[NBLUG/talk] ALSA broken after reinstall of Debian/testing

[Lincoln Peters]

My computer is back up and running after last week's fiasco, but I still don't 
seem to have sound.  I have installed the alsa-base, alsamixergui, 
alsaplayer, alsa-tools, and alsa-utils packages, and I've used lsmod to 
verify that the relevant kernel modules (snd_emu10k1 and all its 
dependencies) are loaded.  However, when I try to play anything, I get errors 
I've never seen before:

$ alsaplayer /usr/share/sounds/KDE_Startup.wav
ALSA lib confmisc.c:670:(snd_func_card_driver) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:3479:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver 
returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:391:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3479:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned 
error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1070:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3479:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned 
error: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:3947:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2146:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
snd_pcm_open: No such device (default)
Failed to initialize plugin!
Failed to register plugin: /usr/lib/alsaplayer/output/libalsa_out.so
Failed to load output plugin "alsa". Trying defaults.
ALSA lib confmisc.c:670:(snd_func_card_driver) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:3479:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver 
returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:391:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3479:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned 
error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1070:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3479:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned 
error: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:3947:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2146:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
snd_pcm_open: No such device (default)
Failed to initialize plugin!
/usr/lib/alsaplayer/output/libalsa_out.so failed to load
error opening /dev/dsp
Failed to initialize plugin!
/usr/lib/alsaplayer/output/liboss_out.so failed to load
NOTE: THIS IS THE NULL PLUGIN.      YOU WILL NOT HEAR SOUND!!


As the messages would suggest, I hear absolutely nothing when it finishes.

I did find that no "dsp" or "audio" files existed in the /dev directory, 
although they seemed to be present in /dev/.static/dev (presumably since I'm 
using udev).  I tried making symlinks in /dev to the dsp and audio files 
in /dev/.static/dev, but that only eliminated three of the lines of errors 
(specifically, "error opening /dev/dsp", the last occurrence of "Failed to 
initialize plugin!", and "NOTE: THIS IS THE NULL PLUGIN...")  Permissions are 
not an issue, as my account is a member of the "audio" group, and I get the 
exact same errors when I run as root.

Any ideas as to what I'm missing?  I'm running Debian/testing with a custom 
2.6.16.20 kernel (which is configured EXACTLY the same as before the 
reinstall).


-- 
Lincoln Peters		<sampln at sbcglobal.net>

Q:	How many mathematicians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A:	One.  He gives it to six Californians, thereby reducing the problem
	to the earlier joke.