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Sound not working in Pidgin IM client [solved]


Peter Snow
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Hi, Although the sound system appears to be working (because Amorak works fine), Pidgin sounds are not working at all.

 

I've checked the preferences and sounds are turned on and the default files are used for the enabled sounds. However, I can't tell what the default files are or where they are located (come to that, I can't figure out even where the Pidgin program directory is located even!).

 

Can anyone help me to a) locate the program directory, so I can see if there are any sound files in it to be used as default sounds and b) does anyone have any other suggestions how to make it work?

 

I'm using Mandriva ONE 2008 with all updates applied.

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The binary folder (/usr/bin) won't be of any use to you. The question is first and foremost, which soundsystem you use in your default desktop environment and which sound system you selected in pidgins preferences dialogue. If there is a mismatch (e.g. one uses ALSA, the other OSS), then you usually won't get sounds.

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I found if the volume level is too low, you don't hear it from pidgin. At least on my system. Try turning your volume level to max, and then test pidgin in case it's similar to me. I can hear the sounds though if it's really quiet in my room :)

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I've just tried Kmix... perfect!!

 

However, with volume set at 100%, I still have no sounds through Pidgin :(

 

I guess this is a Pidgin issue only. Perhaps it's time for me to find another IM client that can handle multiple networks.

 

Thanks for you help anyway Guys. (at least I have a volume icon in my status bar now :)

 

Peter

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest addysdddy
However, with volume set at 100%, I still have no sounds through Pidgin :(

I had the same problem. Try changing the sound method to command, with the sound command aplay -q %s

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I had the same problem. Try changing the sound method to command, with the sound command aplay -q %s

 

Thanks for the tip buddy. Actually, since I posted, I've found that the Linux Sound System is simply too unreliable on our laptop. I've spend many, many hours trying to resolve it but I think the fact is, Linux is just too young at this time. When we need to do something with sound now, like watch a presentation, we just boot into Windows, because it simply, works.

 

In Linux, it works occasionally, but right now, it's not working and nobody has any ideas how to fix it here (see this thread).

 

I've added command aplay -q %s as you suggested, so if and when the sound next, temporarily works, maybe we'll have sounds from Pidgin :)

 

Thanks again addysdddy.

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Thanks Scarecrow. Actually, I added the commands suggested earlier (aplay -q %s) and I've found that on the occasions when the main soundsystem is functioning, I now have sounds from Pidgin, which I didn't before.

 

I did try Kopete and thought that it looked highly polished, but was disappointed to find that I could not make it connect over a proxy.

 

Thanks everyone. This thread is now solved!

 

(just the modem, fax server, mount points and home directories to fix now! I'll try to have them working before they bring out the 2009 version and break it all again!!)

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  • 2 months later...

Thanks for this tip! I have been living without any sound from pidgin, but after adding aplay -q %s in the command window pidgin now makes sounds. Does anyone know if this bug has been reported yet? I hope the next Mandriva CD (2008.1) will not have this bug. Has anyone checked the latest release candidate to see if pidgin sound works out of the box?

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