Problem with ncurses and alsamixer (cannot open terminal: vt100 or xterm)

Problem with ncurses and alsamixer (cannot open terminal: vt100 or xterm)

[David Topper]

I finally managed to get the alsa-1.0.4 utils to compile on an ARM based 
SBC.  When I launch alsamixer, however, I get an error:

Error opening terminal:  xterm

When I ssh into the board.  Or:

Error opening terminal:  vt100

When connected via serial cable.

I suspect this has something to do with the linking (or lack thereof) of 
alsamixer for ncurses.  The ncurrses library, by the way, I cross 
compiled with the following command:

CC=/opt/crosstool/arm-unknown-linux-gnu/gcc-3.3.4-glibc-2.3.2/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc 
./configure --host=arm-linux --prefix=/home/topper/ts-packages/ 
--exec-prefix=/home/topper/ts-packages/

But for the alsa utils, I simple ran ./configure, and the script 
detected the ncurses library, ran through and compiled.  Yet, something 
seems amuck because:

root@ts7000:root# ldd /bin/alsamixer
        libasound.so.2 => /lib/libasound.so.2 (0x2aac8000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x2ab6f000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x2abe9000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x2abf3000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x2ac4b000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x2aaab000)

Whereas on my Linux Intel laptop:

awn:~$ ldd /usr/bin/alsamixer
        libncurses.so.5 => /lib/libncurses.so.5 (0x4002c000)
        libasound.so.2 => /usr/lib/libasound.so.2 (0x40069000)
        libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4010d000)
        libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40130000)
        libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x40133000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40184000)
        /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)

So I have two questions:

1.  How might ensure proper linking of the ncurses library.
2.  Is there another way to tell alsa to activate various cards, set 
volume, etc.. so I can test to see if the alsa driver is even working on 
this board.

Thanks,

Dave Topper

-- 
Technical Director - Virginia Center for Computer Music
http://www.virginia.edu/music/VCCM/

Re: Problem with ncurses and alsamixer (cannot open terminal: vt100 or xterm)

[Takashi Iwai]

At Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:34:12 -0400,
David Topper wrote:
> 
> I finally managed to get the alsa-1.0.4 utils to compile on an ARM based 
> SBC.  When I launch alsamixer, however, I get an error:
> 
> Error opening terminal:  xterm
> 
> When I ssh into the board.  Or:
> 
> Error opening terminal:  vt100
> 
> When connected via serial cable.
> 
> I suspect this has something to do with the linking (or lack thereof) of 
> alsamixer for ncurses.  The ncurrses library, by the way, I cross 
> compiled with the following command:
> 
> CC=/opt/crosstool/arm-unknown-linux-gnu/gcc-3.3.4-glibc-2.3.2/bin/arm-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc 
> ./configure --host=arm-linux --prefix=/home/topper/ts-packages/ 
> --exec-prefix=/home/topper/ts-packages/
> 
> But for the alsa utils, I simple ran ./configure, and the script 
> detected the ncurses library, ran through and compiled.  Yet, something 
> seems amuck because:
> 
> root@ts7000:root# ldd /bin/alsamixer
>         libasound.so.2 => /lib/libasound.so.2 (0x2aac8000)
>         libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x2ab6f000)
>         libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x2abe9000)
>         libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x2abf3000)
>         libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x2ac4b000)
>         /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x2aaab000)
> 
> Whereas on my Linux Intel laptop:
> 
> awn:~$ ldd /usr/bin/alsamixer
>         libncurses.so.5 => /lib/libncurses.so.5 (0x4002c000)
>         libasound.so.2 => /usr/lib/libasound.so.2 (0x40069000)
>         libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6 (0x4010d000)
>         libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x40130000)
>         libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x40133000)
>         libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x40184000)
>         /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)
> 
> So I have two questions:
> 
> 1.  How might ensure proper linking of the ncurses library.

Give --with-curses option.
You might be using non-standard curses library.

> 2.  Is there another way to tell alsa to activate various cards, set 
> volume, etc.. so I can test to see if the alsa driver is even working on 
> this board.

Use amixer to list/set/get mixer elements only with command line.

And, above all:

3. any reason to use the ancient ALSA 1.0.4?


Takashi