(linux) dmargs.txt keeps getting blanked?

[hobbes1069]

I've run into a strange issue twice now. I setup my dmargs.txt with my sound card settings (now I get good audio!!!!) but twice now after a few successful runs I start the game and no audio.

 

I went and checked my dmargs.txt and it was blank! Thinking it was a fluke I discovered the right settings again and this time I made a copy called dmargs.txt.backup. Now it happened again and both files are blank!

 

This time I made a copy and put it in my home directory and also changed the permissions to read only. Hopefully it sticks this time.

 

Any idea what's going on?

 

Thanks,

Richard

[PranQster]

Not sure, but later I'll look at some things after I get home.

I kept having trouble with no audio lately. I use oss since alsa often gives me delayed audio, but lately (last few months) I have often had no audio due to no /dev/dps being found. Sometimes I would have a /dev/dps1 instead and have to change doom3's s_driver setting to that. Sometimes no /dev/dps* at all.

Yesterday I found a solution requiring module '

snd_pcm_oss'

being loaded at boot, or at least before playing TDM. Since pulseaudio's takeover, oss has been disabled by default during boot, with the necessary modules put in a blacklist so they don't auto-load. Doing 'modprobe snd-pcm-oss' worked for me in this situation. Not sure about your situation though.

[hobbes1069]

Have you tried using straight alsa with a dmargs.txt file? Other than the problem listed above it's been great. No delayed audio and the audio quality has been better too, but then again I upgraded from on-board sound to a real sound card recently (Asus Xonar DG)

 

Here's my dmargs.txt (with 5.1 surround sound sytem):

 

+set s_alsa_pcm surround51:CARD=DG,DEV=0

+set s_numberofspeakers 6

 

+set s_driver best

 

Dang it! When I went to look it up my dmargs.txt file was blank again! Had to use my backup from my home directory.

 

Richard

[PranQster]

Hmm... I use a real sound card too. HT Omega Claro Halo XT, which uses the C-Media CMI8788 driver (snd_oxygen).

What would I use for CARD= ? I see yours is DG for your card.

Also, all of those '+set' arguments can be added to the script or launcher application path, with no worry of ending up with a blank dmargs.txt file.

Edited October 14, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

Dang it! When I went to look it up my dmargs.txt file was blank again! Had to use my backup from my home directory.

 

Richard

 

You may want to try doing 'chmod 644 dmargs.txt', or edit the file properties and set it to rw for user and only r for both group and others. That aught to prevent doom3 from overwriting it. Or go read-only all the way with 444 instead of 644.

 

By the way, I went back to alsa using the dmargs.txt file, but leaving out the CARD and DEV settings. Yes that seems to be working fine. I use headphones, so I set the number of speakers to 2

[hobbes1069]

You may want to try doing 'chmod 644 dmargs.txt', or edit the file properties and set it to rw for user and only r for both group and others. That aught to prevent doom3 from overwriting it. Or go read-only all the way with 444 instead of 644.

 

By the way, I went back to alsa using the dmargs.txt file, but leaving out the CARD and DEV settings. Yes that seems to be working fine. I use headphones, so I set the number of speakers to 2

 

I already tried making the whole file read only but it didn't work. I'm not sure what's going on there. I already use a script from ~/bin to load darkmod so I may just make a fresh copy of dmargs.txt every time as well.

 

Yeah, the CARD and DEV settings probably are not needed. I looks like you already figured it out but the device just needs to be one listed from "aplay -L".

[hobbes1069]

Hmm... I use a real sound card too. HT Omega Claro Halo XT, which uses the C-Media CMI8788 driver (snd_oxygen).

What would I use for CARD= ? I see yours is DG for your card.

Also, all of those '+set' arguments can be added to the script or launcher application path, with no worry of ending up with a blank dmargs.txt file.

 

Yup, mine's CMI8786 based and it also uses the snd_oxygen driver. Sounds pretty good and even has a headphone amp, though I haven't tried it yet and only payed about $27 for it.

 

Richard

[PranQster]

Yup, mine's CMI8786 based and it also uses the snd_oxygen driver. Sounds pretty good and even has a headphone amp, though I haven't tried it yet and only payed about $27 for it.

 

Richard

 

That's awesome. LOL, you paid about 1/9 what I paid for my card and ended up with nearly the exact product... same quality in any case

[PranQster]

I already tried making the whole file read only but it didn't work. I'm not sure what's going on there. I already use a script from ~/bin to load darkmod so I may just make a fresh copy of dmargs.txt every time as well.

 

Yeah, the CARD and DEV settings probably are not needed. I looks like you already figured it out but the device just needs to be one listed from "aplay -L".

 

Ahh, cool. For me it is CARD=halo,DEV=0. Nice to know.

 

My system also finds an nvidia audio adapter in the chipset, though the on-board audio hardware does not exist due to the presence of a copper heat-pipe cooling system for that very chipset, ROFL