ALSA permissions problems? / mpg123, xmms, aplay [SOLVED]

[dogma@genus]

On my fresh Gentoo install, I have run into some problems with sound - go figure.

For example...

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$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/gaim/send.wav
ALSA lib confmisc.c:550:(snd_determine_driver) could not open control for card 0ALSA lib conf.c:3463:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: Permission denied
ALSA lib confmisc.c:387:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3463:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: Permission denied
ALSA lib confmisc.c:945:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3463:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: Permission denied
ALSA lib conf.c:3932:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: Permission denied
ALSA lib pcm.c:2068:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:508: audio open error: Permission denied

and

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$ mpg123 <a mp3>
High Performance MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 Audio Player for Layer 1, 2 and 3.
Version 0.59s-r9 (2000/Oct/27). Written and copyrights by Michael Hipp.
Uses code from various people. See 'README' for more!
THIS SOFTWARE COMES WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY! USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Can't open /dev/dsp!

XMMS gives me a similar (though ambiguous) error:

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failed to open audio output: ALSA 1.2.10 output plugin

While I have seen other threads regarding this (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-307182.html, for example), I find that it all works perfectly from root.
In reading over the above mentioned thread, I saw that in some cases /dev/sound was a file and not a directory, which is not the case in my situation. In his problem, afabco didn't mention that root worked properly. My user has audio privelages, so I don't understand the problem.
It was mentioned that using the ~x86 version of udev should help,

This is a bug in udev. The unstable version of udev has a fix, you can emerge it this way:

# echo "sys-fs/udev ~x86" >> /etc/portage/packages.keywords
# emerge udev

but I'm not sure if that is a version issue (again, no mention of it working perfectly pre-fix in root), and don't really want to start off an install with ~x86.

I can provide all of my ALSA configuration information, but it doesn't seem important. I sense that others have had this problem, and am just trying to clarify what the most prudent solution is.

[pogi]

do you have the /dev/dsp link and /dev/sound dir? if yes, what are the permissions in /dev/sound?

[dogma@genus]

do you have the /dev/dsp link and /dev/sound dir? if yes, what are the permissions in /dev/sound?

I have:

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lrwxrwxrwx   1 root  root          9 May 18 05:18 dsp -> sound/dsp

and the permissions are:

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/dev/sound
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root       0 May 10 18:23 .
drwxr-xr-x  19 root root       0 May 18 10:19 ..
crw-------   1 root audio 14, 12 May 18 05:18 adsp
crw-------   1 root audio 14,  4 May 18 05:18 audio
crw-------   1 root audio 14,  3 May 18 05:18 dsp
crw-------   1 root audio 14,  0 May 18 05:18 mixer
crw-------   1 root audio 14,  1 May 10 18:23 sequencer
crw-------   1 root audio 14,  8 May 10 18:23 sequencer2

My user belongs to audio...

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uid=1000(dogma) gid=100(users) groups=10(wheel),18(audio),19(cdrom),27(video),85(usb),100(users)

[mla]

i'm having the same problem.

though, it actually worked when i left work yesterday, and know when i came in this morning, i got this error. and no, i did not turn of my comp.

the last time i got this problem e rebooted and problem solved. but i cant find that as a solution.

something probably goes wrong with the permissions, but i cant really see what causes this.

any tips will be greatly appreciated.

[pogi]

it's just a tip, but try to edit /etc/security/console.perms, and comment the line

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<console>  0600 <sound>      0600 root.audio

or change it to

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<console>  0660 <sound>      0600 root.audio

and reboot to see if it works

pogi

[dogma@genus]

That did the trick

Well, almost. The line has to be replaced with

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<console>  0660 <sound>      0660 root.audio

(note that the permission was changed to 0660 in each block)
After that, smooth sailing!
Thanks, pogi and all.

Review:
Edit /etc/security/console.perms

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nano /etc/security/console.perms

Go down a few pages until you see the block of specific service permissions, and modify the <sound> line as such:

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# permission definitions
<console>  0660 <serial>     0660 root.tty
<console>  0660 <floppy>     0660 root.floppy
# I changed this one to 0660 from 0600
<console>  0660 <sound>      0660 root.audio
<console>  0600 <cdrom>      0660 root.cdrom
<console>  0600 <pilot>      0660 root.uucp
<console>  0600 <jaz>        0660 root.disk
<console>  0600 <zip>        0660 root.disk
<console>  0600 <ls120>      0660 root.disk
<console>  0600 <scanner>    0600 root
<console>  0600 <camera>     0600 root
<console>  0600 <memstick>   0600 root
<console>  0600 <flash>      0600 root

That should do it!
Such a simple fix for such an annoying problem

[mla]

and if i absolutely dont want to reboot, how do i get the comp to re-read the console.perms file?

[The Mad Mahdi]

Just su to root and type:

# /etc/init.d/alsasound restart

To restart ALSA

(I just found this item myself after having sound problems with a new account. Thanks people!)

[pacde]

WOW

Ive been hunting for this solution for a while. How did you ever figure this out?

[troche]

This made the trick. Thanks!!!:D

[tragor]

Just su to root and type:

# /etc/init.d/alsasound restart

To restart ALSA

*And* you should do a

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udevstart

as I just found out!

Thanks for saving my day btw. !

tragor