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[SOLVED] empathy sounds not working

Graphical Environments, Managers, Multimedia & Desktop questions.
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Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

[SOLVED] empathy sounds not working

#1 Post by Spindoctor »

Hi!

I have Debian Wheezy (x64) running on my Thinkpad T400 notebook.

In Empathy I don't get any sound notifications which is bad, because like that I don't notice when somebody pings me.

I think I don't get any system sound notifications at all, except from the login sound. Also, in Settings/Audio/Sound Effects, all effects are grayed out.
However, I don't mind for the other sounds - only Empathy sounds would be great.

And, yes, my user is in the audio group.

Can you help me with that issue?

Thank you!
Last edited by Spindoctor on 2012-01-24 00:26, edited 1 time in total.

secipolla
Posts: 1127
Joined: 2010-06-21 14:20

Re: empathy sounds not working

#2 Post by secipolla »

I think you need to have libcanberra-gtk-module

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#3 Post by Spindoctor »

Thank you for your answer!

libcanberra-gtk-module aswell as libcanberra-gtk3-module is installed.

Are there any other sources of errors?

Thanks

secipolla
Posts: 1127
Joined: 2010-06-21 14:20

Re: empathy sounds not working

#4 Post by secipolla »

Do you have freedesktop-sound-theme too (it's a recommended dependency)?
I don't use GNOME/Empathy but GNOME 3 uses pulseaudio so maybe this bug report helps you:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=649744

After you get the sounds to work, you may be interested in this one too:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=649889

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#5 Post by Spindoctor »

thank you for your help!

gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio, pulseaudio and freedesktop-sound-theme were already installed.

also, at least "message-new-instant.oga" is there, (i can play it with my media-player).

So I still couldn't squash this bug :(

Any other idea? Should I provide some additional information???

secipolla
Posts: 1127
Joined: 2010-06-21 14:20

Re: empathy sounds not working

#6 Post by secipolla »

You could try posting in a mailing list ( lists.debian.org , search for gnome-user or the like).
If it isn't a Debian specific issue then you could also try some list from the GNOME site.

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#7 Post by Spindoctor »

Thank you!

I'm not sure, but I think it is Debian related. I used Ubuntu before I used Debian. In Ubuntu I had sound notifications in empathy.

I'll try the mailing list, if nobody has an idea...

dtl131
Posts: 449
Joined: 2011-07-11 19:56

Re: empathy sounds not working

#8 Post by dtl131 »

Try playing a wav or ogg with canberra-gtk-play command. Also, if using pulseaudio, try installing libcanberra-pulseaudio.

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#9 Post by Spindoctor »

Hi!

This was a good hint!

When I try to play an oga it says:

Code: Select all

canberra-gtk-play -f /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/message-new-instant.oga 
Failed to play sound: Sound disabled
libcanberra-pulseaudio is already installed

However, how can I solve that?

dtl131
Posts: 449
Joined: 2011-07-11 19:56

Re: empathy sounds not working

#10 Post by dtl131 »

I had to turn on event sounds in the xfce settings (Settings -> Appearance -> Settings tab) before canberra-gtk-play worked for me (was giving me the same error). What desktop environment are you using?

secipolla
Posts: 1127
Joined: 2010-06-21 14:20

Re: empathy sounds not working

#11 Post by secipolla »

You could upgrade gnome-shell to the sid version to fix the version mismatch with empathy but a recent post said the upgrade is broken ATM, or the like.
If you want to try anyway:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=416261#p416261
But use this procedure too:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?p=416468#p416468

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#12 Post by Spindoctor »

Thank you for your answers!

I use Gnome 3. I did already update to the sid version of gnome-shell (v 3.2.1-8). But I think the empathy sounds did never work since I used Debian (so it didn't even work in the old Gnome 2.x times). I'm not sure about that, however.

I think the thread about the empathy notifications is concerned with the visual notifications - they do work again since I updated to gnome-shell v 3.2.1-8. (but they worked better with gnome 3.0, as one could open the empathy window by clicking on the notification then. Now this ain't possible anymore).

I really could imagine the problem is related to canberra-gtk-play. How would I get it working?

dtl131
Posts: 449
Joined: 2011-07-11 19:56

Re: empathy sounds not working

#13 Post by dtl131 »

Maybe use gconf-editor and check the /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds key. Obviously, make sure it is enabled.

secipolla
Posts: 1127
Joined: 2010-06-21 14:20

Re: empathy sounds not working

#14 Post by secipolla »

dtl131 wrote:Maybe use gconf-editor and check the /desktop/gnome/sound/event_sounds key. Obviously, make sure it is enabled.
Yes, make sure sound events is enabled (sorry if you posted that already). But for GNOME3 you need dconf-editor.

dtl131
Posts: 449
Joined: 2011-07-11 19:56

Re: empathy sounds not working

#15 Post by dtl131 »

Ah, I forgot. The key in dconf is org/gnome/desktop/sound

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#16 Post by Spindoctor »

Great! That was a big step forward!

System sounds are working now.

However, still no sounds from empathy. Can you imagine why, or how I can check why? Maybe starting empathy in somekind of debug mode to find it out?

dtl131
Posts: 449
Joined: 2011-07-11 19:56

Re: empathy sounds not working

#17 Post by dtl131 »

Other than checking empathy's sound preferences, I think I'm stumped :(

Spindoctor
Posts: 18
Joined: 2011-05-23 18:22

Re: empathy sounds not working

#18 Post by Spindoctor »

Sorry!

Seems like a reboot was required!

Now everything works better than supposed!

Thank you so much for your help!
Last edited by Spindoctor on 2012-01-24 00:26, edited 1 time in total.

dtl131
Posts: 449
Joined: 2011-07-11 19:56

Re: empathy sounds not working

#19 Post by dtl131 »

YW. Mark thread solved.

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