Rc8 C860 No Sound

[Miami_Bob]

OK, I'v searched for hours without a single usefull hit.

C860. RC8. Open XMMS (installed in RC8 package) & try to play WAV file.

"Couldn't open audio

Please check that:

Your soundcard is configured properly
You have the correct output plugin selected
No other program is blocking the soundcard"

Isn't sound supposed to be enabled in the install?

Whats the glitch?

[xatax]

Maybe it's a special encoded wav file? (not PCM, maybe ADPCM or GSM layer...)? Try playing an mp3 file and look for codecs.

[Miami_Bob]

Good suggestion, xatax. I don't have an mp3 handy on one of my CF cards, but copied a WAV file that plays OK on my Sharp ROM machine to a CF and it gives the same identical results. Plus the C860 running pdaXrom RC8 has not made a sound since the install.

Wazup??

[rgrep]

Check your output plugin in XMMS.  It should be "eSound Output Plugin" if you want to be able to control the volume from within XMMS.  The "OSS Driver" output plugin should work and used to be the default in pdaXrom, but the volume control in XMMS will be disabled.

[Laze]

Maybe just press play again after this alert - then it should start playing.

[CyberWolf]

"Couldn't open audio

Please check that:

Your soundcard is configured properly
You have the correct output plugin selected
No other program is blocking the soundcard"

I doubt this could be your problem, but in case... if you're running xmms as a standard user, you have to check /dev/sound/dsp (and maybe some others in /dev/sound, I can't remember now) to have write permission for you...

Bye,

Andrea

[Miami_Bob]

Maybe just press play again after this alert - then it should start playing.

Negatory. Pressing Play again only brings the same alert up.

[Miami_Bob]

Check your output plugin in XMMS.  It should be "eSound Output Plugin" if you want to be able to control the volume from within XMMS.  The "OSS Driver" output plugin should work and used to be the default in pdaXrom, but the volume control in XMMS will be disabled.

The output plugin default was "eSound Output Plugin". Changing to the "OSS Driver" got the WAV file to play. Going back to the "eSound Output Plugin" caused the same error message again.

So the C860 *will* play WAV files with the "OSS Driver" plugin.

Trying to play an MP3 with the "eSound Output Plugin" returns the error

"Failed to open audio output: eSound Output Plugin 1.2.10"

Pressing Play again after closing the error box just returns the same error.

Changing to the "OSS Driver" plugin again causes the file to play OK.

So there is *some* progress here (G).

[Miami_Bob]

I doubt this could be your problem, but in case... if you're running xmms as a standard user, you have to check /dev/sound/dsp (and maybe some others in /dev/sound, I can't remember now) to have write permission for you...

Bye,

Andrea

Good idea, but I'm running as root.

[rgrep]

The eSound output plugin uses the eSound daemon (esd) to talk to the sound device.  Check if esd is running (ps | grep esd) and if so kill it (killall esd) and then try running it manually (esd).  If it works then it will just sit there doing nothing (press CTRL-C to kill it) but hopefully it will give you an error message telling you why it couldn't start up.

[Miami_Bob]

Thanks for the help, rgrep.

OK. Opening Aterm & running (ps | grep esd) returned

409 root     496 S grep esd

killall esd ->  esd: no process killed

plain ps shows no process 409 or 496. no instances of esd.

running esd just sits doing nothing, as you describe, till CTRL-C is pressed.

Am I correct in assuming that esd is not being launched at startup? Where should it be properly started?

You know, I have learned more about Linux since getting the C860 about a year ago than in all the years that I tinkered with the OS before that. I know the (severe) limitations to my knowledge of the subject. Working with pdaXrom is one way of attempting to learn more. And I am, steadily, thanks to the ZUG and the folks who make the community.

THANKS!

[rgrep]

Am I correct in assuming that esd is not being launched at startup? Where should it be properly started?

esd is launched by XMMS when it first tries to play sound.

I just had a play with tweaking my /etc/esd.conf file and have improved the XMMS situation.  The first thing I did was increase the timeout value before the eSound client (XMMS) will "act as if the audio open failed".  This has stopped XMMS from bringing up the "could not open output device" error the first time I start it.

I also enabled the "-terminate" option which makes esd quit "after last client exits", i.e. after you stop or quit XMMS.  I found that esd tends to hang around after you quit XMMS (and even after you kill X) and it holds open the last sound file you were playing and so this prevents me from ejecting my memory card.

My /etc/esd.conf is now:

Code: [Select]

[esd]
auto_spawn=1
spawn_options=-terminate -nobeeps -as 2
spawn_wait_ms=1000I'm not sure if this will help you Miami_Bob but it's worth a try.

Matt

[Miami_Bob]

My old /etc/esd.conf was

Code: [Select]

[esd]
auto_spawn=1
spawn_options= -nobeeps -as 2
spawn_wait_ms=100
Made the changes but no difference in results.

Opened an aterm window before XMMS and ran ps before & after trying to play. No esd process found either time.

Hummmmm. Strange.

I really don't mind that the machines are *smarter* than I am now days, but I just really wish that they wouldn't rub my nose in it so often .... G.

[rgrep]

Try running "esdmon", you should get some output like this:

Code: [Select]

opening socket, format = 0x00001021 at 44100 HzJust hit CTRL-C and then grep the ps output for esd and you should see something like this:

Code: [Select]

15675 root        584 S   /usr/bin/esd -terminate -nobeeps -as 2 -spawnfd 4Maybe your esound install is broken - you could try reinstalling it with "ipkg remove esound ; ipkg install esound".

[Miami_Bob]

rgrep -

esdmon

Code: [Select]

opening socket, format = 0x00001021 at 44100 Hz
CTRL-C

ps

Code: [Select]

277 root   576 S  /usr/bin/esd -terminate -nobeeps -as 2 -spawnfd 4

Maybe your esound install is broken - you could try reinstalling it with "ipkg remove esound ; ipkg install esound"

Could be. But its "out of the box" - preinstalled with the RC8 ROM itself.

Probably just wait for the next bug fix release. I use such little glitches & sons of glitches as steps in my ascent of the learning curve. (G)

Thanks for the help!