arrrgh lost 32 bit sound again

[gogalthorp]

Running Suse 10.1 64 bit

Skype connected to alsa

Skype has been running fine for months now I get "problems with sound device" errors when I try to connect. I had this problem before. Solved it by creating and running as a new user and all was good until now. I really don't want to do that again.

Ok I admit this is a general problem also lost the sound in FireFox and VMware. FireFox is also 32 bit (don't know what sound system it uses, alsa or OSS) VMware does use the OSS. All the 64bit stuff works amarok games etc.


running Skype from the command line give the following errors when trying to connect

ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:224make_local_socket) connect failed: �Z/tmp/alsa-dmix-5541-1166814379-648050: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:895snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to connect client
ALSA lib pcm_direct.c:224make_local_socket) connect failed: �Z/tmp/alsa-dmix-5541-1166814379-648050: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:895snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to connect client

anybody know how to fix this problem short of creating a new user???

the said file above exists and is owned by the user with all rights.
deleteing said file ( ok I know it is a socket but all thing in Unix are a file) still nothing and the 32 bit apps do not recreate it or another socket.

[gogalthorp]

Looking again at this problem I notice the following

Sound is ok for the guest user it does not work for my other two users or root.

When I end the session for guest the /tmp/alsa-dmix-XXXXXXX file (socket) that is owned by guest goes away as I'd expect it to. for the other two users and root the file stays after the session ends.

Deleteing the file makes no difference other then I totally lose all sound in all apps until I restart a session and a new alsa-dmix-xxxxx (different number on end) socket is created for that user. Then the 64 bit stuff works the 32bit and or OSS stuff does not.

This is definitly a head scratcher. Does anyone know of an method/app that will tell me what process is using a given file/socket. Or some way to log the actions that are happening at startup that is causing this anomally???

[gogalthorp]

Looking again at this problem I notice the following

Sound is ok for the guest user it does not work for my other two users or root.

When I end the session for guest the /tmp/alsa-dmix-XXXXXXX file (socket) that is owned by guest goes away as I'd expect it to. for the other two users and root the file stays after the session ends.

Deleteing the file makes no difference other then I totally lose all sound in all apps until I restart a session and a new alsa-dmix-xxxxx (different number on end) socket is created for that user. Then the 64 bit stuff works the 32bit and or OSS stuff does not.

This is definitly a head scratcher. Does anyone know of an method/app that will tell me what process is using a given file/socket. Or some way to log the actions that are happening at startup that is causing this anomally???

Ok another update I was wrong above. It was only the gogalthorp user ie the first one experiencing the problem that the socket was not removed. My new user "wizard", which just started having the problem, the socket is removed at the end of the session as it should be.

Also the sound works right in both root (when logged into the root GUI) and in guest. But not when wizard and using SU to act as root. It is attempting to use the wizard socket (and failing) which is understandable since as SU I still am running in the wizard enviroment.

I zapped the gogalthorp user but I really didn't think that would help and I had allready moved all the files I wanted from that user to wizard any way.

So this all points to something in the enviroment of wizard that is out of wack and most probably something in KDE.

Any ideas??

[gogalthorp]

HeeHa found the fuser command

linux1:/tmp # fuser -v alsa-dmix-3177-1166935997-89997

USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
alsa-dmix-3177-1166935997-89997:
wizard 3177 F.... kdesktop
wizard 3179 F.... kdesktop

ps for noted processes
3172 ? 00:00:00 kwrapper
3174 ? 00:00:00 ksmserver
3175 ? 00:00:01 kwin
3177 ? 00:00:00 kdesktop
3179 ? 00:00:00 kdesktop
3181 ? 00:00:06 kicker

Why are there two kdesktop process here????

Why is kdesktop not releasing the sound socket??

[gogalthorp]

Checking the same on the guest account ( where sound is working fully)

I find that there is only one kdesktop process and the alsa-dmix-xxx files are being released correctly

One more test will come back in a minute I might kill the KDE since I plan to kill one of the kdesktop processes. See if the sound comes back

Later

[gogalthorp]

Back

very interesting...

removing either of the kdesktop processes stops them both. hmmm

the desktop goes away but the panel at the bottem remains. typing kdesktop brings the desk top back (suprise). Two processes again????? slight difference one is associated with the session in the console window.

Taking down the kdesktop removed the alsa-dmix-xxx file associated with the current user. Restarting did not bring it back. So no sound at all. apperently the the socket file is created during the session startup process then used by all sound programs.

does anyone know where kdesktop gets invoked when a session is started??

[gogalthorp]

Back

very interesting...

removing either of the kdesktop processes stops them both. hmmm

the desktop goes away but the panel at the bottem remains. typing kdesktop brings the desk top back (suprise). Two processes again????? slight difference one is associated with the session in the console window.

Taking down the kdesktop removed the alsa-dmix-xxx file associated with the current user. Restarting did not bring it back. So no sound at all. apperently the the socket file is created during the session startup process then used by all sound programs.


does anyone know where kdesktop gets invoked when a session is started??

small appendum to my journey

stoping the second instance of kdesktop does not remove the desktop only stoping the first does. But, it does remove the alsa socket thus stoping all sound 64 and 32 bit.

I still don't know why I have two instances of kdesktop running??? But I do feel that this is the root of the problem and why the socket is not released for the more primitive APPS. ie 32 bit and OSS. The other apps 64 bit share the socket. But I never have been able to use one of the 32 bit ones when another process was using the sound card.

no takers???

[gogalthorp]

And on it goes

Not knowing what file/script starts kdesktop I decided a search was in order.

a complete search into every file on my system (took about 20 min) found 96 files. Just looking at files that had been changed in the last 10 days and except for the files that reflect this discussion, I noticed a SMART file. on th 20th I did a smart update run. I discoverd the problem on the 21st and my first post in this thread was the 22nd. About 30 packages were affected one file was kdesktopplugin.so. The update came from packman. Not sure of the exact package involved since neither Yast or Smart finds a reference to kdesktop.

I had run smart as SU under the wizard account. What ever messed up must have been only in the wizard enviroment since the sounds work fine in guest and root.

ok what we know:

1. sound 32 bit and OSS based apps stopped working in only 1 user of 3 after a large update through smart from the packman site.

2. The problem affects only one user ( the one that did the update running in su)

3. The user that is experiencing the problem shows that two instance of kdesktop are running via ps.

4. When logged in as the troubled user fuser reports that there are two instance of kdesktop using the sound socket for that user and not releasing it ( no sound is playing)

ok now what do I do???

[gogalthorp]

Still no help????

ok I fixed it like I did before, created a new user (I'm gogalthorp again) moved all important data files out of wizard (my last user) to the new user (gogalthorp). Sound is now as fine as it was before, at least until the next time

I'd still like to know why suddenly a user will start two instances of kdesktop and how to fix that.

At one point I had both gogalthorp and wizard both logged in. This also caused a problem in gogalthorp with it showing 4 instances of kdesktop running and the sound had the same problems. Logging out of wizard still had two instanes running and then logging out and back into gogalthorp again only had one instance and the sound worked correctly. So this is definitly the problem and it effects only 32 bit and OSS based programs on a 64 bit OS.

any comments welcome