# Sound problems

## gsfgf

I have a Vaio F580 w/ integrated sound.  How can i figure out which sound card driver to use.  All sony says in its MS sound compatable.  I have MS souns system enebled in the kernel, but i have no sound.  I tried the generic sound blaster driver "sb.o", but it just froze the com.  Is there generic driver such as pcm in BSD?

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## huw

www.linux-laptops.net listed this site 

http://jeigh.com/~ian/pcgf580.html

lots of useful info on how to set up alsa with your sound card - looks like you need the snd-card-ymfpci module.

HTH

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## gsfgf

I installed alsa and xmms-alsa.  I moved the alsa libs from /usr/lib/xmms/Output to /usr/lib/xmms/Plugins and now when i start xmms i get this error.

```
bash-2.05a# xmms

fs seg 0x40172000

Available CPU flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse

645.209000 MHz Pentium III (Coppermine) processor detected

xmms: simple.c:1070: snd_mixer_selem_get_id: Assertion `elem && id' failed.

Aborted

bash-2.05a#
```

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## huw

I had a quick look on the alsa-xmms maillist - suggested this odd error is a permissions problem for the sound device. 

You can edit this via /etc/devfsd.conf which has an ALSA/OSS section. If you use the defaults there you'll need to add users to the audio group.

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## gsfgf

 *huw wrote:*   

> I had a quick look on the alsa-xmms maillist - suggested this odd error is a permissions problem for the sound device. 
> 
> You can edit this via /etc/devfsd.conf which has an ALSA/OSS section. If you use the defaults there you'll need to add users to the audio group.

 

I'm running as root (I know its bad) so aren't these the correct premissions>

```

# ALSA/OSS stuff                                                                

# Comment/change these if you want to change the permissions on                 

# the audio devices                                                             

LOOKUP          snd          MODLOAD ACTION snd                                 

LOOKUP          dsp          MODLOAD                                            

LOOKUP          mixer        MODLOAD                                            

LOOKUP          midi         MODLOAD                                            

REGISTER        sound/.*     PERMISSIONS root.audio 660                         

REGISTER        snd/.*       PERMISSIONS root.audio 660  

```

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## huw

Those look OK. If you add your username to the audio group then you should be able to run as a normal user - unless you get those errors as root as well, in which case it's not a simple permissions problem.

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## gsfgf

 *huw wrote:*   

> Those look OK. If you add your username to the audio group then you should be able to run as a normal user - unless you get those errors as root as well, in which case it's not a simple permissions problem.

 

I get them as root as well.

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## huw

OK then it's not simple. Hmmm I would suggest a read through of postings on the alsa-xmms maillist as a start point. Wish I could help more, but I just dont have enough experience of alsa to do that.

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## gsfgf

I found the gentoo sound guide. and tried to install alsa that way.  When i run amixer i get an error

```
bash-2.05a# amixer 

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such device

```

/dev/mixer and /dev/sound/mixer both exist.

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## gsfgf

alsactrl says i don't have any soundcards.  I loaded the module.  What else do i need to do?  It is a built in card.

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## nanobyte

I am on a sony vaio fxa33 and get the same error message:

root@mymachnine chris # amixer

amixer: Mixer attach default error: No such file or directory

Any suggestions?

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