Problems with system sound in Gnome/Ubuntu (Dapper)

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My sound works except for system sounds that don't.

I followed these instructions but no luck:
http://easylinux.info/wiki/Ubuntu_dapper#How_to_configure_sound_to_work_properly_in_GNOME



Now my sound is OSS (using Nvidia sound drivers with onboard mobo sound) - is this why these instructions aren't helping - and if so any idea how to get it working?

i have an oss.conf file where the esd one is but it only contains:
OSSLIBDIR=/usr/lib/oss

many thanks

Diss
 
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Soldato
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Do you have a nforce chipset? I have nForce 2 onboard sound, these worked without messing around, but caused BSOD's in Windows today!

What problems are you having? No sound at all? What nforce chipset are you running if any?
Best places I found are the site you used, and Ubuntu's documentation.
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
Is a great place for support that I used while setting Ubuntu up and fixing problems (1st time linux noob)
 
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thanks scythe

yep - its an nvidia chipset
my (dual boot) winXP uses a XiFi card and works fine

whats odd - to me anyway - is that its just the Linux 'system' sounds that won't work (mp3/games atc are fine) - they used to work on my previous sound card (an old soundblaster)

thanks

Diss

PS - i haven't tried the ubuntu forums that much - i have always found that people here are much more helpful - i'll see if i get any other comments before giving them a go
 

Una

Una

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You really should be using ALSA now. Stupid question but are you sure your user who is playing sounds is added to the audio group? Thats a common problem.
Is the problem /dev/dsp ?


I can't really help you anymore than this without more specific errors messages - not just this wont work etc.. :)
 
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hi Una

I am not sure i can use ALSA? When i installed the nvidio drivers it just set up OSS and there wasn't an option for ALSA.

In Sound preferences i have "enable software sound mixing (ESD)" and "Play System Sounds both ticked"

Re "Stupid question but are you sure your user who is playing sounds is added to the audio group? Thats a common problem." - How do i tell?

Re "Is the problem /dev/dsp ?" - I don't know what this means - i have a DSP file but its icon is some sort of chip and its not a config file (which is what i was expecting it to be.

Anything else i can check?

many thanks

Diss
 
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Una

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The problem is often that your user does not have access to sound device correctly. Try running xmms music player as root or something and see if that gives you sound. If it does its likely to be the audio group thing.

To see if your user is in the audio group check /etc/passwd (with some viewer).

If /dev/dsp is there it is likely that the driver for your sound card is installed correctly.
 
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i get this message when trying to play an mp3 in xmms
** WARNING **: alsa_get_mixer(): Attaching to mixer hw:0 failed: No such device
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1305:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:819:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
** WARNING **: alsa_setup(): Failed to open pcm device (default): No such device

the mp3 does however play in Amorak



this is in the file you mentioned - but i am not sure what i am supposed to be looking for:
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/bin/sh
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/bin/sh
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/bin/sh
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/bin/sh
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/bin/sh
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/bin/sh
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/bin/sh
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/bin/sh
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/bin/sh
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/bin/sh
postfix:x:100:103::/var/spool/postfix:/bin/false
syslog:x:105:105::/home/syslog:/bin/false
klog:x:106:106::/home/klog:/bin/false
voteslave:x:1000:1000:voteslave,,,:/home/voteslave:/bin/bash
messagebus:x:101:110::/var/run/dbus:/bin/false
cupsys:x:102:107::/:/bin/false
fetchmail:x:103:65534::/var/lib/fetchmail:/bin/sh
hal:x:111:111:Hardware abstraction layer,,,:/var/run/hal:/bin/false
saned:x:113:113::/home/saned:/bin/false
gdm:x:104:114:Gnome Display Manager:/var/lib/gdm:/bin/false
dhcp:x:115:115::/nonexistent:/bin/false
haldaemon:x:116:116:Hardware abstraction layer,,,:/var/run/hal:/bin/false
hplip:x:107:7:HPLIP system user,,,:/var/run/hplip:/bin/false
beagleindex:x:108:65534::/var/cache/beagle:/bin/false
ntp:x:118:118::/home/ntp:/bin/false
vdr:x:109:120:VDR user,,,:/var/lib/vdr:/bin/false
mysql:x:110:121:MySQL Server,,,:/var/lib/mysql:/bin/false
mythtv:x:122:122::/home/mythtv:/bin/sh
 

Una

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Hmm there should be a normal user in that list. Who you usualy log in as? Cant see it.

EDIT: lol wrong file... Check /etc/group sorry

Should be something like

general:x:502:juan,shelley,bob

but audio:x:whatever:users in audio group

Also is /dev/snd populated?
 
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thanks Una - file is as follows:
username is voteslave

root:x:0:
daemon:x:1:
bin:x:2:
sys:x:3:
adm:x:4:voteslave
tty:x:5:
disk:x:6:
lp:x:7:cupsys
mail:x:8:
news:x:9:
uucp:x:10:
man:x:12:
proxy:x:13:
kmem:x:15:
dialout:x:20:voteslave,cupsys
fax:x:21:
voice:x:22:
cdrom:x:24:voteslave,hal,haldaemon,vdr
floppy:x:25:voteslave,hal,haldaemon
tape:x:26:
sudo:x:27:
audio:x:29:voteslave,mythtv
dip:x:30:voteslave
www-data:x:33:
backup:x:34:
operator:x:37:
list:x:38:
irc:x:39:
src:x:40:
gnats:x:41:
shadow:x:42:
utmp:x:43:
video:x:44:voteslave,vdr,mythtv
sasl:x:45:
plugdev:x:46:voteslave,hal,haldaemon
staff:x:50:
games:x:60:
users:x:100:
nogroup:x:65534:
crontab:x:101:
ssh:x:102:
postfix:x:103:
postdrop:x:104:
syslog:x:105:
klog:x:106:
voteslave:x:1000:
lpadmin:x:107:voteslave
scanner:x:108:voteslave,cupsys
admin:x:109:voteslave
messagebus:x:110:
hal:x:111:
slocate:x:112:
saned:x:113:
gdm:x:114:
dhcp:x:115:
haldaemon:x:116:
ssl-cert:x:117:
ntp:x:118:
dirmngr:x:119:
vdr:x:120:
mysql:x:121:
mythtv:x:122:


I have no /dev/sound directory


Diss
 

Una

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It depends which desktop interface your using as to how it handles sounds. KDE uses arts and gnome uses esd. It sounds to me like its trying to use ALSA for your sounds when you only have OSS setup. Im not that well up on sounds to be honest, you might want to try ubuntu forums sorry :/
 
Soldato
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So are you using XFI sound card, or onboard? Onboard might disable itself if it detects a sound card and XFI support wont be here until early 2008 as creative won't release anything for the drivers to be made.
 
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