Subject: Newbie needs help configuring xwindows, kde (was Fwd: Re: Sound on Linux laptops)
From: Harold Shanafield (hshanafield@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 07 2002 - 09:24:20 MST
I'd like to thank the author for actually providing an
answer to someones question, as opposed to wasting
everyone's space in their inbox with needless flames.
As for my own 2 cents: it's really easy to tell
everybody to stop whining if it already works for you.
At the same time, if your biggest concern is
listening to music, why linux? Isn't that what MacOS
is for?
Now for my plea for help. As I wrote last night.
After struggling with the installer for several days,
I determined that the only install I was going to get
was the base install. I want to get X windows and kde
going, but as a newbie that is proving difficult. I
got yup to install some XF86 packages, but is there a
list of things I need to have somewhere? How do I
configure it and do I have to start some service?
Just need to be pointed to the information (specific
to YDL 2.1) if it is available. Also, if you are
going to flame me, please send it directly to me
because I am sure nobody else needs an inbox of
flames.
Thanks,
Harold
--- Ben Stanley <bds02@uow.edu.au> wrote:
> Reply-to: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
> Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2002 16:51:37 +1100
> From: Ben Stanley <bds02@uow.edu.au>
> To: yellowdog-general@lists.yellowdoglinux.com
> Subject: Re: Sound on Linux laptops
>
> Paul Guba wrote:
>
> > So now that we have all moaned about or defended
> this OS. How about
> > some solutions. It seems that some people have
> got sound working on
> > their various imacs or powerbooks. Either by luck
> or hard work.
> > Others have said its not so hard. So prove it to
> me. Write a How To
> > win a T-Shirt. I'll buy you a T-shirt if you can
> write it so I can
> > read it and get sound working, play a CD and MP3s
> on my pismo. I
> > don't have time to search the web for solutions.
> I want a straight
> > forward how to.
>
> I can play mp3's in kde - but I disable the kde
> sound server (artsd).
> to turn off artsd, go to the kde control panel
> open the sound bit
> find the checkbox that says to start up a sound
> server on kde startup
> and make sure it's off.
>
> to double check that artsd isn't running, type
> ps -e | grep artsd
> if you get nothing back, then it's not running. If
> it's still running, type
> killall artsd
>
> Now, to play mp3s, start up xmms.
> Right click somewhere on the face of xmms to bring
> up the menu - go to
> Options | Preferences.
> This brings up a dialog. Select the Audio I/O
> Plugins tab. Look at the
> Output Plugin area - there is a popup menu. Mine
> contains 4 options:
>
> aRtsDriver 0.4 [libartsout.so]
> Disk Writer Plugin 1.2.6 [libdisk_writer.so]
> eSound Output Plugin 1.2.6 [libesdout.so]
> OSS Driver 1.2.6 [libOSS.so]
>
> It works for me when I select either eSound or OSS.
> I haven't tried Disk
> Writer, but I assume it works since it doesn't talk
> to any sound driver.
> The aRts driver won't work because the artsd that
> comes with YDL 2.1
> won't work.
>
> Take your pick and Click OK. If you pick eSound,
> then GNOME programs
> will be able to output sound as well, but I use OSS.
>
> You should now be able to play mp3s. If you can't,
> there are 2
> possibilities:
> * You don't have the kernel sound module installed
> * some other application has opened /dev/dsp already
> (only one program
> may open it at a time).
>
> You can find out if the kernel module is loaded by
> typing (as root)
> lsmod
> You should have a dmasound_awacs module. If it's not
> there, look for it
> in your /lib/modules/2.4.XX/kernel/drivers/sound
> directory. (replace XX with your kernel version.)
> The Yellow Dog kernels
> come with it pre-compiled already. If you need to
> compile a kernel to
> get a sound module, make sure you turn on *I forgot
> the option*.
>
> If the module is loaded and you can't get xmms to
> play sound, then
> probably it will tell you something is wrong with
> /dev/dsp. Check that
> you have access permissions to /dev/dsp (most likely
> this is correct).
> If it's wrong, fix it by changing it to be owned by
> you: (as root)
> chown <your-login-name-here>.users /dev/dsp
> and make sure you have rw permissions as well, using
> (again as root)
> chmod u+rw /dev/dsp
>
> The only other problem is that some other program
> could have already
> opened /dev/dsp (eg mol). You can find out exactly
> which program using
> lsof /dev/dsp
> (most likely you will have to install lsof first -
> it's not usually
> installed. Look for an rpm called lsof on your
> YellowDog CD; first mount
> the CD (as root)
> mount /mnt/cdrom
> then go to the directory
> cd /mnt/cdrom/YellowDog/ppc
> then install it with (tab filename completion might
> be helpful here)
> rpm --install lsof-<version>.ppc.rpm
> Then
> cd
> (to get out of the CDROM directory and return to
> root's home directory)
> and then
> eject cdrom
> )
>
> * Note that some of these commands live in /usr/sbin
> or /sbin
> directories. If you became root using the su
> command, your path won't
> include these directories. You can still execute
> programs residing in
> these directories by prefixing the program name with
> the appropriate
> directory, eg
> /sbin/lsmod
> When I can't remember where a program lives, I try
> both and one or the
> other will work.
> Alternatively, just log in as root on the text
> console (use
> CTRL-OPTION-FN-F1 to get a text console,
> CTRL-OPTION-FN-F7 to get back
> to XWindows, other Function keys work too -
> experiment - but beware of
> instability in virtual consoles with YDL's
> 2.4.10-12a kernel. Make sure
> to log out when you're done.)
>
> Now, to actually use artsd under YDL 2.1 on a pismo,
> I haven't done that
> myself yet, but there was mention on the list of
> some rpms which
> supposedly worked.
>
> I haven't tried playing CDs with this setup, but I
> suspect from other
> postings that it won't work because of a missing
> connection between the
> CD player and the sound chip (so how does MacOS play
> CDs on this model
> then? by ripping them digitally to the sound chip?
> That seems
> ridiculous... Surely there is a connection...)
>
> If anyone wants to take this and incorporate it into
> a proper howto, you
> have my blessing. But better still would be for YDL
> to get everything
> working properly so that this kind of thing wasn't
> necessary. And Thanks
> YDL for making the distro as accessible as already
> is. I'm looking
> forward to 2.2.
>
> Ben.
>
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Thu Mar 07 2002 - 09:38:57 MST