[EN] [SOLVED]: no sound since install

[HunkirDowne]

I really don't mind the silent treatment so much most of the time, but occassionally I want sound.  I am not muted.  Sound worked on a test a while back using phonon after reading vilde's initial post.  But though the test worked, I got no sound from apps/browsers.
http://forum.siduction.org/index.php?msg=26490#26490

Here's my config.
$ inxi -v3

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System:    Host: siductionbox Kernel: 3.7-6.towo-siduction-686 i686 (32 bit, gcc: 4.7.2)
           Desktop: KDE 4.8.4 (Qt 4.8.2) Distro: siduction 12.1.1 Desperado Reloaded - kde - (201206241910)
Machine:   System: Dell product: Inspiron 1525
           Mobo: Dell model: 0U990C Bios: Dell version: A13 date: 06/27/2008
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo CPU T5750 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 7979.52
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000.00 MHz 2: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) bus-ID: 00:02.0
           X.Org: 1.12.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.5 Direct Rendering: Yes
Network:   Card-1: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: b43-pci-bridge bus-ID: 0b:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:1f:e1:c8:68:6e
           Card-2: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller driver: sky2 ver: 1.30 port: de00 bus-ID: 09:00.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:21:9b:df:35:53
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (11.1% used) 1: model: TOSHIBA_MK2552GS
Info:      Processes: 175 Uptime: 1:47 Memory: 805.9/3032.4MB Runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.7.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.2.37) inxi: 1.8.27
$ lspci -vvnn|grep -i audio

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00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller [8086:284b] (rev 02)

$ lsmod|grep snd

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snd_hda_codec_idt      39909  1
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     21428  1
snd_hda_intel          20901  1
snd_hda_codec          63792  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep               4140  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm_oss            27127  1
snd_mixer_oss          10439  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                50208  4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          5155  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_seq_dummy           1084  0
snd_seq_oss            21169  0
snd_seq_midi            3593  0
snd_seq_midi_event      3621  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi            12930  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                35496  6 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device          3966  5 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer              12307  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd                    37276  15 snd_pcm_oss,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_device,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_midi
soundcore               3507  2 snd

Thing is, I see oss and read somewhere that I needed to unload the oss modules.  But elsewhere I read alsa picks up the oss OK now.  My searches of the Debian Wiki, unofficial Alsa Wiki, and others (including here) have been fruitless.

I have another OS (or two) on this box so I know the hardware is functional.

Almost forgot.
$ aplay -l

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**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 7: STAC92xx Digital [STAC92xx Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
At this point I'm rather somewhat confused and could use a little help.  Again, not a big rush or bother but something I'd like to get fixed eventually.

[dibl]

Hi, and welcome to siduction forum!

I'm not the master of Linux sound, but my hardware is close enough to yours that I might be able to help.  I have:

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00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller


So, your list of loaded modules looks almost exactly like mine.  The difference being that your chip is a sigmatel so you have snd_hda_codec_idt and mine is a realtek so I have snd_hda_codec_realtek.  I think everything else is the same.

OSS is irrelevant -- if you have alsa-base and (optional) alsamixergui installed, then your system can handle all common audio files.

You're a KDE user, so you have phonon installed.  In settings > systemsettings > multimedia, highlight "Phonon", and under "Audio Playback" highlight "music", and what do you see in the right panel? If you see "Built-In Audio Analog Stereo", make sure that is at the top of the list, then press the "Test" button in the lower part of that right panel.  Does it play a sound?

[HunkirDowne]

Hi, and welcome to siduction forum!

Thanks much!  I've actually been in some forum of sorts since the late sidux days but lurking mostly.  I don't get out much.  ;-)

OSS is irrelevant -- if you have alsa-base and (optional) alsamixergui installed, then your system can handle all common audio files.

Good to know.  I don't have the gui but might end up installing it and possibly vlc (which I usually do).  I have the vlc backend stuff, but not the player interface.

You're a KDE user, so you have phonon installed.  In settings > systemsettings > multimedia, highlight "Phonon", and under "Audio Playback" highlight "music", and what do you see in the right panel? If you see "Built-In Audio Analog Stereo", make sure that is at the top of the list, then press the "Test" button in the lower part of that right panel.  Does it play a sound?

When VLC was my backend, I saw nothing but Simultaenous and Dummy.  I had Simultaneous active and Dummy was greyed out, but changed that in PulseAudio because nothing ever seemed to ever work with Simultaneous active.  Occassionally I will pass a Phonon test with Dummy but it is sporadic at best and mp3's don't play (Kaffeine) nor does any sound come out of my browsers.

With GStreamer as my backend I have had no real success but have a lot of devices listed.

1. HDA Intel (STAC92xx Analog)
2. HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog (Default Audio Device)
3. Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
4. HDA Intel, STAC92xx Digital (HDMI Audio Output)
5. HDA Intel, HDMI 0 (HDMI Audio Output) -- greyed out
6. default
7. hw:0,0
8. hw:0,3
9. hw:0,7
10. HDA Intel (HDMI 0)
11. HDA Intel (STAC92xx Digital)

At one point, I had successful tests (but no sound elsewhere) with 1., 2., 6., 7., 8., and 10. all in the same session.  But since I didn't have sound in my apps (KMix: Dummy output the cause?) I went playing around and lost even the test sound.  I thought I was keeping track but now think that I should have rebooted or at least logged out more often.

The presence and contents of ~/.asoundrc seem to be immediate with no log-out or restart required.  Changing the backend in Phonon tells you to log-out and I do but on the way out I noticed that the change was apparent.

I *am* in the audio group, by the way.

Still scratching my head and at this stage in life there isn't much hair left.  :-D

Probably the biggest reason for solving the issue with sound now is the education I am getting along the way.  As I said earlier I know where to get sound if I have to have it.  But favoring KDE and Debian like I do (different reasons for both) I found what is now siduction to fit me best due to it's functionality without the package 'spamminess' of other distros.  (Still don't like all that has to be loaded for Chrome, but I digress.)

Thanks again.  I appreciate your help.

[dibl]

Hmmmm --- no ~/.asoundrc here, on 2 KDE systems that I checked. So I would suggest

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mv .asoundrc .asoundrc_bak

and either reboot or go to init 3 and back to init 5 to restart X. Then take another look in your phonon systemsettings and see if anything has changed.

If you still don't see the Built-In Analog Stereo device, or nothing on the list will pass the test, then I suggest you open a terminal, "sux" to root, and do this:

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cd ~/
wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

That will write a report in /tmp named alsa-info.txt.{random} that you can review. It should show everything needed about your hardware, running driver, relevant sound software, etc. It might yield something helpful.

Here I have had great luck with the gstreamer back end so I never tried VLC. Rather than try to learn exactly which gstreamer0.10 packages I actually need, I just install all of them. A lot of the siduction users don't like pulseaudio, but I use it all the time on my desktop system -- I'm presently recording my 200-album record collection from the 1970s and 80s and pulseaudio handles switching between speakers and headset, and between audio inputs very smoothly.

[HunkirDowne]

If you still don't see the Built-In Analog Stereo device, or nothing on the list will pass the test, then I suggest you open a terminal, "sux" to root, and do this:

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cd ~/
wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

That will write a report in /tmp named alsa-info.txt.{random} that you can review. It should show everything needed about your hardware, running driver, relevant sound software, etc. It might yield something helpful.

A few minor questions follow, but first, thanks.  I am going to boot into stable to see how the script outputs compare.

Minor questions:
1. I am assuming you had me sux into root to allow the script to gather the hardware info that might not be available to an unprivileged user.  Is this correct?

2. I hadn't noticed it before, but got a warning during boot that I cannot find with dmesg.  Essentially something about alsa being peruser.  Ring a bell?  Indication of a problem?

3. When I sux'd into root I received the message quoted below.  If this is a non-issue, no worries.  Otherwise, I will open a thread in software.

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<user>@<machine>:~$ sux
Password:
bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash: no job control in this shell
root@<machine>:/home/<user>#


Thanks

[dibl]

 I am going to boot into stable to see how the script outputs compare.

Great idea!

Minor questions:
1. I am assuming you had me sux into root to allow the script to gather the hardware info that might not be available to an unprivileged user.  Is this correct?

Yes.

2. I hadn't noticed it before, but got a warning during boot that I cannot find with dmesg.  Essentially something about alsa being peruser.  Ring a bell?  Indication of a problem?

That is "normal" (in the Linux sense of "normal").  The relevant dmesg lines will be in the text file in /tmp if you run that alsa script.

3. When I sux'd into root I received the message quoted below.  If this is a non-issue, no worries.  Otherwise, I will open a thread in software.

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<user>@<machine>:~$ sux
Password:
bash: cannot set terminal process group (-1): Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash: no job control in this shell
root@<machine>:/home/<user>#


Yes, that is another "expected" behavior that has some long historical story behind it, if you care to chase it (I didn't).

[HunkirDowne]

I ran the script.  Lots of information.  I could post it here, but I won't unless specifically asked and then probably only as an attachment.  Just my notes alone are 4-5 pages.

A very brief summary of script results, test results, and my own reckoning is that I see potential issues with my setup.  KMix shows "Dummy Output" with all emnpty check boxes in PulseAudio Preferences, which is the way I remember finding it.  I did check Simultaneous Output at one point but do not recall ever having a successful test with that setting.

Another thing I noticed and confirmed in the output is that I have two sound servers: PulseAudio and RoarAudio.  Would these conflict?

Right now Phonon produces a positive test result with the preferred device, "HDA Intel, STAC92xx Analog (Default Audio Device)".  Although the test "passes", KMix (Dummy Output) volume changes do not effect the volume of the test and the only thing that has ever played a sound on this installation is Phonon.

Here are a few lines from dmesg I thought might be of some interest.

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[   50.888019] encoder not enabled
[   50.888138] Pid: 3185, comm: Xorg Tainted: G        W    3.7-7.towo-siduction-686 #1
[   50.968588] wrong connector dpms state
[   50.969054] active connector not linked to encoder
[   50.969512] encoder->connectors_active not set

If you would like to see my notes or my output file, just let me know.  I have never posted with an attachment, nor have I seen a post with an attachment that I can recall.  But if it means taking up "real estate" in the visible part of the thread, I'm a bit hesitant.

Continued thanks!

[dibl]

I confess -- I never heard of RoarAudio.  But there it is in Debian:

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root@imerabox:/home/don# apt-cache policy roaraudio
roaraudio:
  Installed: (none)
  Candidate: 1.0~beta2-3
  Version table:
     1.0~beta8-1 0
          1 http://cdn.debian.net/debian/ experimental/main amd64 Packages
     1.0~beta2-3 0
        500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://http.debian.net/debian/ unstable/main amd64 Packages

A quick review of their web site suggests to me that it is trying to do the same function as pulseaudio -- serve as a middle layer between the player/recorder and the sound chip driver. I've never used it and have no clue about its capabilities -- so I'm no help with it.  It might be conflicting with pulseaudio and/or phonon.  

[michaa7]

...
Another thing I noticed and confirmed in the output is that I have two sound servers: PulseAudio and RoarAudio.  Would these conflict?...

I'd recommend to *purge* RoarAudio (not only uninstall it) as it complicates your setup in a way nobody here can reproduce.

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apt-get purge roaraudio* libroar0(after purging restart your soundserver alsa/pulse or reboot)

As dibl mentioned the use of Pulseaudio isn't encouraged with siduction due to the fact that it doesn't work properly on all installations. But it's also true that some users have no problems at all with this package.

A setup with roaraudio purged would allow for testing whether or not your pulseaudio setup works. After you verify it works or after getting it to work you may decide whether or not you still like or need to install RoarAudio again (with it's additional complications of your setup).

[HunkirDowne]

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apt-get purge roaraudio* libroar0(after purging restart your soundserver alsa/pulse or reboot)

As dibl mentioned the use of Pulseaudio isn't encouraged with siduction due to the fact that it doesn't work properly on all installations. But it's also true that some users have no problems at all with this package.

This seems to be solved.  Marking as such.  Had to do a little more than what was suggested by michaa7 but that was certainly the right track for my solution.

Purged roaraudio and rebooted as suggested above.  Noticed muroard on boot.  This is part of RoarAudio and there were other hangers on as well.  I didn't jot down all the packages that I removed but essentially searching the dpkg list for 'roar' should get all the necessary stuff.

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dpkg --get-selections|grep roar

Thanks michaa7 and thanks dibl!

End Notes

My setup is sufficiently similar to dibl's that PulseAudio evidently works, but sufficiently dissimilar that RoarAudio causes me problems (but evidently not for dibl).

I finally was pleased to see that KMix now shows "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" as my preferred device.  Didn't both opening Phonon but I did run alsa-info script to capture my setup now.

At this point, as I said above, this is solved.  I just played an mp3 in Kaffeine so any other lack of sound (browser) will be a software issue and posted there.  Haven't tried browser sound yet.

Final Statements

This may help someone else, but I suspect that my setup is unique to Siduction, but not to Linux in general.  The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1525 which is similar to the model Dell was using to ship Ubuntu on.

My caution to others (and to myself) is to keep a record of what changes you make so you can back track.  I didn't do this religiously this time around and it cost me more time than it would had I kept better notes.

Again many thanks!

[michaa7]

...
This seems to be solved.  Marking as such.  ...

Fine you got it solved (and marked it as such ;-) ).

One final question: Why did you install roaraudio (it's not part of the iso and it was for me the first time (as it was for dibl) that I heard about it)?

[dibl]

I was curious about that too.  It looks like RoarAudio is "beta" software, although perhaps everything in sid could be considered that way.   :roll:

[HunkirDowne]

One final question: Why did you install roaraudio (it's not part of the iso and it was for me the first time (as it was for dibl) that I heard about it)?

I have no idea why I installed RoarAudio.

Either it came with the ISO (sounds like that would be a 'no') or it came with something else I installed.  Not really sure.

My first guess would have been Google Chrome, but I didn't see it in the list of dependencies.  Looking through my apps I see nothing that stands out.  
 :?:

I found a 2012-12-05 entry in /var/log/dpkg.log.2 that contains roaraudio and essentially every other sound component mentioned.  In addition, I see libreoffice being "status installed".  The earliest entry I see is December 02 but I thought I had installed siduction prior to that, but maybe not.

I typically add very few things to siduction, but libreoffice and chrome are pretty normal additions for me as far as gui apps go.

[michaa7]

Strange, I have installed chromium (I assume this is what you meant as chrome isn't part of Debian) and LO, too.

Anyway, next time something suggests roaraudio you should be warned.

[HunkirDowne]

Strange, I have installed chromium (I assume this is what you meant as chrome isn't part of Debian) and LO, too.

Anyway, next time something suggests roaraudio you should be warned.

No doubt!  :-D

Chrome, yes, google-chrome-stable.  I had been having issues with chromium in LinuxMint so I switched to chrome-stable and just went that direction here as well.  LinuxMint "ships" with Firefox but I was having issues with Iceweasel's antiquity in Debian Squeeze but out of the three distros, I use that the least.  Iceweasel here in Siduction is far more up-to-date and I haven't had issue one and thus no reason to change.

I guess this gets down to my basic philosophy about installing packages and that is I usually do not do so in Siduction unless it is something I consider a necessary addition or change.  I like things rather spartan and have had only one 'breakage' with sidux/aptosid/siduction that I couldn't repair.  Oddly enough it was after the most recent fork but I hadn't yet clued in to the existence of siduction and found it almost by accident.  Anyway, I will exit ramble mode for now.  :-D