Florian Kulzer wrote: > On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 19:49:55 +0100, Chris Lale wrote: > > [...] > >> I've now discovered why /dev/dsp disappeared - /dev/dsp is deleted when I run >> alsaconf! This might be related to unreproducible bug #406738: alsa-utils: >> Running alsaconf stops sound card from working[1]. Not quite the same >> because my >> sound card(s) work but the OSS apps (eg XMMS) do not. >> >> Should I report this as a new bug? > > I am not even sure if this is really a bug. It seems that alsaconf loads > the correct alsa driver in your case. This is all it is supposed to do, > if I understand the script correctly. (The relevant line is "modprobe > $CARD_DRIVER".) I do not know if this is supposed to trigger the loading > of snd_pcm_oss. (Some people might not want to have the OSS legacy > support modules loaded by default.) >
Problem solved. alsaconf runs the obsolete command "update-modules" which modifies /etc/modprobe.d/sound and /etc/modprobe.conf if present. According to the update-modules man page the existence of /etc/modprobe.conf will cause /etc/modprobe.d/ to be ignored by Debian packages which store their configuration files there. alsaconf unloads all the sound modules, configures the sound card and then loads them again. I think that it was ignoring a configuration file which told it to load snd-pcm-oss. The configuration file is probably /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base which contains this line: install snd-pcm /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-pcm && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-pcm-oss ; : ; } I moved /etc/modprobe.conf out of the way and everything now works properly. I am not sure why /etc/modprobe.conf existed. Probably because my Etch (Stable) system has been incrementally upgraded from Woody (Stable) and Etch (Testing). Worth reporting as a bug, do you think? -- Chris. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]