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173 lines
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<TITLE>The Answer Guy 28: Sinister 'xmcd' Permanently Disables Right Speaker Channel</TITLE>
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<H4>"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H1 align="center"><A NAME="answer">
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<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
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<a href="./lg_answer28.html">The Answer Guy</a>
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<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="" border="0" align="middle">
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</A></H1> <BR>
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<H4 align="center">By James T. Dennis,
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a><BR>
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Starshine Technical Services,
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<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A> </H4>
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<p><hr><p>
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<H3><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" alt="(?)" width="50" height="28"
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align="left" border="0">Sinister 'xmcd' Permanently Disables
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Right Speaker Channel</H3>
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<p><strong>From Birger Koblitz on Fri, 24 Apr 1998</strong></p>
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<p><strong>
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Hi,
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<br>I'v got a strange problem with my Toshiba 12X-SCSI-CDRom and
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<tt>xmcd</tt>. Since I started to use this program, music from audio CDs
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is only played through the left speaker, the right speaker is dead. The
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strange thing is, all this worked well on Windoze before. Now even the
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windoze player uses only the left channel. This doesend seem to be a
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hardware problem allthough there now is only one channel available out of
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the Headphone connector on the front of the device,too, since I tried the
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progam also at a friend with a Sanyo SCSI-CDRom resulting in the same
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problem (but both channels available from the front plug there). My friend
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is now quite angry since evrything worked fine under windoze for him before...
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It seems that xmcd turns of one of the channels of the CDRom. Sadly
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using the balance control within <tt>xmcd</tt> doesnt turn it on any more. Is
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there a way to get things working again?
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<br><br>
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Yours, Birger.
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</strong></p>
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<blockquote><img src="../gx/dennis/bbub.gif" alt="(!)" width="50" height="28"
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align="left" border="0">That's
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very odd. I've never heard of any CD's or
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sound cards with NVRAM in them. I presume you've
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powered off the affected systems, let them sit for
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a minute or two and tried again (under the formerly
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"known working" configuration).
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<br><br>
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I suppose it would give offense to suggest that you
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actually check the wires that lead to that speaker?
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<br><br>
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Traditionally I've been a curmudgeon about "toys" like
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CD players and sound cards (never used them under DOS,
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Windows or Linux). My traditional opinion has been that
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CD-ROM's are for data --- and that there are perfectly
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good, inexpensive, devices for playing audio CD's ---
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devices that require no special drivers and have no
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opportunity to conflict with your other equipment and
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software. (You don't want to know how I feel about those
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loathsome bandwidth robbers with their "Internet Telephone"
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and "Cyber Video Phone" toys either. That's <em>our</em> bandwidth
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they're hogging).
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<br><br>
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However, yesterday (by coincidence) I bit the bullet and
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spent a little time compiling a new kernel with sound support.
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Then I went into the CMOS and re-enabled the sound support that's
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on the motherboard of that machine I bought from VAResearch.
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<br><br>
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So, I slipped in a copy of Aaron Copeland's Greatest Hits,
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logged into to my virtual console, (I still prefer text consoles
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for most of my work, especially for e-mail), fired up <tt>xmcd</tt>
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(X Motif CD Player) and let it loose.
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<br><br>
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Strains of "<em>Celebration</em>" are streaming out of both
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speakers as I type this. (Yes, I [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F1]'d
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back to my text console after starting <tt>xmcd</tt>).
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<br><br>
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So, it's not inherently a problem with <tt>xmcd</tt> under Linux.
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This particular installation is a S.u.S.E. 5.1 running
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under a 2.1.97 kernel that I just grabbed off of
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<a href="http://www.kernel.org/">kernel.org</a> yesterday.
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<br><br>
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So, that leave us with other questions.
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<br><br>
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Do you have a sound card or are you playing this through a
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headphone jack on the front of your CD player? (I'm not
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familiar with the specific CD drives to which you refer, but
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many of them have built in head phone jacks. Mine is a
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Toshiba 3801 which I gather is sold as a 15x drive).
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<br><br>
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Are there any configuration or diagnostic utilities for your
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CD drive and/or sound card? (Presumably they would be DOS
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or Win '95 utilities that shipped with the device or that you
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might get from their web site, ftp site, or BBS).
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<br><br>
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Have you called your CD-ROM or sound card vendors (or
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BCC'd their support on this e-mail)?
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<br><br>
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Did you do an Alta Vista or Yahoo! search? (I used
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"<tt>+xmcd +sound +problem</tt>") or check out the
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<tt>xmcd</tt> home page:
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<br><blockquote>
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<a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/~cddb/xmcd/"
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>http://sunsite.unc.edu/~cddb/xmcd/</a>
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</blockquote><br>
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... which has links to their FAQ (and other useful) info.
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<br><br>
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There was an FAQ entry about
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<a href="http://sunsite.unc.edu/~cddb/xmcd/faq.html#19"
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>Toshiba drives and "sometimes" getting "no sound."</a>
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Although it doesn't sound like it matches your symptoms exactly
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you might read that and try the suggestions they list.
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<br><br>
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Just off hand I don't know of any newsgroups or mailing
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lists that are particularly good venues for this questions
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(which I suspect it why you sent it to me).
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<a href="news://comp.os.linux.hardware"
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>news:comp.os.linux.hardware</a>
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might be one. Another might be
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<a HREF="news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom"
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>news:comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom</a>
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or <a HREF="news:alt.cd-rom">alt.cd-rom</a>.
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<br><br>
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Hope that helps. However, it's still hard to imagine
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any problem that would match these symptoms and persist
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through a power cycle (<em>not</em> just a reboot -- a power cycle).
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</blockquote>
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<!--================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<H5 align="center"><a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 1998, James T. Dennis <BR>
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Published in <I>Linux Gazette</I> Issue 28 May 1998</H5>
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