Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Re: rhythmbox plays silently

[Hal Martin]

Michael Schmarck wrote:
> Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Now, onto your actual problem. It is exceptionally hard to even attempt
>> to provide a solution unless someone else fixed the exact same problem
>> before, as you have not provided any configuration at all and very
>> little useful information.
>>
>
> What would you have wanted to see? I wrote that sound works. You
> don't need more information.
>
>
>> Hence your post was as much noise as mine
>> was.
>>
>
> That's why other people, or at least Andrey, was able to help, where as
> you were just a moron.
>
Not to dig up this unpleasantness again, but there are some things I'd
like to point out for future reference (for all people, including me,
who will post questions with hopes of getting useful answers.)
>
>> Nonetheless I shall try, so please provide the following:
>>
>
> How nice from you, now that the problem has been solved.
>
Yes, I'm aware that this particular problem has been solved, however I'd
still like to highlight a few things about it.
>
>> 1. the output of lspci as it relates to audio so we can see what
>> hardware you have
>>
>
> Why should that matter? After all, sound playback works (in other
> programs).
>
It doesn't matter, but it's information people care about. It helps us
to do our voodoo stuff and get back to you with an answer (it's quantity
over quality at this point of the answering stage.)
>
>> 2. What engine does rhythmbox use? gstreamer? If so, do other gstreamer
>> apps work correctly on your box?
>>
>
> That was the million dollar question.
>
Great, and now you've noticed that Totem, another GStreamer program,
isn't outputting sound. Therefore, instead of just blowing off the
previous poster, you could actually include that information.
>
>> 3. With what options did you compile rhythmbox and gstreamer (if
>> applicable)?
>>
>
> Does not matter.
>
Actually, it does. Contrary to your belief that programs have the
ability to read your mind and compile with all the flags they need to
function in every foreseeable way, real world applications need flags.
Posting them with your question allows for the quantity of answers to go
down, while the quality of the remaining ones to improve greatly.
Knowing from the beginning that you compiled GStreamer with -oss but not
alsa would've helped greatly.
>
>> 4. Lastly, this is out on left field, please confirm that rhythmbox is
>> indeed using alsa and not oss
>>
>
> Question 2 covers that.
>
No, it doesn't. You just deferred your answer instead of actually
confirming that the rhythmbox *engine* used either ALSA or OSS.
> Michael
>
>
Not trying to start a flame war between anywhere here, but I'm just
trying to make a point. Posting information, no matter how useless it
may seem to you, helps us help you. For example,

"Hey group! My mplayer doesn't play sound! I get some generic error
about the sound card not being available..."

Now, there are so many answers to that, and you will be frustrated
because people will start touting their favourite software with things
like, "Mplayer sucks, use Songbird" "Songbird sucks, it's bloated, use
Rhythmbox!" "Rhythmbox is buggy, use Amarok!" "Amarok is KDE based, I
hate KDE and everything that's based on it, Gnome rules!"

Then the slightly more useful questions start, "Well, was mplayer
compiled with the alsa USE flag?" "Do other applications play sound?"
Etc, etc.

However, if you'd posted the original error along with your system
information, we forgo all the unpleasant favouritism and instead, get
strained answers that will actually help you solve the problem, keeping
all parties [hopefully] happy!

"Hey group! My mplayer doesn't play sound?

Here's my USE flags:"xft xcomposite threads dbus libfreetype freetype
firefox xulrunner dvdread lfreetype ftgl gtk X glx usb mplayer a52 hwac3
ac3 ldap GPAC gpac x264 mp4 mp3 mad madplay libmp3 ogg flac alsa oss png
jpg jpeg selinux hal ffmpeg encode vorbis chroot opengl mysql tiff gnome
kde 3dnow 3dnowext aac encode gif ftp mp2 v4l v4l2 httpd sdl sdl-image
xvid xv cvidix -rdynamic -zlib"

Here's the output of 'mplayer awesomemusic.mp3'
MPlayer dev-SVN-rUNKNOWN-4.1.2 (C) 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ (Family: 15, Model:
43, Stepping: 1)
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE SSE2

Playing Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around.mp3.
Audio file file format detected.
Clip info:
 Title: The awesomeness!
 Artist: Awesome band!
 Album: AWESOME!
 Year: 2008
 Comment:
 Track:
 Genre:
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mp3lib] MPEG layer-2, layer-3
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/13.61% (ratio: 24000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mp3] afm: mp3lib (mp3lib MPEG layer-2, layer-3)
==========================================================================
[AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: Device or
resource busy
[AO_ALSA] alsa-lib: pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
[AO_ALSA] Playback open error: Device or resource busy
[AO SDL] Samplerate: 44100Hz Channels: Stereo Format s16le
[AO_ALSA] alsa-lib: pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
[AO SDL] Unable to open audio: No available audio device
AO: [null] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
A:   3.5 (03.5) of 448.0 (07:28.0)  1.0%

MPlayer interrupted by signal 2 in module: play_audio

Thanks!"

Oh look, we have the program version, we know what it was built with,
and we have the exact output from the program regarding the error. In
this case, the answer is that I played one track with mplayer and then
attempted to play another (knowing what would happen) and then went
about posting the output for your benefit.

Again, not trying to restart any disagreements previously stemming from
this topic, I'm just trying to establish a clear method for reporting
problems so that we cut out all the "guess work" on the part of the
person answering the question.

-Hal
-- 
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