what controls sound in Suse 10.1???

[savvy_cowgirl]

I can't seem to change the volume in 10.1. If I click on the volume speaker in the bar it shows KMix, if I click on "show mixer window" it shows for output 2 PCM sliders which I have set very low and one HDA going across that I have in the middle. I think it is suppose to be left & right side. In the KMIX help it shows a lot more choice that 2 sliders for PCM. No matter what I do to the 2 sliders the volume on start up, shut down, any system sound is too loud, ie. Frozen bubbles. Frozen Bubbles also sounds scratchy at times and then during parts of the music, it's just fine. I use Frozen bubbles to test and see if I've managed to lower my volume. If I click on Personal Settings and sound system, it shows sound system enabled, but no volume controls. Test sound is too loud. If I click on YaST and Hardware>sound and then when my card shows up toward the bottom click on other and try to set the master volume, I have it down to SIX and it still plays the test sound too loud. If I click on Multimedia>volume control>Alsa Mixer it shows card HDA Intel then on the left PCM and the two little sliders are barely up, maybe 1/8 of an inch from the bottom. Now, when I play a movie or a CD with Kaffine, I can control the volume, and it sounds ok (a little tinny on the music CDs) I found I could tell my keyboard it is a HP something and now the volume up and down work on the keyboard, they show on the screen they are raising or lowering the volume, but the don't do anything. So I guess they aren't connected to whatever is controlling my sound system. If it isn't in YAsT, or Alsa or KMix, what else is there? How do I get it connected to my volume keys on my keyboard? Or just lower it in someway?
Thanks so much, people are glaring at me when I boot up. The headphone jack on the front of the lappy doen't work either, so I can't just plug in headphones and have it quieter. wish they did work..........

[savvy_cowgirl]

I forgot to put that I have checked in YAsT user permissions and I have checked that I am a member of the audio group. In fact by now, I've checked that I'm a member of about EVERY group, except root.
Is there someplace else I need to change a permission?

[gogalthorp]

Have you run alsaconf??

I believe you must be root. It has been a while.

[savvy_cowgirl]

WOWSA! Ok, I did that, but what happened then was that I had NO sound. So I went into YAsT and it showed my sound card as not being configured. So I had it reconfigure it, and it hung at about 60% and stayed there. Just kind of locked. Alt+Ctrl+backspace and rebooted, sound was back then. But after ALSA config no system sound, no ability to play CD, something about Xine not loading. Under Personal settings I have ALSA in the hardware box, if I click on the system monitor it shows my sound driver as 3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA v1.0.11rc3 emulation code)
Kernel 2.6.16..27-0.9-bigsmp #1 SMP Tue Feb 13 09:35:18 UTC 2007 i686
Config options 0
Installed drivers:
Tye 10: Alsa emulation
card config:
HAD Intel at 0xd8240000irq 58
Audio devices
AD Generic (Duplex)
Synth devices; not enabled in Config
Midi devices Not enabled in Config
Timers
31: system timer
Mixers
0: Generic 14f1 ID 5045

I typed kmix in konsole like I tried alsaconf (since doing alsa means no sound) and this was what typing kmix said:
kmix
kbuildsycoca running...
kio (KService*): WARNING: The desktop entry file /opt/kde3/share/applications/kde/kbarcode-label.desktop has Type=MimeType instead of "Application" or "Service"
kio (KService*): WARNING: Invalid Service : /opt/kde3/share/applications/kde/kbarcode-label.desktop

I don't know what any of the system monitor stuff means, but hopefully you will.
Thanks for any help you can give me.

[gogalthorp]

Log out as you log in as root try the sound.

If this works create a new user try the sound for her.

Then we will go on from there

[savvy_cowgirl]

Ok, logged in as root (I know I was root, there was a red background with bombs & exclaimation points all over) I fired up frozen bubbles and tried all the mixers that would start, but none of them could lower the volume.
ALSA Mixer says I ave a card: HDA Intel Chip: Generic 14f1 ID 5045
Hardware info says I have a 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio controller
I did install the newest version of alsa using yast, but it hasn't made any difference. I ran alsaconf again, and again lost all sound. So reconfigured sound card using YAsT and it has again hung at the 60% mark of starting sound card.
I can't figure out what else could be controlling the sound. With Kaffine I can indeed control my volume fine, but any system type sound like game, start up shut down is really loud. Now in the headphone jack, problem is the opposite, no sound.
Does this give more info?
Thank you so much!

[gogalthorp]

Is it possible that you have two sound chips.

Funny thing is a lot of sound problem are due to people fogetting to adjust the volume up.

[savvy_cowgirl]

I guess that I am not the only one with this problem, I've found a lot of posts about this chip set, suse 10.1 and the same problem, no volume control, but I was hoping to find a way to make it work. This is my first linux attempt (I'm a vista refugee) and now I am really liking suse. I haven't found a post where anyone has got it to work yet, though the alsa sight talks about compiling a kernel and I just shuddered. I have NO idea how to do that. do you think that maybe in later versions of suse it might get better? You use Suse don't you? Have you ever changed versions of suse? I mean are pretty much the same programs on each version? Firefox, thunderbird, frozen bubbles, kaffine, tea cooker, open office? I've been afraid to actually start doing a lot of productive work with my linux (well, it took almost this two months to get my modem, wireless and a fax program to work) in case I had to reload suse. So, if you have gotten a newer version, how hard is it to get comfortable with the new version of suse? I mean there is a HUGE difference is XP pro which I like and Vista. Or since I'm pretty comfortable now with Suse would changing to a newer version that might have the sound card working be not such a big deal?
Um, how could I have more than one sound card? does that happen?
I promise, I've tried turning the volume up and down, with all my mixers, but none of them have the slightest effect. Well, Kaffine responds perfect with music CDs and video DVDs.
Thanks!

[gogalthorp]

You could try 10.2 It is newer. It may be fixed maybe not. But in any case the main visual difference is that the main menus are changed. Personaly I don't care for it but you can go back to the old (10.1) menu system

If you don't have much personel stuff stored on the system it may be best to back up any personal stuff ie your home directory and do a new install of 10.2.

Or you could try an upgrade. You may still need to fuss with your hardware again but at least you know how you did it before and that is much more then half the battle

good luck

[savvy_cowgirl]

If I may ask a personal question? Why didn't you care for 10.2?? Remember this is the only version of linux I've ever really tried, so I don't have any experience to draw from.
I have almost no personal stuff, just 2 programs I've downloaded Nvu and efax. I'd have to check, but I think it's the same version that goes on 10.2. I thought I would just burn copies of the programs, and all the how to stuff I've copied off the web, and of course my xp drivers for my wireless. The updater in 10.1 was broken, was the updater in 10.2 ok? I mean yast and software updater?
I'm going to try to get my cousin to download & burn 10.2 for me and see if there is a live boot version to try. He has broad band, I have dial up with 28,800. BUT, I am grateful for it, 2 weeks ago, I didn't have that working!
Thanks for your help!