Apologies if this looks like a set of dumb questions. In fact it IS aset of dumb questions, to which I cannot seem to get answers on eitherthe OpenSuSE or Audacity forums. I'm creating a long track record of no success in using Audacity on ahardware setup which I have converted from Win XP to SuSE 11. Ipreviously had been using Audacity for some years on this hardware underWin XP. (For those with infinite patience the problem is that I can record,about 95% of the time, but can playback only about 1% of the time. Theoutput level meters show that I have made a valid recording but there isno output on my speakers. The system will play audio CDs, outside ofAudacity). Others have directed me to check my mixer settings with alsamixer. Thisutility confusee me no end and has given rise to many questions, all ofwhich must be hard, because I can't get an answers. . If I invoke alsamixer with the simple command 'alsamixer' (noparameters), in either user or root status, I get a DOS like screenshowing information for (among other items) something called 'CARD' withcontent 'PulseAudio'. What does 'card' mean? Why is PulseAudio involved?I thought I was using ALSA? There is also an item called 'chip', also with content 'PulseAudio'.What chip is this? What do I do with this 'card' and 'chip' information? In 'Playback' mode one recording level bar, labelled 'Master' isdisplayed. I am able to set volume levels here and use the M-key togglebut can do nothing more. Is this the equivalent of the playback volumecontrol under Windows? If I tab into 'Capture' mode one recording level bar, labelled'Capture' is displayed. I am able to set volume levels here, and thespace bar toggle is effective; the M-key toggle is not. What exactly isthis 'Capture' device? Is this the equivalent of the recording volumecontrol under Windows? Irrespective of where I set the levels in these 2 modes, or whether Iselect 'Capture' as a recording device or not, I am unable to playbackany recordings in Audacity - even after loading project files recordedunder Windows. This is all in great contrast to the 'other' Alsamixer which isavailable to me - invoked by issuing the command 'alsamixer -c 0'(just as an aside, the alsamixer man pages and help information havebeen unable to explain to me, in a way that I can understand, how to setthe parameters for -D option. I have tried more than 200 combinations ofstrings of alpha-numerics to follow -D, but have found nothing that isacceptable to alsamixer - not even those that by fortuitous circumstanceturn out to be an obscene permutation of Western characters. Is thissome sort of virility check, to qualify ones-self to be a real alsauser?) Invoked in this way alsamixer now shows 'Card' as CA0106 - what isthis? And what happened to the previous entry of 'PulseAudio'? 'Chip' isnow shown as blank. Does his mean that alsamixer cannot detect it inthis mode? What happened to the previous setting of 'PulseAudio'? A wide variety of device volume controls is now displayed, including adevice called IEC958. In terms of my sound card (Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live! 24 bit 7.1 card - a widely used, entry level consumerquality sound card, designed in the 90s) I have absolutely no idea whatthis device it. This is the only device on which the M-toggle iseffective. The space bar toggle is not effective on any device in anymode (Playback, Capture, All). No master volume control is displayed. Some times, after fiddling with this version of alsamizer (in anentirely random fashion) Audacity will 'see' a playback device calledALSA dmix. If I select this device then I can playback recorded sounds.I have no idea what this device is or where Audacity finds it. Out ofabout 100 recording attempts over the last 3 weeks, this playback deviceoption has appeared only 2 times. This number is too low for me tocorrelate it with any specific setting in the second version ofalsamixer. The other recording and playback devices identified with Audacity - withnames of the form CA0106: CA0106 (hw:0,0) - bear no relationship, in mymind, to the hardware features on my sound card - like 'Line In' or'Mic' or 'Line Out'. I have no idea what those esoteric and genericnames mean. Even worse, the second version of alsamizer lists devicescalled IEC958 something or other or 'i2s in'. I have no idea what thedevices are or if I should use them. The bottom line is that the evidence I have found so far suggests eitherthat alsa cannot recognise my very common sound card, or cannot co-existwith Audacity in OpenSuSE 11 or both. Is there a 3rd version of alsamixer, invokable in some other way, whichwill fix this? -------------------------------------------------------------------------Sponsored by: SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards: VOTE NOW!Studies have shown that voting for your favorite open source project,along with a healthy diet, reduces your potential for chronic lamenessand boredom. Vote Now at http://www.sourceforge.net/community/cca08_______________________________________________Alsa-user mailing listAlsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
