If I sign in "fresh" (i.e.: right after power up), and try the play
command from the terminal, I can play an audio file just fine. (I've
already run alsaconf, alsamixer, and alsactl store as root.). I can play
audio as root or a user.

However, when I run startx (loads KDE), the sound is almost completely
muted. If from within KDE I run alsactl restore, the sound is back. So
something in the startx script is messing up the audio, but I'm not
entirely sure where I should be looking.

On a possibly related topic, as root, I can run xsane (although I'm
warned NOT to) and scan in a picture; as a user, however, the scanner is
not detected at all.

Hoping the gurus out there have got some suggestions!

Nick.

N J C wrote:
>
> On a possibly related topic, as root, I can run xsane (although I'm
> warned NOT to) and scan in a picture; as a user, however, the scanner is
> not detected at all.

Warning: NOT a guru! With that said, let's move on...

First, sorry, can't help you with the sound.

You didn't mention if your scanner was attached to a scsi port or
parallel. I have mine attached to /dev/parport0, and all I did
to make it usable to a regular user was 'chmod 666 /dev/parport0'.
Caveat: the scanner is not detected, but it is usable by regular users.
However, I believe that SANE doesn't look on the parallel port for a
scanner, but does search the SCSI ports.

Anyway, if your scanner is attached to a SCSI port, it's probably
/dev/sr0 or /dev/sr1 (somebody jump in and correct me if I'm wrong, ok?)

Doug

N. J. C. wrote :

> However, when I run startx (loads KDE), the sound is almost completely
> muted. If from within KDE I run alsactl restore, the sound is back. So
> something in the startx script is messing up the audio, but I'm not
> entirely sure where I should be looking.

Run KMix from the Multimedia menu and adjust the volume. Then from the
"Control Center" go into the "Sound & Multimedia" menu and run Mixer and
save the current volumes and load them on login.
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

Doug Asherman wrote:
> N J C wrote:
>
>>
>> On a possibly related topic, as root, I can run xsane (although I'm
>> warned NOT to) and scan in a picture; as a user, however, the scanner
>> is not detected at all.
>
>
> You didn't mention if your scanner was attached to a scsi port or
> parallel.

Aha... it's a USB port... I'll check the /dev directory post-haste.
I have mine attached to /dev/parport0, and all I did
> to make it usable to a regular user was 'chmod 666 /dev/parport0'.

> Doug