Re: [tlug] Sounds of Silence

[Benjamin Tayehanpour <benjamin@example.com>]

Based on what you have said, I see two possible causes:

1) The webcam has a microphone, thus sound capabilities, thus might
have taken precedence over your regular sound card (unlikely, but
possible)
2) The applications with no sound are using ALSA/OSS instead of
PulseAudio, and for some reason this fails.

Reboot your computer, open a terminal window and nothing else, then
try these commands and note whether or not they result in sound:

mplayer -ao pulse /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
mplayer -ao alsa /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
mplayer -ao oss /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
paplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
padsp mplayer -ao oss /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

On 28 July 2013 02:20, CL <az.4tlug@example.com> wrote:
> It's Summer, work is slow, so I decided to do a bunch of improvements to
> my OS and hardware and broke them instead.  I've lost the ability to
> listen to audio streams or hear the sound which accompanies online video
> -- such as BBC and CNN news feeds.  I can hear event sounds and can hear
> proper analogue stereo output through the speakers when in the Audio
> Setup page.  I can also hear some event sounds in some programs -- like
> the game Shisen-sho -- but not in other games with streaming audio --
> like Super Tux.  I can play music CDs with Audigy, but not video DVDs
> (which is Not A Big Thing since the movie DVD / Blu-Ray playing machine
> is the one "over there" attached to the television (as HDMI 4) and has
> all Medibuntu upgrades, which this "work" machine hasn't).
>
> Changes I made since having a working  Kubuntu 13.04 (five desktops) +
> VirtualBox 4.1.26 running WIN XP:
>
> - "Upgraded" WIN XP to WIN 7 32-bit; but DID NOT upgrade VirtualBox (4.2
> version runs flaky on this box).
> - Added a webcam -- a USB Elecom UCAM-DLE-300T.
> - Added an iBuffalo -- a USB microphone / headset (which I want for VOIP
> use only) but kept the standard speakers, which I want to use for
> regular sounds and noises (the problem began before this was installed,
> I just added complexity).
> - Upgraded Skype for Linux to latest version.
> - Firefox may have self-upgraded to a later version during this adventure.
>
> PC is home built with a six-core AMD CPU and 8Gb of memory (only two
> memory slots).  Main OS is Kubuntu 13.04 amd-64.  I have several issues
> that have popped up but want to fix them one at a time and think that
> correcting this sound issue is the most important.  I have been all over
> the Kubuntu users groups for 4~5 days and don't see anything that
> answers my concerns directly.
>
> I was having problems with buzzy speakers when they were plugged into
> the mobo connections, so I dragged out my old reliable Creative Audigy
> 24 PCI sound card.  Buzzing stopped.  I could play audio CDs and had
> sound to accompany all Firefox video content.  In Firefox, I have
> specified the VLC plugin(s) in all areas that aren't handled by Flash or
> Shockwave.  When I installed WIN 7 in VirtualBox, it self-selected OSS
> Audio over the old reliable PulseAudio and selected a different
> controller.  After that, I had no sound in Linux, either.  I re-set the
> Audio to the same sound settings as I'd had when using WIN XP as a
> VirtualBox, along with all of the other "old" settings" which worked
> fine in WIN 7.
>
> Everything I have set up is configured for basic analogue stereo (two
> front speakers).  Kubuntu "sees" the HDMI controller on my video card
> (HDMI), which is connected to the TV (as HDMI 1) but isn't configured
> for video server output ... yet.  It also sees the Audigy card (CA0106)
> and headset (CM108, which is suddenly greyed out as I check while
> writing this up) and sees the onboard audio when it is switched on in
> BIOS (it is turned off now and was before the problem started).  I have
> set preferences for the Audigy card, then HDMI, then the headset, which
> Skype can't find as a discrete unit and is an upcoming problem to solve
> after this one is done.
>
> When I restart the system, the preferred device is automatically reset
> to the HDMI controller by Kubuntu.  I can play the startup sounds
> through the speakers during testing but they do not play when I restart
> the system.  Speakers work when I test stereo output (KDE Mixer ->
> Playback Streams -> Settings -> Audio Setup) but not in general use.
>
> I have reached a point where I have too much information and not enough
> ideas for solutions.  Can someone else see what I am getting wrong?
>
> --
> CL
>
> I can
>
>
>
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