11.0 Sound. Mixer works but PCM doesn't anymore

English Hardware
1

Hi

My sound has worked perfectly for ages. Last night, it stopped. I can still use alsamixer to route analog audio from line in to the Master or Surround outputs, and the sliders change the volume as one would expect, and I can hear the sound playing and change in volume.

My applications e.g. mplayer & amarok, play back without complaining, progress bars move along the timeline, but I can’t hear anything.

I’ve followed SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE as far as I can tell. YaST and alsaconf appear to work, but I can’t hear the test sound.

I’ve done what oldcpu recommends below - here’s hoping someone will take pity on me. :’(

Here's the output of
wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=df43c6134f051c306d970cfbe92d1d8b40e5cd85

and

rpm -qa | grep alsa
rpm -qa | grep pulse
rpm -q libasound2
uname -a
cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

/home/shevek> rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsa-oss-1.0.15-48.1
alsa-devel-1.0.16-39.1
alsa-utils-1.0.16-35.1
cairo-dock-alsaMixer-1.6.3-3.pm.20081109
alsa-oss-32bit-1.0.15-48.1
alsa-1.0.16-39.1
alsa-plugins-1.0.16-57.1
/home/shevek> rpm -qa | grep pulse
libpulse0-0.9.10-26.5
libpulse0-32bit-0.9.10-26.5
/home/shevek> rpm -q libasound2
libasound2-1.0.16-39.1
/home/shevek> uname -a
Linux gojira 2.6.25.18-0.2-default #1 SMP 2008-10-21 16:30:26 +0200 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
/home/shevek> cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound

options snd slots=snd-intel8x0
# 8otl.tk40_L_Scd3:KN8-Ultra Mainboard
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
2

Do you know what you were doing, or what you did before it stopped? Did you update your kernel? Play with your video card?

I note in your mixer you have Master Mono OFF and at 0% volume. You have your smixer control pointed to a digital input (IEC958) but you have digital input OFF at 0%. Is that what you intended ?

I searched alsa for the ALC850 (which according to the script is in your PC) but I only see one update since 1.0.16 of alsa re: the ALC850: Search results for ALC850 - AlsaProject

Have you rebooted since this problem started? Did you try to restart your sound with su -c 'rcalsasound retart’

I think you should focus on your mixer. Also make certain your video cutting card is not causing problems.

3

It’s possible PackageKit may have updated something (it just works) but I think my problems started when I installed VLC. I haven’t messed with the video card.

My audio is simple analog in and out, no fancy digital stuff.

I’ve tried various restarts, and the sound card makes a thump as it starts, but still nothing comes out when playing.

I’ve checked that the sound hardware still works because I can get YaST to play the test sound from a 10.3 Live CD.

What’s crazy is that I’ve been running 11.0 for months. It’s going to be one little change in a file somewhere …

4

KJ44> It’s going to be one little change in a file somewhere …
oldcpu> I think you should focus on your mixer.

I have a machine at work, which as a precaution, I built from the same hardware as my homebox, and it also runs openSUSE 11.0 …

To cut a long story short, one file was missing or corrupt or changed. I copied it back and my homebox is making lovely music again!

Moral of story: *** backup this file ***

/etc/asound.state

Use “sudo alsactl restore” to pickup the contents of the file without rebooting. Mine works after reboot too, I just made sure of that.

Many thanks to oldcpu. :slight_smile: