Audio suddently stops working

Hello guys.

I’ve been an openSUSE (and Linux) user for about six months and since the beginning i’ve had a problem with audio. I think it’s not serious but it has become really annoying.

The problem is this: My audio works correctly for everything, but sometimes it stops working for no reason and while i’m doing nothing out of the ordinary. I fix this problem by restarting the computer, but when you are working on something important it is not very nice to do this.

This has occurred to me like about 20 times since i use openSUSE.

I would like to know how to fix this problem permanently or, at least, how to fix it temporarily without having to restart the computer each time.

Thanks.

You are already longer on the forums and I hope you have already looked around here now and then. Thus I guess you will be aware of the fact that potential helpers like it very much to get information on what you use, etc.

Thus the old magical spell: “What version of openSUSE, what DE, which Audio application(s), …”

Yeah, sorry. I have installed opneSUSE 12.2 with XFCE. And the info I could find about the sound card is this: hda intel pch.

I think someone told me you could store this information permanently in your account so it shows up in every message you post. I will do that immediately.

Thanks.

Settings (top right) ==> My Settings(left center) ==> Edit Signature Note:- you should update this information everytime you change your openSUSE configuration.

And that highlights the problem of having it in your signature. When you update it, it will show the updated version also in old threads. And thus a thread started when the signature said 11.4 will now show 12.3 and consequently could be nonsense now.

What could be useful is to collect some information when your PC audio is working, and then also collect some information when your PC audio is not working. And then compare the two pieces of information.

I propose when your PC audio is working, with your PC connected to the internet, in a terminal/bash shell, run the following diagnostic script which collects audio information and uploads it to the Internet to permit sharing of the information:


/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

select the UPLOAD/SHARE option and let the script run to completion. When completed it will give you a website/URL location where the information is located. Post that link here in this thread.

Also when your PC audio is working, run the following command in a terminal to see what audio applications are using your sound devices:


lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*

that will establish a baseline when audio works. You may get something like:


lsof: status error on /dev/dsp*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/audio*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/mixer*: No such file or directory
COMMAND    PID   USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
pulseaudi 4383 oldcpu   22u   CHR  116,9      0t0 9657 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 4383 oldcpu   27u   CHR  116,9      0t0 9657 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 4383 oldcpu   33u   CHR  116,3      0t0 6649 /dev/snd/controlC1

copy that content here also.

Then wait until audio stops working.

When audio stops working do the same again , … ie with your PC connected to the internet, in a terminal/bash shell, run the following diagnostic script which collects audio information and uploads it to the Internet to permit sharing of the information:


/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

select the UPLOAD/SHARE option and let the script run to completion. When completed it will give you a website/URL location where the information is located. Post that link here in this thread.

Also when your PC audio is NOT working, run the following command in a terminal to see what audio applications are using your sound devices:


lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*

again post the output here. Then we can compare the content of the two (ie when audio is working to when audio is not working).