm sorry, my solution does not to work, it only seemed to work. It gets even stranger:

Every second reboot /dev/dsp doesn't appear anymore. It's exactly every second boot, no matter if I do a cold restart, reboot it or switch it off and then switch it on a few hours later.

As soon as /dev/dsp doesn't show up, I type "killall udevd; udevstart" and all is well up to and including the next reboot. But after another reboot /dev/dsp doesn't show up anymore. You don't call that wierd? I do.

--- original posting left here for refrence ---

 *Sh4doW wrote:*   

> it does not ... i've put udevstart in start.local ...

 

Well, I've had to do type countless "killall udevd; udevstart" after each reboot to get the OSS layer working. Pure ALSA applications weren't the problem, but anything trying to access /dev/dsp (i.e. the OSS emulation layer) wasn't successful as /dev/dsp didn't exist until doing "killall udevd; udevstart".

The solution to my problem seemed most peculiar. However, now I know about the problem, it seems nothing but logical. My original /etc/modules.d/alsa  and /etc/modules.conf (snippets of it, at least):

```

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

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

# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.10 ---

alias char-major-116 snd

alias char-major-14 soundcore

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

alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss

alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

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

```

My changed config:

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

# --- ALSACONF version 1.0.10 ---

alias char-major-116 snd

alias char-major-14 soundcore

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

alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss

alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss

alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

alias sound-slot-0 snd-intel8x0

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

alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss

alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss

alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss

```

You are forgiven for thinking of me as going crazy (or senile) for posting the same config file twice. Problem is: they're not the same config file. The sequence in which these lines are arranged in the config seems to play a very important role.

Hope this tip saves some people from typing "killall udevd; udevstart". Bloody nuisance, typing is.

Cheers,

geta

----------

## sonicbhoc

Whenever I do this, it goes like this:

I build sound into the kernel [*], but then disable everything under the sound menu (oss and alsa both have < >). Then I emerge alsa-drivers and alsa-(utils? or tools? something like that. My memory is awesome.   :Razz:  ) and run alsaconf. It works just fine like that for me. But, if you have a lot of crap in your kernel, (old stuff you compiled out), then you might want to clean it, like if you got rid of alsa drivers you previously compiled in. Just do this:

```
cd /usr/src/linux && make clean && make && cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage your_kernel_image_name
```

----------

