Additional info:
Soundcard: Chaintech AV710
Driver: snd_ice1724
I'm also using the fancy "Wolfson DAC" output (rear surround) from this card,
instead of the usual line-out.

Please re-login...

Re-login? I've tried rebooting and it still doesn't help.

Same problem here since the update in both xmms and mplayer when either uses
alsa for audio.  Switching either over to oss and life is good again.

I'm using snd_intel8x0 for sound on an 'nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio
Controler'

also, i'm using 2.6.14-1.1644_FC4 (x86) with XFCE as my window manager.

Someone else I know is also hitting this problem with KDE, but i don't have
specifics on his hardware or configuration, other than alsa audio stopped
working after the update today.

Do you have /etc/alsa/pcm/dmix.conf and /etc/alsa/pcm/dsnoop.conf files?
Could you attach your .asoundrc file?

I have a similar problem, although I do not think dmix is involved. I do not  
have a ~/.asoundrc file. I use kde from kde-redhat, currently kde-3.5.0, and 
cannot use ALSA anymore as the sound server since upgrading ALSA. Prior to the 
update sound worked fine. I can, however, use OSS.  
FWIW:  
$ ll /etc/alsa/pcm/dmix.conf /etc/alsa/pcm/dsnoop.conf  
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1111 Dec  9 08:19 /etc/alsa/pcm/dmix.conf  
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1117 Dec  9 08:19 /etc/alsa/pcm/dsnoop.conf  
$ cat ~/.asoundrc  
cat: /home/dad/.asoundrc: No such file or directory  
$ locate asoundrc  
/usr/share/doc/alsa-lib-1.0.10/asoundrc.txt  
  
and:  
$ rpm -qa|grep alsa  
alsa-lib-1.0.10-2.FC4  
alsa-utils-1.0.10-1.FC4  
alsa-lib-devel-1.0.10-2.FC4  
  
I use a soundblaster emu10k1 sound card/driver.  
  
Based on a recommendation of a fellow kde-redhat user, I did:  
ln -s /etc/alsa/ainit.conf /usr/share/alsa/  
ln -s /etc/alsa/alsa.conf /usr/share/alsa/  
and ainit $MY_USER start  
  
But after that, ALSA still fails. Prior to that, however, kmix and amarok 
would crash, even when using OSS. Afterwards, kmix and amarok ran fine under 
OSS.  
 
BTW, I'm the KDE user referenced in comment #5... 

Interestingly, my problems seem to have gone away since logging out and logging
back in.  Even so, seems bad that alsa would get broken in this fashion just
from an update.

Created attachment 122092 [details]
asoundrc file

I have dmix.conf, dmix.conf.lock, dmix.conf.template, dsnoop.conf,
dsnoop.conf.lock, dsnoop.conf.template under /etc/alsa/pcm/. My .asoundrc is
attached.

I have the same issue. ie. sound system stops working after update to    
alsa-lib-1.0.10-2.FC4 with dmixed snd_intel8x0 device. After reboot will work 
for a random period of time, but sound will always stop working sooner or 
later. Have reverted to alsa-lib-1.0.9rf-2.FC4 and left amarok playing for 24 
hours and do not have the issue.  

Created attachment 122129 [details]
dmix.conf

Created attachment 122130 [details]
dsnoop.conf

Created attachment 122131 [details]
alsa.conf

Created attachment 122132 [details]
ainit.conf

I guess it's caused by difference between alsa-lib and drivers in kernel (here
is 1.0.10rc).

Could you please check this alsa-lib package?

http://people.redhat.com/stransky/alsa-lib-1.0.10-1.FC4.test.src.rpm

You have to recompile it, REMOVE the old one (which comes with FC4 update) and
install it.

What is different/changed in this new package?  

alsamixer fails to run for me with either 1.0.10 alsa-libs installed. 
 
$ alsamixer  
ALSA lib control.c:739:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL default  
  
alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: No such file or directory  
 
$ rpm -qa|grep alsa 
alsa-lib-1.0.10-1.FC4.test 
alsa-lib-devel-1.0.10-1.FC4.test 
alsa-utils-1.0.10-1.FC4 
 

[clivem@fedora:/etc/alsa]$ rpm -q alsa-lib 
alsa-lib-1.0.10-1.FC4.test 
 
[clivem@fedora:/etc/alsa]$ aplay 
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1101:(_snd_pcm_dmix_open) The field ipc_gid must be a 
valid group (create group audio) 
aplay: main:544: audio open error: Invalid argument 
 
This is because dmix.conf has 'ipc_gid audio' and audio group does not exist 
on my system? 
 

(In reply to comment #19)
> This is because dmix.conf has 'ipc_gid audio' and audio group does not exist 
> on my system? 
>  

Yes. Please remove this line from /etc/alsa/pcm/dmix.conf and
/etc/alsa/pcm/dsnoop.conf files.

This new test package doesn't have any RH patches, it's only clear upstream
package for driver which is included in the current FC4 kernel.

Some how-to for the latest alsa-driver and FC4 is here:
http://people.redhat.com/stransky/alsa/

Fix from comment #16 works for me. I didn't try the one from comment #21. Is
there anything new from alsa-lib-1.0.10-2 compared to alsa-lib-1.0.10-1? Thanks,
Martin!

Neither the fix from comment #16 nor the one from comment #21 worked for me.
alsamixer segfaults on me.
$ aplay
ALSA lib conf.c:2827:(snd_config_hook_load) cannot access file
/usr/share/alsa/cards/aliases.conf
ALSA lib pcm.c:1959:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Invalid type for PCM default definition
(id: default, value: cards.pcm.default)
aplay: main:544: audio open error: Invalid argument

This could be a configuration issue on my system. I'll need to do some more
checking on that and get back to you...
I do not have a /usr/share/alsa/cards directory.
$ ls -al /usr/share/alsa/
total 24
drwxr-xr-x    3 root root  4096 Dec 23 17:17 .
drwxr-xr-x  278 root root 12288 Dec 18 20:10 ..
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root root    20 Dec 23 17:17 ainit.conf -> /etc/alsa/ainit.conf
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root root    19 Dec 23 17:17 alsa.conf -> /etc/alsa/alsa.conf
drwxr-xr-x    2 root root  4096 Jan  3 11:35 speaker-test

What is the minimal configuration for alsa? What configuration files may affect
alsa?

Do you have the /etc/alsa/cards directory? Because /usr/share/alsa is symlink to
/etc/alsa. You need to have the cards directory here (in /etc/alsa).

I have the /etc/alsa/cards directory. My /usr/share/alsa directory does not
appear to be a symlink
$ ls -al /usr/share|grep alsa
drwxr-xr-x    3 root root    4096 Dec 23 17:17 alsa

I made it a symlink: 
$ ls -al /usr/share|grep alsa
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root root       9 Jan  4 08:21 alsa -> /etc/alsa
but cannot test sound since I'm currently remote to the machine affected. Unless
alsamixer and aplay can be run remotely...

$ alsamixer

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: Permission denied

$ aplay
ALSA lib conf.c:1578:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:51:23:No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:2823:(snd_config_hook_load) /usr/share/alsa/cards/aliases.conf
may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
ALSA lib conf.c:2686:(snd_config_hooks_call) function snd_config_hook_load
returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:1959:(snd_pcm_open_conf) Invalid type for PCM default definition
(id: default, value: cards.pcm.default)
aplay: main:544: audio open error: Invalid argument

You have to check it locally because you need the console lock (you'll get it
after login to console as a common user).

OK, tested it. ALSA now works. Well, it produces sound. alsamixer segfaults when
run from the command line. After the segfault, the console behaves wierdly, as
if some control characters were sent and the screwed things up, and needs to be
"reset."

If I run alsamixer from a virtual terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F1), the following (or a
portion thereof -- it's not consistent) occasionally will get displayed at the
top of the screen:
"alsamixer: relocation error: alsamixer: symbol snd_mixer_selem_get_playback_dB,
version ALSA_0.9 not defined in file libasound.so.2 with link time reference
Kernel 2.6.14-1.1653_FC4 on an i686"

$ locate libasound.so.2
/lib/libasound.so.2
/lib/libasound.so.2.0.0
/usr/lib/libasound.so.2.0.0
/usr/lib/libasound.so.2

hmmm...
$ rpm -qf /lib/libasound.so.2
alsa-lib-1.0.10-2.FC4
$ rpm -qf /usr/lib/libasound.so.2
libasound2-1.0.9rf-21.rhfc2.at

After removing libasound2-1.0.9rf-21.rhfc2.at, alsamixer works :)

Must be a remnant of my upgrade from FC2. When alsa 1.0.9 was installed by the
upgrade, it didn't matter that the ATrpms version for FC2 was still around. But
after the update to 1.0.10, that did matter. It's a wonder alsa *ever* worked on
my system (it did, honestly...). Didn't hlep the troubleshooting process to have
the ATrpms' alsa be called libasound2 while FC4's is alsa-lib...

Should be fixed in RAWHIDE (FC5).

Since it is fixed in FC5, will the fix be available for FC4?

Kind Regards

André Fettouhi

It should be fixed in alsa-lib-1.0.10-3.FC4, too.