Help with Syba sound card VT1720

English Hardware
#1

Hello, I am a novice Linux user, and this is my first post here.

I installed a new sound card to a openSuSE 13.1 x64 install. The sound card is Syba SD-PEX63034, and uses the Via VT1723 (Envy24DT) chip.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829186003

The card appears in Yast2 as VT1720/24 and is configured as sound card 0, using driver snd-ice1724

In KMix, the sound is not muted. When the mute button is selected/unselected, a slight pop noise is audible over the speakers.
However, no sound is produced from the card.
It is a new card, and verified working in Windows on the same hardware environment.
No sound is produced on openSuSE 12.2 LiveCD, nor Fedora 20 LiveCD, nor SimplyMEPIS 6.0 LiveCD (though I had to disable ACPI to get that one to boot).

So…wrong driver? Unsupported card? Or…?

Please let me know what to try.

#2

wow…and now, it is suddenly working. I don’t know why, I don’t think that I made any change.

very strange

thanks for looking, it seems to work now, but if there is another problem, then I will return to this thread.

#3

Now the sound does not work

I didn’t change any setting. How can it not work, work, not work? :frowning:

#4

A change in mixer settings can explain this.

A change in pulse audio settings can explain this.

Sometimes a mal behaved application can seize the alsa driver, and refuse to share it with pulse audio or with other applications.

The ‘amixer’ command can be used in a terminal/konsole to show the mixer settings to others. For example for ‘card-0’ the command ‘amixer -c0’ and for ‘card-1’ the command ‘amixer -c1’ .

One can also install pavucontrol to better control pulse audio on an application basis, with guidance in these two blogs:

#5

Hi, I read through each of those 2 blogs, and installed pavucontrol. I think the settings are correct, but no sound.

I am thinking maybe there is one mute button somewhere that I don’t know about.

#6

With your PC connected to the internet, could you run the following diagnostic script in a terminal/konsole, select the SHARE/UPLOAD option, and then let the script run to completion. When it is complete in the terminal/konsole it will give you an IP/web address where the script has uploaded the audio configuration of your PC. Could you please copy that location, and paste it here in this thread.


/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh

With that we can take a look at the configuration and see if it gives us any suggestions.

#7

OK, here is the link:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=b95b3bb901560b843a77e4d3193e8ebc61b31f49

#8

I don’t see anything obvious in the mixer.

I note:


!!Aplay/Arecord output
!!--------------------

APLAY

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
**card 0:** ICE1724 [ICEnsemble ICE1724], **device 0:** ICE1724 [ICE1724]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICE1724 [ICEnsemble ICE1724], device 1: ICE1724 IEC958 [ICE1724 IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

which tells me your hardware audio device (ice1724) is either hw:0,0, or if a digital device then it is hw:0,1 .

I am going to assume it is hw:0,0. Do you get sound with the command in a terminal/konsole as a regular user:


speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -l3 -twav

if not, do you get the sound in the same terminal/konsole, but this time with root permissions … ie:


su -c 'speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -l3 -twav'
#9

with either user, the result is:

speaker-test 1.0.27.2

Playback device is hw:0,0
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV files(s)
Playback open error: -l6, Device or resource busy

#10

If I assume that hw:0,0 is the correct device, then that suggests another application has seized the audio device and is refusing to share it. One thing we could try and do is see what this ‘other’ application is, that may have seized the audio (sound) device. Lets check for open files associated with the sound device by listing them. Type the following as a regular user:


lsof /dev/snd/*

For example, on my PC, where I use pulse audio, I typically get:


oldcpu@4770:~> lsof /dev/snd/*
COMMAND    PID   USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
pulseaudi 2649 oldcpu   16u   CHR  116,6      0t0 7771 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 2649 oldcpu   23u   CHR  116,6      0t0 7771 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 2649 oldcpu   29u   CHR 116,15      0t0 7803 /dev/snd/controlC2
pulseaudi 2649 oldcpu   32u   CHR 116,13      0t0 7786 /dev/snd/controlC1
pulseaudi 2649 oldcpu   39u   CHR 116,13      0t0 7786 /dev/snd/controlC1
pulseaudi 2649 oldcpu   45u   CHR 116,13      0t0 7786 /dev/snd/controlC1

Note I ONLY have pulse audio using my audio device. I am curious if this is the same for you.

If you obtain an output that ONLY has pulse audio using the audio device then that may be where we likely need to focus our efforts. In which case go check to see if there is a directory /home/w00tDr/.pulse (I don’t think there will be). But if there is such a directory, then remove it for our test, reboot your PC and test the audio.

#11

OK, if hw:0,0 is analog and hw:0,1 is digital, then I agree that hw:0,0 is correct, because the speakers are analog stereo 2.1

Here is the list of files associated with the sound card. I don’t really understand what these files correspond to:

neon@linux-k280:~> lsof /dev/snd/*
COMMAND    PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
pulseaudi 5323 neon  mem    CHR  116,4          7133 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 5323 neon   20u   CHR  116,6      0t0 7137 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 5323 neon   26u   CHR  116,6      0t0 7137 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 5323 neon   28u   CHR  116,9      0t0 7148 /dev/snd/controlC1
pulseaudi 5323 neon   39u   CHR  116,4      0t0 7133 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
neon@linux-k280:~>

There is no /home/neon/.pulse directory.

#12

What you should get, is something like:


~> speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -l3 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.27.2

Playback device is hw:0,0
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 64 to 262144
Period size range from 32 to 131072
Using max buffer size 262144
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 65536
was set buffer_size = 262144
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 5.466245                                                                                                                                                                
 0 - Front Left                                                                                                                                                                           
 1 - Front Right                                                                                                                                                                          
Time per period = 5.469799                                                                                                                                                                
 0 - Front Left                                                                                                                                                                           
 1 - Front Right                                                                                                                                                                          
Time per period = 5.467060

If you reboot , and then send that “speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -l3 -twav” command in a konsole, as the VERY FIRST THING after rebooting, do you still get that same error ?

#13

yes, same error:

                        
neon@linux-k280:~> speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -l3 -twav

speaker-test 1.0.27.2

Playback device is hw:0,0
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Playback open error: -16,Device or resource busy
neon@linux-k280:~>
#14

Maybe PA is busy streaming to the device for some reason.

Try using paply to play this test sound

 paplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

It should execute without error, and hopefully you’ll hear sound. If not, have a look at the PA levels via ‘pavucontrol’.

#15

Further to this, PulseAudio can be checked for current activity

pactl list clients

pactl list sources
#16

It appears to execute, as it runs for about 10s, then returns to the cursor - but no sound.

With pavucontrol open, I see the signal level indicator change as the .wav is played, but no sound.

#17

OK, I’m not sure what to look for, but here is the output:

neon@linux-k280:~> pactl list clients
Client #0
        Driver: module-systemd-login.c
        Owner Module: 20
        Properties:
                application.name = "Login Session 1"
                systemd-login.session = "1"

Client #4
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "KMix"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.process.id = "5368"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "kdeinit4"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"

Client #6
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "KMix"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.process.id = "5119"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "kdeinit4"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"

Client #11
        Driver: module-x11-xsmp.c
        Owner Module: 28
        Properties:
                application.name = "XSMP Session on KDE as 1011cc6d9a7000139863241200000051660021"
                xsmp.vendor = "KDE"
                xsmp.client.id = "1011cc6d9a7000139863241200000051660021"

Client #12
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "Firefox"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                window.x11.screen = "0"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.id = "5485"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "firefox"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"
                application.icon_name = "firefox"

Client #13
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "AudioStream"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.process.id = "5485"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "firefox"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"
                application.icon_name = "firefox"

Client #14
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "Firefox"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.version = "28.0"
                application.icon_name = "firefox"
                application.process.id = "5485"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "firefox"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"

Client #16
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "KNotify"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.icon_name = "knotify"
                application.process.id = "5449"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "knotify4"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"

Client #22
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "PulseAudio Volume Control"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.id = "org.PulseAudio.pavucontrol"
                application.icon_name = "audio-card"
                application.version = "2.0"
                application.process.id = "11633"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "pavucontrol"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"

Client #23
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "PulseAudio Volume Control"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                window.x11.screen = "0"
                application.process.id = "11633"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "pavucontrol"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"
                application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"

Client #25
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "pactl"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.process.id = "11789"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "pactl"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"



neon@linux-k280:~> pactl list sources
Source #0
        State: RUNNING
        Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_03_00.0.analog-stereo.monitor
        Description: Monitor of VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller Analog Stereo
        Driver: module-alsa-card.c
        Sample Specification: s32le 2ch 44100Hz
        Channel Map: front-left,front-right
        Owner Module: 6
        Mute: no
        Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
                balance 0.00
        Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
        Monitor of Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_03_00.0.analog-stereo
        Latency: 0 usec, configured 20000 usec
        Flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
        Properties:
                device.description = "Monitor of VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller Analog Stereo"
                device.class = "monitor"
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "ICEnsemble ICE1724"
                alsa.long_card_name = "ICEnsemble ICE1724 at 0x3080, irq 23"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_ice1724"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:03:00.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:02:00.0/0000:03:00.0/sound/card0"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "1412"
                device.vendor.name = "VIA Technologies Inc."
                device.product.id = "1724"
                device.product.name = "VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller"
                device.string = "0"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        Formats:
                pcm

Source #1
        State: RUNNING
        Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_03_00.0.analog-stereo
        Description: VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller Analog Stereo
        Driver: module-alsa-card.c
        Sample Specification: s32le 2ch 44100Hz
        Channel Map: front-left,front-right
        Owner Module: 6
        Mute: no
        Volume: front-left: 44519 /  68% / -10.08 dB,   front-right: 44519 /  68% / -10.08 dB
                balance 0.00
        Base Volume: 27636 /  42% / -22.50 dB
        Monitor of Sink: n/a
        Latency: 1561 usec, configured 20000 usec
        Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY 
        Properties:
                alsa.resolution_bits = "24"
                device.api = "alsa"
                device.class = "sound"
                alsa.class = "generic"
                alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
                alsa.name = "ICE1724"
                alsa.id = "ICE1724"
                alsa.subdevice = "0"
                alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
                alsa.device = "0"
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "ICEnsemble ICE1724"
                alsa.long_card_name = "ICEnsemble ICE1724 at 0x3080, irq 23"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_ice1724"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:03:00.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0a.0/0000:02:00.0/0000:03:00.0/sound/card0"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "1412"
                device.vendor.name = "VIA Technologies Inc."
                device.product.id = "1724"
                device.product.name = "VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller"
                device.string = "front:0"
                device.buffering.buffer_size = "262144"
                device.buffering.fragment_size = "131072"
                device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
                device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
                device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
                device.description = "VT1720/24 [Envy24PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller Analog Stereo"
                alsa.mixer_name = "VIA Technologies id 83"
                alsa.components = "AC97a:56494183"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        Ports:
                analog-input-mic;input-microphone-1: Microphone / Microphone 1 (priority: 8720)
                analog-input-mic;input-microphone-2: Microphone / Microphone 2 (priority: 8719)
                analog-input-linein: Line In (priority: 8100)
                analog-input-aux: Analog Input (priority: 8000)
                analog-input-video: Video (priority: 7000)
        Active Port: analog-input-mic;input-microphone-1
        Formats:
                pcm
neon@linux-k280:~>
#18

That tells me that your PA configuration is not right. Anything obvious in the ‘Configuration’ tab of pavucontrol?

If PulseAudio is active (eg pavucontol is running or 'pactl list sources; shows ‘State: RUNNING’) then the ALSA ‘speaker-test’ will fail.

I also note the following reported

Client #13
        Driver: protocol-native.c
        Owner Module: 13
        Properties:
                application.name = "AudioStream"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "29"
                application.process.id = "5485"
                application.process.user = "neon"
                application.process.host = "linux-k280"
                application.process.binary = "firefox"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
                application.process.machine_id = "40527be2480f8cf60f4e8d4b000006b0"
                application.process.session_id = "1"
                application.icon_name = "firefox"

Is that sending an audio stream perhaps? Of course, pavucontrol should show it if so.

#19

OK, in pavucontrol, the configuration tab has 2 cards:

  • VT1720/24 [Envy24 PT/HT] PCI Multi-Channel Audio Controller

  • ‘Analog Stereo Duplex’ is selected

  • RV710/730 HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 4000 Series]

  • ‘off’ is selected

I don’t know what client#13 is, or if it is sending streaming audio.

In the pavucontrol Playback tab, there are 3 entries:

  • System Sounds
  • AudioStream : AudioStream
  • AudioStream : AudioStream

All of those are mono and set to 100%

#20

In the pavucontrol Playback tab, there are 3 entries:

  • System Sounds
  • AudioStream : AudioStream
  • AudioStream : AudioStream

All of those are mono and set to 100%

Definitely due to active clients. In any case, PA can cope with multiple streams, so can you report the verbose output?

paplay -v /home/dean/Downloads/sample.wav