[arch-general] Gnome - howto configure sound? Sound is silent, beep is loud (as heck)?

[David C. Rankin]

Guys,

This is my first real work with gnome. Initially when I first installed arch, 
it seems like I had sound (I think that was before gstreamer), now I have no 
sound for desktop apps, but the system beep is so loud it will scare the heck 
out of you when you backspace too far, etc... I need to reverse both.

Sound works in everything but gnome. I know it was working in gnome, but now 
something isn't working or is conflicted. I know for a fact virtualbox had 
good sound in gnome, now I get an error from XP saying that it is defaulting 
to 'null' sound. See screenshot:

(40k)
http://www.3111skyline.com/download/dt/gnome/vboxSoundError.jpg

The big problem is I don't know how to configure the sound in gnome. I found 
this "Configuration Editor", but other than finding a few sound settings, I'm 
not sure what to do with it. I suspect, on a gut feeling I need to rip 
gstreamer out and go bact to asls or something else. But what?

Here are some additional symptoms. The thing I first notice is my volume 
control is X'ed out and if I click on it, I get the error:

"No volume control GStreamer plugins and/or devices found."

In the Configuration Editor, the sound settings I found look like this.

/
  apps
    desktop
      gnome
        <snip>

	sound
	  /desktop/gnome/sound/default_mixer_device	<empty>
	  /desktop/gnome/sound/default_mixer_tracks	[]
	  /desktop/gnome/sound/enable_esd		unchecked
	  /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds		checked
	  /desktop/gnome/sound/input_feedback_sounds	unchecked
	  /desktop/gnome/sound/theme_name		freedesktop
	<snip>

  schemas  (all by <schema>)
	<snip>

  system
    gstreamer
      0.10
	audio
	  global
	    /system/gstreamer/0.10/audio/global/profile_list
	  profiles
		cdlossy ogg, 
		cdlossless flac, 
		aac m4a, 
		mp2 mp2, 
		mp3 mp3, 
		voicelossless wav, 
		voicelossy spx
	  default
		audiosink autoaudiosink
		audiosink_description  default
		audiosrc  alsasrc
		audiosrc_description  default
		(chat music and video all default)

Well that doesn't mean a whole lot of shinola to me at all. If some of our 
great list companions has any expertise with sound in gnome, I really would 
appreciate a bit of help or at least a point in the right direction on whether 
I trash gstreamer and work to configure alsa of a good webpage where this is 
discussed would be fine. As always, if you need anything else, please do not 
hesitate to ask. I'm more than happy to do the work on my end to learn how to 
fix this. Thanks.


-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com