This is beginning to feel like a repeat of 2007 - which in my opinion was hopeless.

Firstly I cannot get urpmi to add any new sources (I have been through the easy urpmi pages and got my list of sources and the code to set them up but with ach one it attempts to get the hdlist file and cannot make a connection (I can see the source if I put the ftp address into a browser so I know it is correct), if I try to do it through MCC it attempts to contact Mandriva for a list of sources but again no connection can be made so it fails the same thing happens if I attempt to add a source through MCC - add sources.

This happens regularly with Mandriva installs and has really begun to piss me off especially since it usually takes a few weeks (and no tweaking to sort out).

My sound has also gone screwy too, it worked fine after the initial install and still works through firefox but not with other apps. The problem has been mentioned in a few posts in the board with older releases but I cannot seem to find a resolution (even though my 2006 install works OK - why am I surprised that Mandriva have ****ed up something that worked in a previous release?)

The problem appears in rythmbox and Clanbomber where only a fraction of the sound gets played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly before the next fraction of sound is played repeatedly....(annoying isn't it?)

I am using the snd-via82xx driver which appears to have been loaded correctly - although I do not think it is a driver issue as it is not all sound that is wrong.

The final issue (of course I realise I am tempting fate with that assumption) is on boot where it appears to take an inordinate amount of time to start the init script (where tje status bar starts to move and you are able press escape to viw progress. It appears to freeze on the splash screen. I think that it may have something to do with usb but am not sure what is the best output to look at?

I do not know where to look to resolve this and am just really frustrated with it (this was the reason I never bothered with 2007)

Thanks
Leo

I'm having similar problems with 2007.1 with sound. It looked to be the perfect distro...after coming from Ubuntu, Fedora and PCLinux. I then decided to go back to 2007.0 which works just fine.

-Anshul

Make sure apps that are trying to play sound are using the right sound server. In KDE it defaults to artsd, you may find it useful to bypass and and go straight to ALSA or OSS.



Was this an upgrade or a new install? That is, did you update your old install, or just wipe it and start clean?

I am not sure how to do this can you give me an example?

I tried both, this current install was from scratch (it resolved other problems introduced by the upgrade)

Leo

It's highly dependant on the application, but most will have an option for where to output in the programs preferences. I think for Rhythmbox it's in System --> Preferences --> Sound --> Sounds tab

It seems to me that the problem lay in the particular sound applications you are using and NOT Mandriva2007.1.
I use xmms and have had absolutely NO sound problems. Not even with KsCD or Grip.

By the way, is it the Official2007.1 Spring version you are using or the earlier release version ???.

And have you tried downloading and installing the latest updates ???.

If the answer is yes to my first question about using an early release then I recommend you install the Spring official release as soon as you are able then download all applicable updates and then tell us here whether you still have problems.

Regarding the boot up problem you could try removing acpi=off and noapic and nolapic from the boot instructions. The presence of these 3 items seem to be a big cause of difficulties.

Do I correctly get the impression that you have not viewed the Errata for 2007.1Spring either ???.
Cheers. John.

it's the Official Version, I would suggest that it is Mandriva that is at fault since it is only their packages I am using and they would appear to no longer be compatible with my hardware (which was fine in 2006) I do not go in for funky packages or settings, most of it is as default - I do not really know enough to be comfortable mucking about with it.

If I could get urpmi to work I would

Thanks I will give that a go

No, I checked the errata and could not see anything pertinent there (I even checked a couple of things that were unrelated

I apologise if I am coming across as confrontational I am really, just annoyed and your post appeared to suggest that I was being unreasonable and had not checked at all which offended me (is there a particular bit in the errata you think may apply?). I have used Mandriva for over six years now and this is the first time their product has annoyed me this much.

Leo

Unfortunately rhythmbox does not appear to have these settings, Preferences is available from the edit menu (not being piicky just FYI) but does not have any sounds tabs - or tabs that apear to relate to output at all, I am guessing that this is handled by a conf file or something. When I try from the command line I can see that rhythmbox is using gstreamer maybe this is where the issue lies?

Leo

Rhythmbox uses gstreamer for sound output. You can run 'gstreamer-properties' to configure gstreamer. It's probably best to set the default output to be ALSA. Let us know what it is when you first open the application, it may be important. Clanbomber uses SDL, I think...let's get Rhythmbox working first, then we can apply the settings to clanbomber.

It'd probably be a good idea to set the timeout for the KDE sound server (you can set this from the KDE control center, I think) to a low value (it defaults to 60 seconds). The KDE sound server (arts) can interfere with other sound playing apps no end.

Your repository problem seems really odd, I can't replicate it at all and I know many users have no problems using Spring repositories. Have you tried using several different mirror sites? I'd recommend against the U.S. mirrors, they tend not to be great. Good mirrors to try are distrib-coffee.ipsl.jussieu.fr and nluug.nl.

I had a quick look at gstreamer-properties last night but could not see anything obviously wrong, how do I check what the output is when the app starts?
Clanbomber does use SDL and I saw something in the errata about this for 2007 but when I tried to load the package suggested urpmi told me it was already loaded.

I use Gnome so am not sure how to do this, in the sound settings it tells me it is using an auto setting and gives the option of either ALSA or OSS however regardless of the setting I choose the test button does not give a continuous tone but a tone with a click (sounds like a badly mixed sample) at regular intervals and the stop button takes a while to respond.

I have tried a number of mirrors, but will give these a go tonight. I agree that it is odd, but this is a regular issue with Mandriva releases (funnily enough it never happened with Mandrake) I have turned my firewall off completely but it still will not connect. 2006 - installed on the same machine, can see its mirrors without any problem now but had exactly this issue when first installed.

Thanks for your help

Leo

Oh, sorry, I assumed you were using KDE, most people tend to If you're on GNOME, that's good, it makes things simpler.

It is my considered opinion that sound on GNOME can be improved no end by killing esd, the GNOME sound server. It's just as bad as arts, in its own way. Removing the esound package is a pain as it has tons of dependencies, so I go for the simple fix: as root, do -

rm -f /usr/bin/esd

and restart GNOME (or just 'killall esd'). Much better.

OK, for gstreamer-properties, when you run it, you should get a window named Multimedia Systems Selector, with two tabs, Audio and Video. Forget Video. On the Audio tab, there should be two sections, Default Output and Default Input. Each should have Plugin, Device and Pipeline options. The important thing in this case is the Plugin setting for Default Output. Ideally, it should probably be set to ALSA. I'm interested in what it's set to before you make any manual changes. Thanks!

For the urpmi issue, I can think of one other possibility besides changing mirrors: try the --wget parameter to make it use wget as the downloader instead of curl. It's possible you have some odd issue with curl and wget will work instead, I think we switched the default from wget to curl around 2006. So try running the same urpmi.addmedia commands but add --wget after the urpmi.addmedia and before the rest of the command.

This fixed it, I haven't tried rebooting yet but since the file has been removed I am guessing that won't be an issue.

I had been into this already in my search for a fix to the problem. The settings before any mucking about were Plugin: autodetect and the other two fields greyed out. I did try setting it to ALSA (and OSS) but it made very little difference except OSS was a higher pitch and faster repeat when tested.

I have urpmi set to wget by default (it has worked faster in the past) the distrib-coffee source is working I am not sure why none of the others I tried would work, what are the chances of getting three in a row with no response?

Thank you very much for your help and patience.

Leo

OK so I spoke too soon, I have rebooted and the sound is back to the same problem, even when I try the rm -f /usr/bin/esd and killall esd command it now makes no difference...

About your easyurpmi problems:

Have you set up valid DNS servers in /etc/resolv.conf ? If not, no wonder that it cannot contact the ftp-servers. If you have DNS servers set up, ctry the compressed synthesis.hdlist.cz instead of the "normal" hdlist.cz file.

The DNS server is set up correctly as far as I am aware (I believe it is currently set to my routers ip address which in turn has a dns setting provided by the isp), browsing is fine and ftp access to other sites is fine (the repository adamw suggested also works - without me making any changes to the dns server) I already try to use the synthesis.hdlist.cz files (I admit it would have been of more help if I had actually posted the commands I was using to try and add the sources rather than just saying they don't work).

Thanks for the suggestions though.

Leo

OK well I have sort of solved this. I have a beautifully functional installation of Arch up and running, it updates, plays music and looks nice too

I may give 2007.1 another go at some point but not for now.

Leo