XP and service-pack 3? Your comminity needs you

[musikbear]

here is lengthy and somewhat nerdy reciepe on re-cover of dll files. http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerr ... -error.htm

I would look for it on the disk and just try to copy it to the system folder
nb - i do not have this file, and my lmms runs

merry xmas

[ian_mcnulty]

Yep, exactly the same result here.

Machine is (very old!) Compaq Presario SR1629UK Desktop with built-in Realtek ALC 880 sound.

Dual booting with Ubuntu 13.10 and Win XP SP3.

LMMS loads on Ubuntu 13.10 almost instantaneously and runs perfectly. Only problem is that Ubuntu can't really handle the ALC 880 and all audio is bass heavy and distorted.

On Win XP LMMS hangs on splash screen. Task Manager shows lmms.exe using 99% of CPU!!!

Don't have avrt.dll in \WINDOWS\system32\ but sfc didn't restore it so presume it isn't supposed to be there anyway.

No errors showing in Event Viewer. Can't find any log files. Can't find any LMMS config files to play around with.

XP will be defunct in April, so it doesn't matter much, but would be interested to know what the problem is anyway.

[diiz]

Are you sure the Ubuntu sound problems aren't PulseAudio-related? PA can cause all sorts of weird problems.

Try running LMMS with a pure ALSA or JACK backend. To use ALSA in LMMS, you need to select it in the settings, and also point the "device" option to your soundcard (otherwise it will be routed to PA even if you select ALSA). There's instructions in the LMMS manual for doing this:

http://lmms.sourceforge.net/wiki/index. ... ts_in_LMMS

[ian_mcnulty]

Are you sure the Ubuntu sound problems aren't PulseAudio-related? PA can cause all sorts of weird problems.

Thanks for the heads up. Have only been running Ubuntu (well, Xubuntu actually) for a couple of days now so am on a bit of a steep learning curve.

Took your advice. Uninstalled PA by running:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install alsa

Then:

Code: Select all

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

and appending:

Code: Select all

options snd-hda-intel model=generic

to end of file.

Xubuntu audio output (from YouTube on Firefox) sounds just the same - distorted or 'muffled' with too much bass. In analogue terms it sounds like an impedance mismatch with clipping caused by an input level maybe 12 to 16 db into the red. Am using exactly the same hardware setup as I use on Windows, so the problem can't be in the analogue part of the loop. Using ALSA mixer I can reduce the level of the outputs and inputs, but sound quality doesn't change.

LMMS ran a lot better with ALSA than PA but stuttering quite badly so followed the advice in http://lmms.sourceforge.net/wiki/index. ... ts_in_LMMS

Code: Select all

aplay -l

Output:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ID 880 Analog [ID 880 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ID 880 Digital [ID 880 Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Tried LMMS ? Edit > Settings > [Audio Settings] "device" field, deleted "default" and typed:

Code: Select all

hw:0,0

The result sounded like plugging a speaker output into a mic input

Tried:

Code: Select all

hw:0,1

LMMS meters still working but no sound output at all.

Like I said, a bit of a steep learning curve!

[diiz]

Well you shouldn't need to remove PulseAudio entirely, because you can just bypass it in the LMMS settings... see normally if you select ALSA in LMMS, the sound still goes to PulseAudio, since PulseAudio is designed to intercept all ALSA output, so you need to point directly to the kernel driver, which is the hw:x,x thing. This also bypasses things like Alsamixer, AFAIK (although you can still use it to control the master volume).

Anyway at this point it looks like your problem isn't necessarily PulseAudio-related, since you're getting problems with the ALSA backend as well. Your best bet may be downloading and compiling the latest version of ALSA and trying if that works better on your computer.

[diiz]

This could also be of help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting

[ian_mcnulty]

Well you shouldn't need to remove PulseAudio entirely, because you can just bypass it in the LMMS settings... see normally if you select ALSA in LMMS, the sound still goes to PulseAudio, since PulseAudio is designed to intercept all ALSA output, so you need to point directly to the kernel driver, which is the hw:x,x thing. This also bypasses things like Alsamixer, AFAIK (although you can still use it to control the master volume).

I guessed that but wanted to find out if getting rid of PA would improve general Ubuntu audio handling. It didn't, which is what I needed to know know.

Anyway at this point it looks like your problem isn't necessarily PulseAudio-related, since you're getting problems with the ALSA backend as well. Your best bet may be downloading and compiling the latest version of ALSA and trying if that works better on your computer.

Could do, but I can keep on running Sonar on XP after April just as long as I disable the XP internet connection and use Ubuntu instead. Once I get the MS protection mobsters off my back I'll have loads of money left-over to spend on new kit which will be more compatible with Ubuntu and LMMS.

[ian_mcnulty]

This could also be of help: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting

Yep, already checked that out thanks but decided trying to get a crappy ten year old built-in sound card to work with Ubuntu wasn't worth the time (see above). But your help is very much appreciated anyway. Way to go

[diiz]

Some hardware is just very poorly supported in Linux. It's much better these days than it used to be, 9 times out of 10 you'll have no problem with most consumer hardware, but there's always some exceptions, perhaps your soundcard is just one of the hardware that works poorly in Linux.

There's always the possibility of getting an external USB soundcard (a good idea in any case for making music, especially if you plan on recording sounds).

[papaw]

My problem is a little different, Just installed sp3 and also LMMS and the sound is very bad. the first second sounds a little scratchy but the quickly becomes louder and more distorted and continues to do so as if it were looping within the system. I reinstalled the audio drivers and LMMS but no change. I don't know if it would have worked before sp3 cause it's a new install of XP on a Dell dimension 9150. LMMS works fine on my vista system. Thanks ,