aplay / alsaplayer - sound not working for normal user

Question

I cannot use alsa as a normal user (resulting in me not having sound in chromium).

I am guessing it has something to do with permissions. Adding myself to group audio didn't help.

[zarac@towelie ~]$ grep audio /etc/group
audio:x:92:mpd,zarac

Testing sound as normal user:

[zarac@towelie ~]$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav
ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4154:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:4154:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:4154:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4633:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2211:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:654: audio open error: No such file or directory
[zarac@towelie ~]$

and as root...

[root@towelie zarac]# aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav 
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
[root@towelie zarac]#

Running the command 'aplay -l' as normal user:

[zarac@towelie ~]$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:235: no soundcards found...

and as root...

[root@towelie zarac]# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 0: ctxfi [Front/WaveIn]
  Subdevices: 6/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 1: ctxfi [Surround]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 2: ctxfi [Center/LFE]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 3: ctxfi [Side]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
  Subdevice #4: subdevice #4
  Subdevice #5: subdevice #5
  Subdevice #6: subdevice #6
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 4: ctxfi [IEC958 Non-audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC889A Analog [ALC889A Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC889A Digital [ALC889A Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Any clues to what might be causing this is appreciated. Perhaps something needs to be chmodded somwhere?

Solution

Try looking at the permission of /dev/dsp and /dev/snd/* . If you don't have read write permission on these files then no sound is possible.