No sound devices after successful YaST configuration

English Multimedia
1

I have 2 sound cards: on on board and one Audigy2.

Today I was stupid enough to click Sound in YaST and proceed with Normal configuration when it asked me to install the SoundFonts from the original CD. I gave it the CD and it installed them without problem. Then it suggested to install

alsa-firmwareawesfx

I said ok. There was also the Test button where I could play a test sound. All fine.

However after leaving YaST - there is no more sound. In KMix there are no devices. In System Settings > Multimedia > Audio and Video settings now there is only some PulseAudio Sound Sever where earlier the two sound cards used to display (and had them configured).

What exactly broke and how do I fix it?

2

Don’t know what broke am not there.

Install pavulcontrol and see if you can set things from there. You may just have the wrong card selected

3

Installed pavucontrol. When I run it it says:

“Fatal Error: Unable to connect to PulseAudio: OK”

4

Interesting. After a reboot sound is back (with somewhat slicker interface for KMix).

I guess everything works :slight_smile:

5

Sounds like Pulse did not restart after your change. :\

6

What do you mean? Should it have? Am I to do anything?

7

No it simply did not restart after you made the change thus pavulcontrol failed because it was not running rebooting started it up.

LOL you are not doing anything wrong some glitch just stopped PA

8

Hm :slight_smile: But even after the reboot it still gives the same message although the sound works.

And by the way the system seems to be using alsa, not pulse. When I set SMPlayer to use pulse it can’t play sound.

9

Is PulseAudio actually enabled in YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration?

And yes, you should reboot (or logout/login) after changing that setting. Running applications will not be aware that PulseAudio should now be used or not used any more.
If you disabled PA, it would explain that KMix has a “somewhat slicker interface” after a reboot. It displays all ALSA mixers then, not just the controls for PulseAudio.

If you again have no sound with PA enabled, it looks like a problem in PA or its settings.

10

Right now - no. But before rebooting it was and I tried with either on and off with same lack of result (I wasn’t aware I need to reboot). So in the end I left it on off.

And yes, you should reboot (or logout/login) after changing that setting. Running applications will not be aware that PulseAudio should now be used or not used any more.

Thanks for explaining.

a “somewhat slicker interface” after a reboot.

LOL

BTW do I want to use PA? Does it have any advantages over alsa?

11

Much better then alsa It gives you fine control over volume (setting can be different for different Application) and control over input and output streams for devices and multiple sound cards. You really need it if you want full control.

12

Well, IMHO the main advantage for a “normal” user is that it allows to set the volume for each application independently.

Also, depending on your particular sound card/driver, you might need it for having sound in two different applications at the same time. Although this should also be possible with ALSA on most systems since years.

Some applications may require PA though (Skype e.g.), if you use one of them you need it anyway.

13

Thanks for explaining.

However I am actually able to play sound both in Amarok and SMPlayer while KDE sounds are also active. Not sure if the per-app volume control is big advantage as each application has its own volume control? As for skype - I wonder if it is safe to install it at all :slight_smile:

14

Amarok is a KDE application and uses KDE’s multimedia framework (Phonon) to actually play music, so it obviously doesn’t conflict with KDE.
SMPlayer (or rather the underlying mpv or MPlayer) uses ALSA or PulseAudio directly though.

But yes, as I wrote, simultaneous playback with ALSA is possible since years, although it might not work on specific sound cards/chips.

Not sure if the per-app volume control is big advantage as each application has its own volume control?

Not each one…

And if one application changes the hardware volume, it affects all other applications as well.
Although with PulseAudio’s default settings (“flat-volumes=yes”), each application can influence others too because PA changes the master volume to what it thinks is best.

As for skype - I wonder if it is safe to install it at all :slight_smile:

Well.
I don’t care for it (or use it) anyway…

15

Thank you for explaining.

16

Enabled PA. Indeed it looks the better thing to use :slight_smile:
Thanks again everyone!

17

There is a problem:

After each reboot the volume gets reset to about 60-70% and when I play something it is so loud that it is causing distortion.

Why is this happening when I have explicitly set the global volume at 20% in KMixer and also for each application?

I also notice that trying to play a video (YouTube, Vimeo) in Firefox causes the same effect. If the volume in Vimeo’s player for example is set to 50% - this affects the global volume in KMixer and it is too loud. I don’t think it is normal the web player to affect the system volume. This doesn’t happen in Chromium for example.

Is there a bug or is something more to be configured?

18

Setting ‘flat-volumes = no’ in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf solved the problem with Firefox.

In KMix configuration I found a checkbox “Volume Override” which has a tooltip “Raise volume maximum to 150%” and I turned it off.

Now on each boot the volume is reset to 100% (which is obviously 2/3 or 66% if 150% - the earlier default setting in KMIx). So that didn’t help too. There is a checkbox “Restore volumes on login” and it is checked by default. However it definitely doesn’t remember the volume I set before reboot although I tried both options of having it on or off.

I really wonder if that is a bug.

19

No just messed up configs from tweedling with things

remove ~/.pulse
also ~/.conf/pulse

That should bring things back to default

20

No such one.

also ~/.conf/pulse

That should bring things back to default

Got it!
It’s the PluseAudio Equalizer! It creates ~/.config/pulse/default.pa if ‘Keep Settings’ box is checked. And that default.pa ends with:


### BEGIN: Equalized audio configuration
### Generated from: pulseaudio-equalizer
load-module module-ladspa-sink sink_name=ladspa_output.mbeq_1197.mbeq master=alsa_output.pci-0000_07_01.0.analog-stereo plugin=mbeq_1197 label=mbeq control=7.0,4.0,2.0,1.0,0,-1.0,-1.5,-1.5,-1.0,0.5,2.0,4.0,7.0,10.0,11.0
set-default-sink ladspa_output.mbeq_1197.mbeq
**set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_07_01.0.analog-stereo 65536**
set-sink-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_07_01.0.analog-stereo 0
### END: Equalized audio configuration

The bolded line actually sets the volume to 100% (2^16). Changing this number from 65536 to 16384 makes the initial volume 25% instead of 100%.

So this helps as a workaround. However I am not sure how to make it consistent because unchecking and checking again the box in PA Equalizer resets it to 65536. Maybe I should add it to an autostart KDE script?