No sound on new install

[Speedracer86]

I just installed gentoo for the first time and when I final got everything workinga booted up kde I got this error.

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Sound server informational message:
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device /dev/dsp can't be opened (No such device)
The sound server will continue, using the null output device.

What does this mean exacly and what is the likely problem?

[NeddySeagoon]

Speedracer86,

Either /dev/dsp does not exist, or another program already has it open.
Thats the sound output device that KDE is trying to use.

Look in /dev/snd and /dev/sound they should both contain real device files.
If not, either your sound is not correctly configured or your kernel is not correct, or both.

How did you install sound, kernel sounda as built-in, kernel sound as modules or emerge alsa-drivers alsa-oss ?

[Speedracer86]

Here is what is in the to folders

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alex@kingal /dev/sound $ ls
sequencer  sequencer2

and there is no snd folder.

[edit] there is a snd folder and it has seq and timer in it.

My buddy did the install so I am not sure how he got did the sound but he said somthing about alsa

[NeddySeagoon]

Speedracer86,

Thats the beginnings of sound. Please post the output of

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ls /sbin/modprobe -l -t sound

and the output the lspci. emerge pciutils if you don't have lspci.

Also look at

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rc-update -s

What runlevel (if any) is alsasound in ?

[Speedracer86]

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kingal alex # ls /sbin/modprobe -l -t sound
ls: sound: No such file or directory
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 27232 Feb 21 03:30 /sbin/modprobe

and lscpi gives me

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kingal alex # lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ALi Corporation M1672 Northbridge [CyberALADDiN-P4]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ALi Corporation PCI to AGP Controller
00:04.0 IDE interface: ALi Corporation M5229 IDE (rev c4)
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02)
00:07.0 ISA bridge: ALi Corporation M1533/M1535 PCI to ISA Bridge [Aladdin IV/V/V+]
00:08.0 Bridge: ALi Corporation M7101 Power Management Controller [PMU]
00:09.0 Modem: ALi Corporation M5457 AC'97 Modem Controller
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:0c.0 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
00:0c.1 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB (rev 43)
00:0c.2 USB Controller: NEC Corporation USB 2.0 (rev 04)
00:10.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5211 802.11ab NIC (rev 01)
00:11.0 CardBus bridge: Toshiba America Info Systems ToPIC100 PCI to Cardbus Bridge with ZV Support (rev 33)
00:12.0 System peripheral: Toshiba America Info Systems SD TypA Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Trident Microsystems CyberBlade XPAi1 (rev 82)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: D-Link System Inc DFE-690TXD CardBus PC Card (rev 10)

rc-update -s

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kingal alex # rc-update -s
            bootmisc | boot
             checkfs | boot
           checkroot | boot
               clock | boot
            coldplug |      default
         consolefont | boot
         crypto-loop |
               cupsd |
          domainname | boot default
                famd |
                 gpm |
              hdparm |
            hostname | boot
             hotplug |      default
             keymaps | boot
                lisa |
               local |      default nonetwork
          localmount | boot
             modules | boot
            net.eth0 |
            net.eth1 |      default
              net.lo | boot
            netmount |      default
                nscd |
             numlock |
              openct |
              pcmcia |      default
             portmap |
             pwcheck |
             reslisa |
           rmnologin | boot
              rsyncd |
           saslauthd |
                sshd |
           syslog-ng |      default
             urandom | boot
          vixie-cron |      default
                 xdm |

How do i cheek the alsa run level

[NeddySeagoon]

Speedracer86,

Your ALSA user space software is missing or rc-update -s would have shown alsasound at the top.
Your kernel is not correct either, you have part of kernel alsa correcly installed but no modules to load to complete the rest of it or the rest is incorrectly built into your kernel.

To get the user space software, follow this guide but omit the emerge alsa-drivers and alsa-oss. They will detect you have kernel ASA and fail to run anyway.

To identify what is missing in your kernel, please plost the Sound section of the file /usr/src/linux/.config
Thats a section from your kernel config file.

[Speedracer86]

[/code]#
CONFIG_SND=y
CONFIG_SND_TIMER=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER=y
# CONFIG_SND_SEQ_DUMMY is not set
CONFIG_SND_OSSEMUL=y
CONFIG_SND_MIXER_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_PCM_OSS=y
CONFIG_SND_SEQUENCER_OSS=y
# CONFIG_SND_DYNAMIC_MINORS is not set
CONFIG_SND_SUPPORT_OLD_API=y
# CONFIG_SND_VERBOSE_PRINTK is not set
# CONFIG_SND_DEBUG is not set

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[Speedracer86]

Should I follow the kernal alsa guide or the alsa-driver guide?
brb: going to get food

[NeddySeagoon]

Speedracer86,

You will have kernel ALSA - in fact it looks like you only have one bit missing and thats the kernel driver for you chipset.

From your lspci you have

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00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: ALi Corporation M5451 PCI AC-Link Controller Audio Device (rev 02) 

This needs the Intel/SiS/nVidia/AMD/ALi AC97 Controller option. Before we delve into your kernel, check the setting with

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/usr/src/linux $ grep SND_INTEL /usr/src/linux/.config

What is the output of that command ?

[Speedracer86]

All I get is

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kingal alex # /usr/src/linux $ grep SND_INTEL /usr/src/linux/.config
bash: /usr/src/linux: is a directory

[NeddySeagoon]

Speedracer86,

Oops I picked up the prompt too. Sorry about that try :-

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grep SND_INTEL /usr/src/linux/.config

[Speedracer86]

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CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0=m
# CONFIG_SND_INTEL8X0M is not set

[Speedracer86]

Any more help?

[NeddySeagoon]

Speedracer86,

If you have followed the ALSA guide, your sound should be working now.
You kernel is fine. If

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lsmod

does not show snd-intel8x0, then modprobe it.

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modprobe snd-intel8x0

This will fully populate your /dev/snd and /dev/sound folders. In particular, /dev/sound/dsp should be created.
Now run alsamixer or kmix, unmute your Master and PC (and others as required) and you should be able to play music.

To make sound start at boot, you now need to add alsasound to the boot runlevel

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rc-update add alsasound boot

and edit /etc/modules.d/alsa so it loads your module.
It needs a line that says

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alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0

Edit the alias snd-card-0... line already in the file.

Lastly do

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/etc/init.d/alsasound restart 

You can ignore any errors about alsasound not running or modules not loading unless its the snd-intel8x0 module, since all your other sound componets are built into your kernel.
We can edit your /etc/modules.d/alsa to remove the errors later, its just a tidy up.

[Speedracer86]

Ok thanks I got sound in everything but KsCD for some reason.