Package: alsa-utils Version: 1.0.13-2 Severity: normal Running alsaconf (eg to configure a sound card) causes OSS apps (eg XMMS, Audacity, etc) to stop working in Etch (Stable). The error messages are:
Audacity: There was an error initializing the audio i/o layer RealPlayer 10: Cannot open the audio device. Another application may be using it. XMMS: Couldn't open audio. Please check that: Your sound card is configured properly. You have the correct output plugin selected. No other program is blocking the soundcard. The cause is that alsaconf unloads modules including snd_pcm_oss. This destroys /dev/pcm. When alsaconf reloads the modules, it fails to reload snd_pcm_oss and /dev/pcm is not recreated. The reason for alsaconf's bad behaviour is a combination of its use of the obsolete update-modules command and the existence of the file /etc/modprobe.conf (perhaps left over from an upgrade or created by another application). 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. It also says that no package [should] try to use [update-modules] anymore. Because of this behaviour of update-modules, alsaconf seems to be ignoring a configuration file which tells 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. There have been several threads on the Debian-User list recently which suggest that other people are experiencing a similar problem. I don't know whether Testing and Unstable are also affected but, if their version of alsaconf still uses update-modules and /etc/modprobe.conf exists, I think they quite likely will be. -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 APT prefers stable APT policy: (500, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-4-486 Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Versions of packages alsa-utils depends on: ii dialog 1.0-20060221-3 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe ii libasound2 1.0.13-2 ALSA library ii libc6 2.3.6.ds1-13 GNU C Library: Shared libraries ii libncurses5 5.5-5 Shared libraries for terminal hand ii linux-sound-base 1.0.13-5 base package for ALSA and OSS soun ii lsb-base 3.1-23.1 Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip ii module-init-tools 3.3-pre4-2 tools for managing Linux kernel mo ii modutils 2.4.27.0-6 Linux module utilities ii pciutils 1:2.2.4~pre4-1 Linux PCI Utilities ii python 2.4.4-2 An interactive high-level object-o ii whiptail 0.52.2-10 Displays user-friendly dialog boxe Versions of packages alsa-utils recommends: ii alsa-base 1.0.13-5 ALSA driver configuration files -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]