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Audacity can't find audio I/O layerI'm new to Linux. Just installed Debian 4 etch last week. Movie Player, Rhythmbox Music Player and Sound Recorder were installed by Debian in installing the OS and all of them work perfectly. I installed Audacity using the Synapic Package Manager and the first time I booted it it gave the error message Error Initializing Audio Error: Host error I looked at the Preferences in Audacity for Audio I/O. Recording: The same thing happened when I installed RealPlayer and Mplayer. They all installed without any problems and they all work but I can't get any sound out of them. Before installing these players I installed w32codecs and lame because I didn't know if I'd need them or not. Having had Debian for less then a week I have no idea how to get Audacity, RealPlayer and MPlayer to recognize my sound card or drivers or whatever they need to play sounds. Any help anyone can offer will be greatly appreciated. Bookmark/Search this post with: 
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solved problem with RealPlayer but not Audacity
I solved my problem tonight with RealPlayer by using the Synapic Package Manager to D/L and install Helix Player. Synapic uninstalled RealPlayer befor it installed Helix. I can “HEAR” radio shows now! I haven't found anyway to fix the problem with Audacity yet.
solved problem with RealPlayer but not Audacity
Since Audacity works with BSD as well, it may be expecting OSS devices rather than Alsa. You can run the OSS compatibility layer by doing:
modprobe snd-pcm-oss
modprobe snd-mixer-oss
modprobe snd-seq-oss
load modules automatically at boot time
to load automatically modules at boot time, you must append this lines in the file "/etc/modules" or "/etc/modules.conf":
# OSS Support
snd-pcm-oss
snd-mixer-oss
snd-seq-oss
Save and close the file. Reboot the system.
Audacity can't find audio
pinniped i ran those commands and it didn't change anything in Audacity. I still get the same error message.
I tried changing the Device setting in the default Volume Control that Debian installs from C-Media PCI CMI8738 (Alsa mixer) to Cmedia PCI (OSS Mixer). Then I used the default Sound Recorder Debian installs To record radio form the web and the recording sounds much better then when I record using Alsa. I don't know if that means anything except on my computer OSS seems to produce better sound.
I'm thinking I should look for a different sound recorder then Audacity. I also need a really good music composition program.
Thanks for your help.
Kind of found a fix I think
I think I know want I did to get realplayer 10 gold and Audacity working, but I'm not sure. I did a clean install of Debian etch with KDE on it from the CD iso image. I was using Debian etch with Gnome before. And I found out that in both Debian with Gnome and Debian with KDE I have to disable system sounds so that realplayer, Audacity and any audio editor or synthesizer can play sounds. With the system sounds enabled the only thing that can play sounds seems to be the default music player in Gnome and KDE.
I don't know if disabling the system sounds is really a fix. So far it's the only way I've found to make all audio editors and synthesizers to play sounds or make sounds. And It's the only way I've found to make Audacity and realplayer work on my computer with my embedded C-Media PCI CMI8738 sound chip.
So I'm passing this on to anyone else who has problems with Audacity and realplayer. If I learn more I'll post it here.
Kind of found a fix I think
That sounds like a problem with software wanting direct access to a device rather than using the 'sound daemon' (esd, artsd, and numerous others). It's not uncommon since a lot of programmers really can't decide on one sound daemon or the other because it limits the usefulness of their program. I don't expect this problem to be solved in a sensible fashion until at least the KDE and Gnome people dictate that they will support a single sound daemon.
A sound solution...of sorts
The KDE Sound System found under Settings, Sound & Multimedia, Sound System says:
“The KDE sound system takes exclusive control over your audio hardware, blocking programs that may wish to use it directly. If the KDE sound system sits idle it can give up this exclusive control.”
I set the time for it to “Auto-suspend if idle after” to 15 seconds. That didn't help.
I read this thread http://www.debianhelp.org/node/8427 Hoang says he did this with the Volume Control:
"Audacity not recording - SOLVED
Hoang Pham - Wednesday, July 18, 2007 - 05:09
I went through the various settings in Volume Control (right click on the speaker icon, top panel) and changed them in Edit/Preferences. The most important setting is Capture, which has to be selected and that its level under the Capture panel has to be set > zero. After changing this to full level, Audacity works!
AlsaMixerGUI can also be used to make these changes.
Thanks everyone.
Hoang"
Somewhere along the line with trying different thing I lost the Volume Control in the Panel, and I don't know how to get it back in the Panel.
I decided I'll enable system sounds when I'm not using audio editors and disable system sounds when I do use audio editors. It's not a perfect world we live in so we have to be flexible. Thanks again for your help pinniped.
A sound solution...of sorts
I've found the X-based GUIs for mixers to be pretty flaky so I always use the 'alsamixer' for control.