"Audio device" problems and lockups

[AngusM]

I'm having trouble with my sound device in Suse 11.1 (AMD64, w/all the updates). When I first log in I get some message about some audio device not working so another one has to be fallen back upon. I only have a few seconds to read it, and the geniuses who wrote that program don't appear to be logging the message anywhere. I think this might be the source of other problems I've been having, like my system locking up due to some infinite loop that causes increasing degrees of thrashing. I should point out that the sound I play is through these speakers attached to a USB port. They *almsot* always work, but again, I think I'm suffering from lockups sometimes, and I think they are when the system is trying to play a sound.

Here's some of hte output from lspci -vv:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: Elitegroup Computer Systems Device 2635
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: Memory at fe9d8000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=55mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Count=1/1 Enable-
Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
Capabilities: [70] Express (v1) Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <64ns, L1 <1us
ExtTag- RBE- FLReset+
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr- FatalErr- UnsuppReq- AuxPwr+ TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed unknown, Width x0, ASPM unknown, Latency L0 <64ns, L1 <1us
ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; Disabled- Retrain- CommClk-
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed unknown, Width x0, TrErr- Train- SlotClk- DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel <?>
Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link <?>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc RV630/M76 audio device [Radeon HD 2600 Series]
Subsystem: PC Partner Limited Device aa08
Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 17
Region 0: Memory at feaec000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1+ D2+ AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
Capabilities: [58] Express (v1) Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
DevCap: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, Latency L0s <4us, L1 unlimited
ExtTag+ AttnBtn- AttnInd- PwrInd- RBE+ FLReset-
DevCtl: Report errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
RlxdOrd+ ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
DevSta: CorrErr- UncorrErr+ FatalErr- UnsuppReq+ AuxPwr- TransPend-
LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, ASPM L0s L1, Latency L0 <64ns, L1 <1us
ClockPM- Suprise- LLActRep- BwNot-
LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes Disabled- Retrain- CommClk+
ExtSynch- ClockPM- AutWidDis- BWInt- AutBWInt-
LnkSta: Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x16, TrErr- Train- SlotClk+ DLActive- BWMgmt- ABWMgmt-
Capabilities: [a0] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Count=1/1 Enable-
Address: 0000000000000000 Data: 0000
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information <?>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
(there must be some sound device attached to my video card, because taht's what an HD2600 is)

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by AngusM

I'm having trouble with my sound device in Suse 11.1 (AMD64, w/all the updates). When I first log in I get some message about some audio device not working so another one has to be fallen back upon.

I believe this is a known bug and that a number of users have reported this. There are a more than a few threads here, where users have posted solutions that worked for them:

• Sound Problem - openSUSE Forums
• Phonon error - openSUSE Forums
• openSUSE Forums - View Single Post - openSUSE 11.1 display and audio problems

I think I've seen other "solutions" as well, but a quick search did not reveal it (I probably had the wrong search parameters).

Your "thrashing" is likely something else.

First, for the "thrashing", I recommend you remove the application beagle. All the beagle apps. Go to YaST > Software > Software management, and change the "filter" to search, find beagle, and remove it!

Beagle is indexing your hard driver and it will happily spend eons doing that. Your call. Me, I want to USE my hard drive as opposed to having beagle tie it up for eons.

Reference additional audio hiccups, please read our audio troubleshooting guide: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE

In particular, please follow the SPEAKER TESTS in that guide.

And finally, far more useful audio information can be obtained by running the diagnostic script:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

while it is nominally run as a regular user, to update the script it must be run with root permissions.

[AngusM]

Originally Posted by oldcpu

I believe this is a known bug and that a number of users have reported this. There are a more than a few threads here, where users have posted solutions that worked for them:

• Sound Problem - openSUSE Forums
• Phonon error - openSUSE Forums
• openSUSE Forums - View Single Post - openSUSE 11.1 display and audio problems

I think I've seen other "solutions" as well, but a quick search did not reveal it (I probably had the wrong search parameters).

These didn't really help very much. They seem to be more related to specific issues like Amarok which is not mine. They did, however, lead me to find the right names for the devices:
HDA Intel (ALC1200 Analog) <==-- this one didn't work
HDAATI HDMI, ATI HDMI (HDMI Audio Output) <==-- this was the fallback

Your "thrashing" is likely something else.

First, for the "thrashing", I recommend you remove the application beagle. All the beagle apps. Go to YaST > Software > Software management, and change the "filter" to search, find beagle, and remove it!

Ok, Beagle's gone, but only because it never did me any good, not because I think it is the culprit. These things seemed to happen around the time that a sound event was supposed to occur. They did not occur at regular intervals.

Reference additional audio hiccups, please read our audio troubleshooting guide: SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE

In particular, please follow the SPEAKER TESTS in that guide.

It seems I only have sound coming out of one speaker. I don't know if that's because the other is broken, or a software problem This is one sick puppy I have here. I don't mind that so much, since I only use this computer for work, but the thrashing is not acceptable. I wonder if it has something to do w/this pulseaudio thing.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by AngusM

They did, however, lead me to find the right names for the devices:
HDA Intel (ALC1200 Analog) <==-- this one didn't work
HDAATI HDMI, ATI HDMI (HDMI Audio Output) <==-- this was the fallback

When an error, that is repeatable, scrolls by too fast for me, I simply pull out my small portable digital camera, put it to movie mode, and record while reproducing the error. A simply playback, and voila - there is the error message.

As noted, far more useful audio information can be obtained by running the diagnostic script:

/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

while it is nominally run as a regular user, to update the script it must be run with root permissions.