Well, I was getting some nasty errors on my CDROM recently while trying to play a CD that I knew worked before. XMMS just hung there, while xconsole showed errors about "SeekComplete DriveReady Error".
So I rebuilt my kernel with only the drivers I actually use (removing the swsusp patch that makes my machine panic if I try to use it) and that didn't work.
I installed ALSA (which debian have now got quite a nice build process for now, I think, although I hacked it about a little bit). The sound quality is absolutely loads better, but it still hung on the "bad" files.
I searched around the net a bit, confident that my system was fairly neat and tidy now. Someone mentioned that they see that error when the CD is scratched.
I took the CD out, polished it with the "Magic Cloth" I use on my glasses (3 pounds or so from Boots Opticians) and now it works.
Ooops.
MJ Ray markj@cloaked.freeserve.co.uk writes:
I installed ALSA (which debian have now got quite a nice build process for now, I think, although I hacked it about a little bit). The sound quality is absolutely loads better, but it still hung on the "bad" files.
I have to say, ALSA knocks spots off of the default kernel sound drivers. I spotted another channel in alsamixer that was muted, called "3D Control Switch". Unmuting it (it doesn't seem to have any volume) moved the sound centre from between the speakers to around my head. Wonderful, rich sound! :-)
So, let's compare:
OSS/Lite: default in the kernel, but gives a half-duplex, flat, slightly dull sound system.
ALSA: have to build as an extra, but uses the 3D sound card as a full-duplex, 3D, rich sound system.
If you listen to lots of music and have a supported card, do your ears a favour and install ALSA.
Now to get my bass-boosted large speakers working again, instead of these little ones ;-)
On Sun, 08 Jul, 2001 at 18:58 +0100, MJ Ray wrote:
If you listen to lots of music and have a supported card, do your ears a favour and install ALSA.
Heh. I just punt everything through my stereo. I don't think it does my ears a favour though (or my neighbours, come to think of it).
Andrew.
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Andrew Savory -
MJ Ray