[PlanetCCRMA] Alsa crash

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Fri, 2005-12-02 at 10:30 -0500, Bert Haskins wrote:
> My system was working fine untill I did " apt-get upgrade" yo ccrma fc4.

We need more information... What was the system like before the udpate?
Meaning, was it fc4? Or you updated to fc4 from, say, fc3 or an earlier
version? 

If it was fc4 it would be good to know which packages were updated, you
can see that by doing an:
  rpm -q -a --last
and noting the date when you did the update. 

> Now, when I do:
>    xmms song.wav
> A box pops up that says:
> "Couldn't open audio
> Please check that:
> Your soundcard is configured properly
> You have the correct output plugin selected
> No other program is blocking the soundcard"
> 
> and I get the following:
> 
> ALSA lib conf.c:1578:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:51:23:No such file or 
> directory
> ALSA lib conf.c:2823:(snd_config_hook_load) /etc/alsa/cards/aliases.conf 
> may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
> ALSA lib conf.c:2686:(snd_config_hooks_call) function 
> snd_config_hook_load returned error: No such file or directory
> ALSA lib pcm.c:1959:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Invalid type for PCM default 
> definition (id: default, value: cards.pcm.default)
> 
> ** WARNING **: alsa_setup(): Failed to open pcm device (default): 
> Invalid argument
> 
> If I then start Xmms it does play nicely, just like before.

It looks like alsa is not starting correctly in your system, and then
trying to use xmms starts it somehow and that's why it works after
that. 

> I often use this system, a thinkpad a31, with Rosegarden and fluidsynth 
> and now when I try to load fluidsynth I get:
> 
> cca_open_socket: could not connect to host 'localhost', service '14541'
> cca_init: could not connect to server 'localhost' - disabling ladcca
> ALSA lib conf.c:1578:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:51:23:No such file or 
> directory
> ALSA lib conf.c:2823:(snd_config_hook_load) /etc/alsa/cards/aliases.conf 
> may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
> ALSA lib conf.c:2686:(snd_config_hooks_call) function 
> snd_config_hook_load returned error: No such file or directory
> ALSA lib pcm.c:1959:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Invalid type for PCM default 
> definition (id: default, value: cards.pcm.default)
> fluidsynth: error: Failed to open the "default" audio device
> Failed to create the audio driver
>
> Can any see what the problem is here?

I have not seen this happen before. 
What do you see if you do this:
  cat /proc/asound/cards
  cat /proc/asound/devices

Also, let's check what versions you have for the alsa packages:
  rpm -q -a | grep ^alsa-

-- Fernando