Gnome: Your audio capture settings are invalid.

[^rooker]

[PROBLEM]
After trying out some USB headsets and removing them again, my flawlessly working sound in Ubuntu 6.06 puked all over itself:

Starting "Sound Recorder":

Your audio capture settings are invalid. Please correct them in the Multimedia settings.

Running "alsamixer":

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such device

[SOLUTION]
The problem was that the ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf entry for the "default" soundcard was broken:

#------------ BROKEN ----------------
!defaults.pcm.card default
defaults.ctl.card default
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1

#------------ WORKING --------------
!defaults.pcm.card I82801CAICH3
defaults.ctl.card I82801CAICH3
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1


Here's how I fixed it:
(lines starting with $ are shell commands)

Code: Select all

$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
I82801CAICH3

$ asoundconf set-default-card I82801CAICH3

[^rooker]

The problem seems to be with C-Media equipment, because I've had similar problems on another computer with a C-Media onboard soundcard.

#------------ BROKEN ----------------
!defaults.pcm.card C-Media
defaults.ctl.card C-Media
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1

#------------ WORKING --------------
!defaults.pcm.card CMI8738MC6
defaults.ctl.card CMI8738MC6
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.pcm.subdevice -1

Now the question is: How did the "C-Media" string get in there??