No Sound - Mixser Will Not Launch

English Hardware
1

I’m running an Asus Z87-A motherboard with built-in audio, plus two Geforce 770 GTXs with built-in HDMI audio.

I’m not getting any sound for Youtube and other video sources. I can’t get any audio when I try Dragon, and when I try loading the mixer I get an error message telling me the following:

GStreamer was unable to detect any sound devices. Some sound system specific GStreamer packages may be missing. It may also be a permissions problem.

On the other hand, I have an active sound icon loaded in the bottom, right of my panel. When I click on it, I’m able to see the following:

Dummy Output
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
c001 Analogue Audio
Built-in Audio Analogue Stereo

Any suggestions?

2

Hm, the “mixer” (i.e. volume control) should not even try to open gstreamer.
Can you clarify what exactly you mean with “mixer”?

On the other hand, I have an active sound icon loaded in the bottom, right of my panel. When I click on it, I’m able to see the following:

Dummy Output
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
c001 Analogue Audio
Built-in Audio Analogue Stereo

Any suggestions?

Does the sound work in general?
Is the correct output selected? You do have 3 sound cards/outputs…

Enter “Configure Desktop”->Multimedia, there’s a sound test button there and you can set the default output.

3

Note by default only sound from sound card-0 will go to applications. Sound from sound card-1 and sound card-2 will not go to applications unless specifically directed to do so by pavucontrol (pulse audio volume control). The default sound card can be adjusted in YaST for many (but not all) sound cards.
.

4

When I click on the application launcher on the left-hand side of the panel, I select “Multimedia–>Mixer”.

When at the top button “Audio Volume”, all the tabs from “Applications to Configuration” say “No applications”, “No Additional Configuration Available,” etc. That is, except for “Output Devices”, which shows “Dummy Output”.

When I go to “Audio and Video”, under the “Device Preference” tab and the first category (Audio Playback), there is a list of devices, as follows:

Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
c001 Analog Stereo
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI 3)
Dummy Output

Only “Dummy Output” is available, the rest are greyed out and I can’t select them.

Under the tab “Audio Hardware Setup” there is no sound card (the field is greyed out) and under “Sound Device” there is nothing to select.

Under the tab “Backend” Phonon GStreamer is listed, but nothing else.

I should also add that when I try testing the Dummy Output device, nothing happens.

5

Thanks! I will try setting one or more of the other devices as sound-card 0 to see if one or more make a difference.

6

Hm, I still have no idea what that could be.
I don’t have a “Mixer” here.

But judging from that generic name, it probably is a GNOME application…
What does this command show?

grep -R Mixer /usr/share/applications/

Although it probably doesn’t matter much, the reason for the error message seems to be clear: there seem to be no (usable) output devices.

When at the top button “Audio Volume”, all the tabs from “Applications to Configuration” say “No applications”, “No Additional Configuration Available,” etc. That is, except for “Output Devices”, which shows “Dummy Output”.

When I go to “Audio and Video”, under the “Device Preference” tab and the first category (Audio Playback), there is a list of devices, as follows:

Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI)
c001 Analog Stereo
GK104 HDMI Audio Controller Digital Stereo (HDMI 3)
Dummy Output

Only “Dummy Output” is available, the rest are greyed out and I can’t select them.

Under the tab “Audio Hardware Setup” there is no sound card (the field is greyed out) and under “Sound Device” there is nothing to select.

Under the tab “Backend” Phonon GStreamer is listed, but nothing else.

Hm, this all very much sounds like a permission issue to me.
Try to add your user to the “audio” group. Maybe it helps (even if not it doesn’t harm…).
Either do that in YaST->Security and Users->User and Group Management, or run:

sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER

Then reboot, or at least logout/login.

I should also add that when I try testing the Dummy Output device, nothing happens.

Obviously. The “Dummy Output device” is not any real device at all and just “swallows” the sound.

7

I get the following:


/usr/share/applications/xfce4-mixer.desktop:Name=Audio Mixer
/usr/share/applications/xfce4-mixer.desktop:Categories=X-XFCE;Mixer;AudioVideo;Settings;DesktopSettings;

After fiddling with which device is the preferred sound card and rebooting a couple of times, I now have my USB headphones working fine. Also, I now am able to configure multimedia devices.

The only thing I’ve not been able to do so far is to get the speakers in my monitor working. However, I’m not sure that’s all that bad, as I plan to eventually hook up some 5.1 speakers I have laying around and the monitor speakers won’t be anything I’ll use long-term.

Try to add your user to the “audio” group. Maybe it helps (even if not it doesn’t harm…).
Either do that in YaST->Security and Users->User and Group Management, or run:

sudo usermod -a -G audio $USER

Then reboot, or at least logout/login.

Actually, I did as you specified above–in addition to fiddling with which card was set “0”. So, it may well be that it was a permissions issue afterall.

Anyway, I appear able to play with the sound now. Thank you!

8

Aha.
It’s the XFCE4 Mixer.

No wonder that I don’t have it, I don’t have XFCE installed… :wink:

No idea why that would use/need gstreamer, maybe for a test sound or to get the available outputs.

The only thing I’ve not been able to do so far is to get the speakers in my monitor working.

Well, you’d probably have to switch to one of the HDMI “sound cards”.
Personally, I don’t have any experience with HDMI, with the proprietary nvidia driver it should just work though I think, in particular as you do see the devices.

If your monitor is not connected via HDMI at all, you’d need to connect its speakers to your sound card somehow separately.

Anyway, I appear able to play with the sound now. Thank you!

Great! :slight_smile:
Feel free to ask further question if you need help.