Sound problems in Squeeze

[Neil Watson]

My Debian Squeeze host stopped issuing sound through the sound card. This is
not the first time. Sometimes fiddling around seems to start it again. This
time nothing. Sound is one of those mysterious places in Linux that a rarely
venture to.

Sound card is seen:
lspci
01:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies Inc. ICE1712 [Envy24]
    PCI Multi-Channel I/O Controller (rev 02)

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: M2496 [M Audio Audiophile 24/96], device 0: ICE1712 multi [ICE1712 multi]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


Alsamixer shows all volumes are up. No channels are muted. However even simple
tests produce not sound:

ettin:/usr/share/alsa/cards# aplay /usr/share/bzflag/shock.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/bzflag/shock.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 22050 Hz, Stereo

This hangs indefinitely as does this:

ettin:/usr/share/alsa/cards# speaker-test

speaker-test 1.0.23

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 2048 to 6144
Period size range from 1024 to 1024
Using max buffer size 6144
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1024
was set buffer_size = 6144
0 - Front Left

Modules all appear to be loaded.
Code:
lsmod|grep snd
snd_ice1712            50553  0
snd_ice17xx_ak4xxx      2108  1 snd_ice1712
snd_ak4xxx_adda         6063  2 snd_ice1712,snd_ice17xx_ak4xxx
snd_cs8427              5649  1 snd_ice1712
snd_ac97_codec         99186  1 snd_ice1712
snd_pcm_oss            32607  0
snd_mixer_oss          12606  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                60487  3 snd_ice1712,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc          6249  1 snd_pcm
ac97_bus                1086  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_i2c                 3362  2 snd_ice1712,snd_cs8427
snd_mpu401_uart         4995  1 snd_ice1712
snd_seq_midi            4400  0
snd_rawmidi            15515  2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      4628  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                42881  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              15598  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          4493  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    46526  13
snd_ice1712,snd_ak4xxx_adda,snd_cs8427,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,
    snd_pcm,snd_i2c,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               4598  1 snd

I tried alsactl init but still no sound. Now I'm out of ideas. 

-- 
Neil Watson
Linux/UNIX Consultant
http://watson-wilson.ca
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