WelcomeWelcome | FAQFAQ | DownloadsDownloads | WikiWiki

Author Topic: cmus cannot initialise output plug-in  (Read 84 times)

Offline kjpetrie

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 3
cmus cannot initialise output plug-in
« on: May 25, 2026, 04:37:59 PM »
When I try to launch cmus I get a rapidly flashing white bar with a flashing red error message about not being able to initialise any output plug-in. It is very difficult to read.

Any idea what could cause that?
Core Plus Frugal on an eeePC 701 with 512MB RAM

Offline Rich

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12786
Re: cmus cannot initialise output plug-in
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2026, 05:04:29 PM »
Hi kjpetrie
Welcome to the forum.

Did you install and set up alsa.tcz?

Or if you prefer, pulseadio or pipewire.

Offline kjpetrie

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: cmus cannot initialise output plug-in
« Reply #2 on: May 25, 2026, 05:50:07 PM »
Thanks,

I have now, and I can even get cmus to launch and 'play', but whatever I do with alsamixer I can't actually hear the output. I get a loud pop when the file starts to play but nothing else.

I was previously using Puppy Linux on this old machine but it took so long to boot I decided to try something else, so I know it was working until now. I expect there's something missing I need to install or initialise. I've already discovered dependencies don't always get picked up.
Core Plus Frugal on an eeePC 701 with 512MB RAM

Offline Rich

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12786
Re: cmus cannot initialise output plug-in
« Reply #3 on: May 25, 2026, 07:51:40 PM »

Offline kjpetrie

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 3
Re: cmus cannot initialise output plug-in
« Reply #4 on: Today at 05:00:19 PM »
It certainly did. I'm now listening to some Bach while I type this.

However I still get a loud pop as it begins to play. That needs tidying up as it sounds messy and won't do the speakers any good.

Also, I still get a crash/loop every time I launch cmus for the first time so something's still not quite right. If I close the terminal, delete the socket and launch again it works, so it might be an initialisation problem of some sort.

But thanks for your help. We're getting there.
Core Plus Frugal on an eeePC 701 with 512MB RAM