From time to time sound stop working on a system, as if a MUTE had been
selected. This usually happens when an audio program fails in some way.

I've checked with several mixers to see if MUTE is set, it seems not to
be. I've used lsof to check for something locking a device. The failure
is persistent, indicating that something with state has been set and
reboot doesn't change it. I have run find as root from / looking for
recently changed files (-cmin -5) without finding anything unexpected.

In some cases all sounds stops working, in others mplayer works but xmms
and mpg123 fail. Sometimes Realplayer stops working.

Systems include RH7.3, 9.0, RHEL 3.0, Slackware 8, and FC1, so it's some
common odd behaviour. Some systems have OSS and some ALSA. The HOWTO
docs I used to set up system years ago seem not to have been updated
since then, and don't seem to cover this in any case.

Can someone give me a clue, it's beyond annoying not to be able to get
these systems working again!
--
bill davidsen (davidsen@darkstar.prodigy.com)
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
Project Leader, USENET news
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com

Bill Davidsen wrote:
> From time to time sound stop working on a system, as if a MUTE had been
> selected. This usually happens when an audio program fails in some way.
>
> I've checked with several mixers to see if MUTE is set, it seems not to
> be. I've used lsof to check for something locking a device. The failure
> is persistent, indicating that something with state has been set and
> reboot doesn't change it. I have run find as root from / looking for
> recently changed files (-cmin -5) without finding anything unexpected.
>
> In some cases all sounds stops working, in others mplayer works but xmms
> and mpg123 fail. Sometimes Realplayer stops working.
>
> Systems include RH7.3, 9.0, RHEL 3.0, Slackware 8, and FC1, so it's some
> common odd behaviour. Some systems have OSS and some ALSA. The HOWTO
> docs I used to set up system years ago seem not to have been updated
> since then, and don't seem to cover this in any case.
>
> Can someone give me a clue, it's beyond annoying not to be able to get
> these systems working again!

Bill,
Not being an expert I can only offer my impressions of your
problem, Is it possible 'the troubles' started about the same time or
similarities in hardware(ageing) or server connection (rogue s/ware)
Maybe you will need to doc. when a problem starts/finish on a machine/s
to find a pattern as the obvious is not always the cause.

HTH david

Spamless wrote:
> In article <h8gBc.3000$IV7.641@newssvr32.news.prodigy.com>, Bill Davidsen wrote:
>
>
>>This happened on multiple machine in multiple locations, running various
>>versions of Linux (all 2.4 or 2.6 kernels). It happens on both OSS and
>>ALSA configurations, and behaves as if there is some secret MUTE control
>>which just disables the speaker output on systems which have been
>>running for years in some cases.
>
>
> What does "ps -A" show as running?
> I belive shockwave (if trying to play a file) may do it.
> What soundcard(s)? Does the alsatools package have extra
> stuff to work with those soundcards?

Nothing particular related to sound. Sound hardware includes a Vortex
with ALSA, Athlon with 7.3 and recent 2.4 kernel using an old
Soundblaster, a P-II/350 with i810 on M/B, A Shuttle with Celeron 2G and
Sis on M/B. All have been rebooted, whatever does it is persistent, but
I can't find any files changed which are related to sound.

I only have one system running ALSA, and that's in OSS emulation. I
believe all the others are running stock OSS for sound. I'll check the
ALSA system with the tools and see what I find as far as status goes,
unfortunately it's hard to debug sound issues remotely, but I have one
system handy (the Athlon) and will check that later today.

The one thing all have in common is that they were working fine and
stopped for no known reason. Clearly something I run must be shutting
off the sound, I just need a clue of where to look given that all the
mixers I've run show volume up and mute off.
--
bill davidsen (davidsen@darkstar.prodigy.com)
SBC/Prodigy Yorktown Heights NY data center
Project Leader, USENET news
http://newsgroups.news.prodigy.com