Soundcard trouble with GroovyMame LiveCD

[infariot25]

Hello,

I've been trying out the GroovyMame LiveCD v143 (installed it to my hard drive) and I like it. I am able to get the video portion working but I'm having lots of trouble getting sound to work at all. So far I've tried 3 different sound cards and 2 different computers which I have outlined below. Each configuration listed has the LiveCD installed to the hard drive after going through all steps in `gasetup`. The chosen audio engine is OSS (I tried ALSA to no avail). Also I'm unsure whether `osstest` should produce sound when run (and testing); I didn't get any audio output when I used it.


Configuration 1
------------------
AMD64 3000+
ENVY24HT onboard sound

On boot, OSS fails to start. After boot, I attempted `osstest` and it said "no audio devices available". I successfully loaded the OSS module myself using `insmod oss_envy24.ko`(and `insmod oss_envy24ht.ko`just in case) but still received the same error. Also I did not see the OSS driver listed with my card's entry in `lspci -k`:

Code: [Select]

===CUT===
00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: Albatron Corp. Device 2c05
Kernel modules: snd-ice1724
===CUT===

Configuration 2
------------------
Intel 2.xGHZ socket 423
onboard ICH2 intel sound

After install, OSS starts up fine. `osstest` passes but I am unable to get any audio output. I attempted adjusting the levels of everything I could think of using `ossmix` but still nothing. I also tried every audio jack on the board as well. When `groovymame` is running, it shows up under the vmix section of `ossmix`.

Configuration 3
------------------
Intel 2.xGHZ socket 423
(disabled via BIOS) onboard ICH2 intel sound
Soundblaster live PCI card

OSS did not detect this card automatically. I loaded the sblive OSS module with `insmod oss_sblive.ko` (and insmod oss_emu10k1.ko just in case). I also ran `ossdetect -d` and `osstest` passed but I am unable to get sound still. I tried all jacks on this card as well.

I'm not sure how to proceed at this point and my knowledge of Gentoo is not what it should be. Am I missing some crucial step for audio configuration? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[infariot25]

I got a few hours of testing in last night and was able to get sound working on Configuration 1 using ALSA (instead of OSS). Still, I'm struggling with Configuration 2 and 3 since I have another cabinet that needs some guts. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Also noticed that occasionally, when launching a game or exiting the frontend, the computer will stop responding and the monitor says no signal. The computer still pings but no ssh and I can not ESC to exit or change TTY. I am unsure which logs to look at for this. It's completely random too. Sometimes it happens on the first run of a game after boot, other times it happens after I've loaded and exited a few games. Other times it happens when exiting the frontend. This happens with both of my computers. One thing that I think I should mention is that I do not keep my roms on the local disk, instead I mount a samba share in `fstab`. I don't think this should matter but just in case.

Thanks for looking!

[Calamity]

In my case I was unable to get my soundcard working with OSS, it only worked using ALSA.

Hopefully bitbytebit can give you some hint.

[infariot25]

Hello,

I did some more experimentation today. If I boot off of the CD (v143 32-bit) and configure sound using ALSA, it works fine. However if I install to hard drive using the exact same settings I get some weird behavior.

Upon first boot after install, ALSA appears to start. Then a few lines after that, it says "Starting OSS" which succeeds (?!?). I figure that OSS should not start if ALSA is being used for sound. When attempting to run MAME after this boot, I do not get sound.

If restarted, on the next boot (and subsequent boots) ALSA fails to load saying it can not find any hardware configuration. Of course, I am unable to get sound.

Since it works fine when in LiveCD mode, it's possible that there is something the hard drive install does that causes sound to not work.

[Calamity]

Hello,

I did some more experimentation today. If I boot off of the CD (v143 32-bit) and configure sound using ALSA, it works fine. However if I install to hard drive using the exact same settings I get some weird behavior.

Upon first boot after install, ALSA appears to start. Then a few lines after that, it says "Starting OSS" which succeeds (?!?). I figure that OSS should not start if ALSA is being used for sound. When attempting to run MAME after this boot, I do not get sound.

If restarted, on the next boot (and subsequent boots) ALSA fails to load saying it can not find any hardware configuration. Of course, I am unable to get sound.

Since it works fine when in LiveCD mode, it's possible that there is something the hard drive install does that causes sound to not work.

I'm pretty sure that the ALSA/OSS issue after installation has been reported before, not sure if they found a workaround or not, if they did the answer must be somewhere in this post:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=106405.0