On Tue, 22 Mar 2016 19:14:12 -0400
Hendrik Boom <hendrik@???> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 12:57:02PM -1000, Joel Roth wrote:
> > Hi Hendrik,
> >
> > Hendrik Boom wrote:
> > > My system is an old ASUS netbook.
> > >
> > > I installed devuan alpha 2 when it was current, and have upgraded
> > > it regularly. It should be an up-to-date devuan jessie, modulo a
> > > few days.
> > >
> > > I've had sound working on this system.
> > >
> > > Long ago, with debian all I got was laptop loudspeaker sound.
> > >
> > > When I switched to devuan, sound appeared on headphones but never
> > > loudspeaker. This worked around Christmas.
> > >
> > > Today I tried using audio again, and all I get is total silence.
> > >
> > > Has anything related changed in devuan?
> > >
> > > How do I go about diagnosing the problem?
> > >
> > > As far as I know, I'm using alsa.
> >
> > It's worth verifying that you don't have pulse audio
> > installed.
> >
> > dpkg -l pulseaudio
>
> That was enough. I ued aptitude to remove it, and it also took out
> pulseaudio-module-x11.
>
> Oh, I did an
>

>     alsactl init

>
> afterward just in case alsa needed initialization.
>
> Now it works nicely.

I'm not surprised. I've always viewed Pulseaudio as a bunch of extra
series lightbulbs plugged into your series Christmas Tree light string.
Just another set of ways to mute your sound, not all of which are
easily discoverable.

The only benefits I can see for Pulseaudio are:

* Allows centralized per-player volume controls: Big whoop.

* Necessary for use of Microsoft Skype, after Microsoft deliberately
saddled formerly ALSA-complatible Skype with this dependency.

SteveT

Steve Litt
March 2016 featured book: Quit Joblessness: Start Your Own Business
http://www.troubleshooters.com/startbiz