On my laptop I had always skype and it worked without problems. After the upgrade (13.1 i586 KDE) I had first a constant humming sound (only in skype). All other multimedia is working - sound and video. First I upgraded from version 4.0 to 4.2 but the sound was still there. For a start I turned the sound for skype in KDE Mixer (tab Playback Streams) down. After some searching I changed in /home/uli/.local/share/applications/skype.destop the Exec=skype
to
Exec=env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype %U
as in the forum on skype here. The effect was that the sound went completely. Even after I changed it back the sound for skype was gone. In KDE Mixer it is on full power but there is no sound for skype. In Yast there is a test sound and the sound is working in MM applications. The skype options only tell me to use the desktop manager to set the volume on pulse audio. I don’t find any other setting in KDE Mixer, Yast or Multimedia -> Volume control.
lspci -vv shows:
[00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
Subsystem: Gateway, Inc. Device 016d
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 45
Region 0: Memory at 96700000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel/CODE]
How can I get skype working again?
Thanks
Uli
Now after a reboot it suddenly all works again with the change in skype.destop to Exec=env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype %U without white noise or any other background noise. I don’t know why - just a reboot but I rebooted before I wrote the first part. Hopefully it will still work after the next reboot.
Thanks
fuerstu wrote:
>
> Now after a reboot it suddenly all works again with the change in
> skype.destop to Exec=env PULSE_LATENCY_MSEC=60 skype %U without white
> noise or any other background noise. I don’t know why - just a reboot
> but I rebooted before I wrote the first part. Hopefully it will still
> work after the next reboot.
> Thanks
>
>
I think the pulse server got restarted and hence it is working.
I have noticed hat sometimes pulse just dies and restarting machine will
bring sound back. I should probably search for pulse.service or
something so that i can restart it from terminal/konsole
Yesterday it worked - I started up the computer this morning and again skype has no sound at all. Interesting - from Yast - Sound Sonfiguration I click bottom right PulseAudio Configuration and the dialogue box comes up with "Enable PulseAudio Support. I click OK but nothing happens. If I try again - same thing. How do I turn on PulseAudio? Where do I set Volume for PulseAudio?
I presume that the other sound (E.g. Amarok, VLC etc.) does not use PulseAudio since there the sound is working? As I wrote before everything worked without problems before I upgraded.
Cheers
uli
I have found that Skype seldom connects to the sound system by itself. When Skype starts try going to Options and sound devices and test sound. For me that connects the system and I’ll have sound until next Skype start. Note a very few times Skype connected as it should have no idea why.
In short:
If you run programs as root through xdg-su (e.g. YaST) the directory /run/user/1000/pulse will be owned by root, causing user applications using pulseaudio to not give any sound anymore.
You can check with:
ls -ld /run/user/1000/pulse
If it is owned by root, change it back and sound should work again:
Thanks, wolfi323, but that does not seem to be the problem
ls -ld /run/user/1000/pulse
drwx------ 2 uli users 80 Nov 30 12:36 /run/user/1000/pulse
At the moment sound is working again - don’t know why and what is happening here. But I certainly won’t upgrade the other computers before that is sorted. In the /etc/sysconfig I have for PULSEAUDIO_ENABLE=yes and PULSEAUDIO_SYSTEM=no, is that correct?
Cheers
Uli
Thanks everyone. This morning the sound is again not working and the output of the command ls -ld /run/user/1000/pulse is the same as yesterday.
So the bug listed previously doesn’t seem to be the problem. Something else I have noticed today.
Amarok is still working, however when I go to Yast - Sound - Volume setting the test sound is not working even all sliders are at maximum. Same if I don’t go to volume settings and just click test sound (all from the drop down under Other at bottom right) I hear no sound. So it seems I have 2 sound systems - PulseAudio which is used for Skype and another which drives Amarok. Now I don’t need PulsAudio if another sound is working properly. I have asked previously how I can turn on PulseAudio but didn’t get any reply. Now - can I turn it off and run everything else with the working sound?
Cheers
Uli
Maybe Amarok (or rather Phonon/KDE) uses Alsa directly? Or maybe Skype? PulseAudio blocks all other applications from using the sound device, so if it is running, all apps trying to use Alsa directly will have no sound.
Do you have alsa-plugins-pulse installed? This should redirect all apps using Alsa to PulseAudio.
Please note that Skype is a 32bit app, so you need alsa-plugins-pulse-32bit on a 64bit system.
I have asked previously how I can turn on PulseAudio but didn’t get any reply. Now - can I turn it off and run everything else with the working sound?
You can turn PulseAudio on and off in YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration as you yourself already wrote. Enable or disable the checkbox in front of “Enable PulseAudio Support” and press OK.
Turning it off may work better for you. You can try to turn it on again as well, maybe something was not enabled correctly.
Please note, that you may have to logout/login for the change to have full effect.
Thanks, wolfi323, I have turned off Alsa and exited skype. After opening it again I could hear the sound opening skype and skype works, even though Skype-Options-Sound devices still says that microphone speakers and ringing comes from the “PulseAudio server (local)”???. Will this turning off unticking in yast remain after a reboot?
Further alsa-plugins-pulse is installed.
BTW this is a 32bit computer - I tried update on this one. Haven’t started updating the others 1x32bit and 3x64bit.
Cheers
Uli
After a log off and on again, “Enable PulseAudio” was ticked again in yast. I would like something working permanently and somehow this seems odd - the only thing causing problems is skype (the only Microsoft progamme I have on my computers!).
Thanks, wolfi323, at the moment I am very busy with my day job and our little family business in the evening. I will try more later - probably weekend. Will write then if I have more problems.
Cheers
Uli
Hi wolfi323
I had some time just now and tried around again. With alsa disabled the sound was terrible even though it went through an external audio system. So I went back to PulseAudio. I checked that I had all installed listed in SDB:Audio troubleshooting - openSUSE. 5 times I had to reboot after ticking enable PlseAudio in Yast - each time it was unticked again after the reboot. No finally I am back to where I was before. Sound in Amarok is good. Now 3 times I tested sound in skype - 2 times it didn’t work - one time it worked. I have no idea what can cause these variations.
Cheers
Uli
Did you try playing a test sound in Skype? I need to do that almost all the time at start up sometimes it does start up right but most of the time I need to actually make Skype connect by playing the test sound/ Skype on Linux has gone down hill since MS bought it.
Yes, all the other sounds are OK but when I go to skype → options → sound devices and click make a test sound I often hear no sound. When the sound is there I can go to make a test call and then everything (microphone and sound) works. If I hear no sound and try to make a test call I don’t hear the ringing or the voice asking me for a recording. As I said before in the previous version I used skype 4.0. SInce the sound problems I upgraded to skype 4.2. MAy be I should go back to 4.0…
It looks like you have already applied the workarounds they indicate, so I think I will definitely avoid upgrading until this gets fixed. It looks like Skype needs to release a new version to fix this.
For most of us (?) the fix is pretty straight forward.
I’ve been using 13.1 with Skype, to talk to my mother in a different continent, every second day, since 13.1 first came out. After the initial learning curve (on how to permanently apply the fix when launching Skype) I have had no problems with the audio since, and Skype has worked well. wrt different continent, my mother lives in Canada, and I’ve chatted with her from Germany, and now from Thailand.
I do confess in my case, I was motivated to get Skype working with 13.1, because only 13.1 properly supports my Toshiba Satellite Z930 Ultrabook when it comes to power management / wireless networking when running on battery (12.3 and earlier openSUSE versions do not function as well in this power management regard on this specific hardware).