[FC4] Audio no longer works after upgrade from FC 1

[Gilbert Sebenste]

hey all,

I know this was handled *somewhere*, but I can't find it. I am trying to 
use the Alsa mixer to pipe audio from a weather radio into my computer to 
broadcast out on a web server. After the FC 4 upgrade, there's no 
sound...the input appears to be at zero. I have been going through the 
Alsa mixer over the last half hour, trying to get it working, to no avail. 
can someone help me out here? Thanks!

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: [e-mail]                                  ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: [phone]                                                *
*******************************************************************************

On Thu, Nov 03, 2005 at 12:53:43PM -0600, Gilbert Sebenste wrote:
> hey all,
>
> I know this was handled *somewhere*, but I can't find it. I am trying to 
> use the Alsa mixer to pipe audio from a weather radio into my computer to 
> broadcast out on a web server. After the FC 4 upgrade, there's no 
> sound...the input appears to be at zero. I have been going through the 
> Alsa mixer over the last half hour, trying to get it working, to no avail. 
> can someone help me out here? Thanks!

Which channel are you using for the radio input? At the bottom of that
channel and the output channel you are using do you fins MM or 00? It
should be 00, and hit M to change it if it is MM. What level do you
have in these channels, and have you properly adjusted the channels
with the arrow keys? These things normally are the difference between
sound and silence.

[Gilbert Sebenste]

Hello Aaron,
> > I know this was handled *somewhere*, but I can't find it. I am trying to
> > use the Alsa mixer to pipe audio from a weather radio into my computer to
> > broadcast out on a web server. After the FC 4 upgrade, there's no
> > sound...the input appears to be at zero. I have been going through the
> > Alsa mixer over the last half hour, trying to get it working, to no avail.
> > can someone help me out here? Thanks!
>
> Which channel are you using for the radio input?

I am using the line-out from the radio to the line-in to my computer. It 
worked 4 hours ago, before I upgraded FC 1 to FC 4.
> At the bottom of that
> channel and the output channel you are using do you fins MM or 00? It
> should be 00, and hit M to change it if it is MM. What level do you
> have in these channels, and have you properly adjusted the channels
> with the arrow keys? These things normally are the difference between
> sound and silence.

I used aumix (which shows all is well), and Alsa. I can hear system 
sounds, bells and dings and the like, but no weather radio coming form 
line in on the PC. I verified that my current install of icecast and 
darkice are working.

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: [e-mail]                                  ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: [phone]                                                *
*******************************************************************************

On Thu, Nov 03, 2005 at 05:51:20PM -0600, Gilbert Sebenste wrote:
> Hello Aaron,
> > > I know this was handled *somewhere*, but I can't find it. I am trying to
> > > use the Alsa mixer to pipe audio from a weather radio into my computer to
> > > broadcast out on a web server. After the FC 4 upgrade, there's no
> > > sound...the input appears to be at zero. I have been going through the
> > > Alsa mixer over the last half hour, trying to get it working, to no avail.
> > > can someone help me out here? Thanks!
> >
> > Which channel are you using for the radio input?
>
> I am using the line-out from the radio to the line-in to my computer. It 
> worked 4 hours ago, before I upgraded FC 1 to FC 4.

Why do think that alsamixer levels in FC 1 would have anything to do
with the levels in FC4 after the upgrade.
> > At the bottom of that
> > channel and the output channel you are using do you fins MM or 00? It
> > should be 00, and hit M to change it if it is MM. What level do you
> > have in these channels, and have you properly adjusted the channels
> > with the arrow keys? These things normally are the difference between
> > sound and silence.
>
> I used aumix (which shows all is well), and Alsa. I can hear system 
> sounds, bells and dings and the like, but no weather radio coming form 
> line in on the PC. I verified that my current install of icecast and 
> darkice are working.

Since I have never heard of aumix nor Alsa  I can't comment on their
use. system sounds , bells and dings have nothing to do with the
channels for inputing  radio into FC4. Above you are talking I assume
the physical line in to your machine. That is also not what i asked
about. alsamixer is the program to adjust the internal sound channels
of which there are more than 10. It is these channel levels I am
referring to.

Of course, it also possible that aumix and Alsa do the same thing as
alsamixer and I am all wet.

[Gilbert Sebenste]

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, [e-mail] wrote:
> Why do think that alsamixer levels in FC 1 would have anything to do
> with the levels in FC4 after the upgrade.

I thought that in FC upgrade, the sound levels would default back to zero.
At least that is wht I had heard from others a while ago.
> Since I have never heard of aumix nor Alsa  I can't comment on their
> use. system sounds , bells and dings have nothing to do with the
> channels for inputing  radio into FC4. Above you are talking I assume
> the physical line in to your machine. That is also not what i asked
> about. alsamixer is the program to adjust the internal sound channels
> of which there are more than 10. It is these channel levels I am
> referring to.

OK, I have never heard of Alsamixer...
> Of course, it also possible that aumix and Alsa do the same thing as
> alsamixer and I am all wet.

Maybe, but when I get into the office tomorrow I am going to try it out. 
But I am going to open up another thread about streaming audio, and see 
what happens. There might be a better way to do this.

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: [e-mail]                                  ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: [phone]                                                *
*******************************************************************************

[Andy Green]

Gilbert Sebenste wrote:
> Maybe, but when I get into the office tomorrow I am going to try it out.
> But I am going to open up another thread about streaming audio, and see
> what happens. There might be a better way to do this.

Either way you'll need to get the audio into a program, so setting the
correct mixer levels is necessary.

Make sure you have alsa-utils package installed for alsamixer.  Mine
came from the dag repo if that's any help.

-Andy

[Gilbert Sebenste]

On Fri, 4 Nov 2005, Andy Green wrote:
> Gilbert Sebenste wrote:
> > Maybe, but when I get into the office tomorrow I am going to try it out.
> > But I am going to open up another thread about streaming audio, and see
> > what happens. There might be a better way to do this.
>
> Either way you'll need to get the audio into a program, so setting the
> correct mixer levels is necessary.
>
> Make sure you have alsa-utils package installed for alsamixer.  Mine
> came from the dag repo if that's any help.

I got mine on there, but I want to make sure I am running it. I am pulling 
it off the menu bar...everything (including "line in") is active with 
volume cranked...

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: [e-mail]                                  ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: [phone]                                                *
*******************************************************************************

[Gilbert Sebenste]

On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, [e-mail] wrote:
> Since I have never heard of aumix nor Alsa  I can't comment on their
> use. system sounds , bells and dings have nothing to do with the
> channels for inputing  radio into FC4. Above you are talking I assume
> the physical line in to your machine. That is also not what i asked
> about. alsamixer is the program to adjust the internal sound channels
> of which there are more than 10. It is these channel levels I am
> referring to.
>
> Of course, it also possible that aumix and Alsa do the same thing as
> alsamixer and I am all wet.

I plugged the radio into my other generic soundcard, which is located on 
/dev/dsp1 (my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 card is /dev/dsp), and guess what? IT 
WORKS. I am getting audio now after setting things as you suggested. But 
it STILL won't work with the SoundBlaster card, setting things the way 
you suggested there, too. Weird.

*******************************************************************************
Gilbert Sebenste                                                     ********
(My opinions only!)                                                  ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University                      ****
E-mail: [e-mail]                                  ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
Work phone: [phone]                                                *
*******************************************************************************

[Ron Hawkins]

Gilbert Sebenste wrote:
> On Thu, 3 Nov 2005, [e-mail] wrote:
> > Since I have never heard of aumix nor Alsa  I can't comment on their
> > use. system sounds , bells and dings have nothing to do with the
> > channels for inputing  radio into FC4. Above you are talking I assume
> > the physical line in to your machine. That is also not what i asked
> > about. alsamixer is the program to adjust the internal sound channels
> > of which there are more than 10. It is these channel levels I am
> > referring to.
> >
> > Of course, it also possible that aumix and Alsa do the same thing as
> > alsamixer and I am all wet.
>
> I plugged the radio into my other generic soundcard, which is located
> on /dev/dsp1 (my SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 card is /dev/dsp), and guess
> what? IT WORKS. I am getting audio now after setting things as you
> suggested. But it STILL won't work with the SoundBlaster card, setting
> things the way you suggested there, too. Weird.
>
> Gilbert Sebenste
>
> (My opinions only!)
>
> Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University
>
> E-mail:
> [e-mail]                                  ***
> web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu                                      **
> Work phone: [phone]                                                *

I also ran into the same problem with my  SB Audigy card.  I feel that
the new kernel is somehow broken since Mandriva also doesn't accept line
in signals with SB audigy card.  Will work fine with other SB older
cards though.  I really miss having audio with my TV card, but I like
Surround sound with my DVD's.

:)
Ron Hawkins