Kernel module snd_usb_audio does not load

English Multimedia
#1

I have a sound device off the USB that is not detected. I was able to use the device when I had Fedora 19 installed previously. LEAP 42.1 appears to have a missing module conf file for snd-usb-audio and its dependencies. I couldn’t find a package that would have the needed module conf files.

I can verify that the kernel modules are installed and available. I’m not real whippy at how I should construct the conf file. Any help would be appreciated. Here is some information collected in my analysis.

truth:/etc/modprobe.d # ls
00-system.conf               50-alsa.conf       50-bluetooth.conf  50-iwl3945.conf  50-sound.conf            50-yast.conf
10-unsupported-modules.conf  50-blacklist.conf  50-ipw2200.conf    50-prism54.conf  50-sound.conf.YaST2save  99-local.conf
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # grep midi *
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # modinfo snd_usb_audio | egrep "filename:|depends:"
filename:       /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usb-audio.ko
depends:        snd-usbmidi-lib,snd-pcm,usbcore,snd,snd-hwdep
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # file /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usb-audio.ko
/lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usb-audio.ko: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), BuildID[sha1]=266a564638f9385c90c16231948e562139f55080, not stripped
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # modinfo snd_usbmidi_lib | egrep "filename:|depends:"
filename:       /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usbmidi-lib.ko
depends:        usbcore,snd-rawmidi,snd
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # file /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usbmidi-lib.ko
/lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/usb/snd-usbmidi-lib.ko: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), BuildID[sha1]=e8e87fc02429eb8d3a9ae56453d62f957f4326fd, not stripped
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # modinfo snd_rawmidi | egrep "filename:|depends:"
filename:       /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/core/snd-rawmidi.ko
depends:        snd,snd-seq-device
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # file /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/core/snd-rawmidi.ko
/lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/core/snd-rawmidi.ko: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), BuildID[sha1]=53507499f3b001618c2f014fb10e2e2db54afec8, not stripped
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # modinfo snd_seq_device | egrep "filename:|depends:"
filename:       /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/core/seq/snd-seq-device.ko
depends:        snd
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # file /lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/core/seq/snd-seq-device.ko
/lib/modules/4.1.31-30-default/kernel/sound/core/seq/snd-seq-device.ko: ELF 64-bit LSB relocatable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), BuildID[sha1]=01cc0ba6a5cacc48c2de818cac48eb4982602419, not stripped
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # grep usb-audio /etc/modprobe.d/*
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # grep midi /etc/modprobe.d/*
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # cat 50-alsa.conf 
install snd /sbin/install-snd-module snd $CMDLINE_OPTS
install snd-pcm /sbin/install-snd-module snd-pcm $CMDLINE_OPTS
install snd-seq /sbin/install-snd-module snd-seq $CMDLINE_OPTS
truth:/etc/modprobe.d # lsmod | egrep "usb|midi"
usbhid                 53248  0 
usbcore               262144  4 uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid
usb_common             16384  1 usbcore
#2

Can you configure it in Yast-sound??

Does it show in lsusb???

#3

Thanks for your reply. The first attempt was to try using Yast sound, assuming the device was already discovered. It can only deal with devices already attached and discoverable. If a device is not discoverable, then it is likely a kernel issue of which deals with the hardware abstraction. “lsusb” does not show the device as well.

Backtracking to see why the device couldn’t be found is when I saw that the module wasn’t being inserted in the kernel. The “lsmod | grep usb” should have shown “snd-usb-audio” somewhere in the list. Looking at the kernel module configuration files at /etc/modprobe.d, there was no usb audio or its dependencies defined for inclusion. This is rather murky in that some modules are inserted by default others you have to configure for it. Looks to me that the relevant package did not have the correct conf file included since it evidently doesn’t load by default.

Do you have a usb audio device that you are using? If so, are there config entries in your /etc/modprobe.d? If you don’t mind sharing those conf files, I’d be grateful as well as save time from performing a trial and error experiment.

Thanks again.

#4

So, if you load the module manually (with the USB attached obviously), do you then have working sound?

sudo modprobe snd-usb-audio

Try configuring like this…
YaST > Hardware > Sound > Add > Generic > USB > Audio, Click ‘Next’, and follow the prompts…

#5

BTW, as gogalthorp already mentioned, the usb device should be enumerated by ‘lsusb’ (or ‘usb-devices’) regardless of whether there is kernel support for that device or not. It’s always a good place to start when obtaining support, especially with respect to chipset details.