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[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

A  Creative 4-2-24X CD writer which was preventing sound from working 
properly in DOS and linux (mplayer would play mp3 but not ogg, etc) and 
also no longer read data or music CDs.

My partner plugged and unplugged all the innards, cleaned and lubricated 
the rails and cleaned the lens and the drive now reads and/or plays all 
CDs.  And Mplayer is working correctly (in another computer).
Tarnished connections and dirty lens?

In theory, you need to put either ao=oss in /root/.mplayer/config or -ao 
oss on the command line for mplayer to play sound (otherwise it says 'no 
sound').  This is true for at least one of our computers with ISA and one 
with PCI sound card.

You also need -vo svga or vo=svga (there may be some default such as 
x11)

In this Emachine with CS4232 Crystal sound onboard, mplayer will play 
sound  WITHOUT specifying -ao oss on the command line or ao=oss in 
/root/.mplayer/config  I can't test video (no DVD drive in here).

In another computer with two different ISA SB cards, I had to specifiy -ao 
oss or it would tell me 'no sound' even if I put ao=oss in config.  One of 
these cards worked as expected in a different computer (oss in config)
Video worked without -vo svga command line (it was in config).  Odd.


So try first without specifying oss, then put into config file, and if it 
still says 'no sound' put -ao oss on the command line.



My CS4232 PCI card was very faint, and this onboard chip is also very 
faint and could barely be heard with powered speakers turned up full, but 
mplayer can easily boost the sound enough to be heard loudly.  Timidity 
has an 800% limit.  aumix is not adequate so the card really should have 
high-powered speakers for most programs.  If you get no audible sound from 
a setup with cs4232  but no error messages, try turning up mplayer volume 
(* up / down).

I am always astonished when sound does work.

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org