supressed/ squeezed system sounds in Leap 15.0

Hi @all,

I have Opensuse Leap 15.0 with KDE running over here and a weird issue with systemsounds (the sounds KDE provides for start up, warnings if you want to delete a file, etc. and shutdown). I already tried a lot of thing and I am running out ideas, that’s why I would like to ask you guys for advice.

These sounds are sometimes (not always) really low and squeezed or supressed, like as the system load would be so high that the sound is messed up.
This never occurs at start up = the start up sound is always as it should be
It occurs next to always during shut down
It sometimes occurs during normal operation but not always.

Music or Videos are not affected - everything is fine there.

During these occurances the system load never was that high so that it should/ could mess up the sound. Especially during shutdown, it can’t be that high, or can it?

So, here is what I did so far:

  • replace speakers
  • setting the Nice value to -15 for Pulseaudio
  • editing the /etc/pulse/daemon.conf:
  1. setting default-fragments to 2
  2. setting default-fragment-size-msec to 125
  3. setting enable-lfe-mixing from “false” to yes

all to no prevail.

When I listen to music, the system sounds always work as intended.

System information:

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor DRAM Controller (rev 06)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor PCI Express x16 Controller (rev 06)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Controller
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family ME Interface #1
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev d0)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev d0)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d0)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family USB EHCI Controller #1
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family H97 Controller
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family SATA Controller [AHCI Mode]
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] (rev a2)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0fbc (rev a1)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 13)
04:00.0 PCI bridge: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1083/1085 PCIe to PCI Bridge (rev 03)
05:01.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9227 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

pactl list sinks
Ziel #0
        Status: SUSPENDED
        Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo-extra1
        Beschreibung: HDA NVidia Digital Stereo (HDMI 2)
        Treiber: module-alsa-card.c
        Abtastwert-Angabe: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        Kanalzuordnung: front-left,front-right
        Besitzer-Modul: 6
        Stumm: ja
        Lautstärke: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
                Verteilung 0,00
        Basis-Lautstärke: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
        Quellen-Monitor: alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo-extra1.monitor
        Latenz: 0 usec, eingestellt 0 usec
        Flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY SET_FORMATS  
        Eigenschaften:
                alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
                device.api = "alsa"
                device.class = "sound"
                alsa.class = "generic"
                alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
                alsa.name = "HDMI 1"
                alsa.id = "HDMI 1"
                alsa.subdevice = "0"
                alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
                alsa.device = "7"
                alsa.card = "1"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xef080000 irq 17"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:01:00.1"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "10de"
                device.vendor.name = "NVIDIA Corporation"
                device.product.id = "0fbc"
                device.string = "hdmi:1,1"
                device.buffering.buffer_size = "352768"
                device.buffering.fragment_size = "176384"
                device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
                device.profile.name = "hdmi-stereo-extra1"
                device.profile.description = "Digital Stereo (HDMI 2)"
                device.description = "HDA NVidia Digital Stereo (HDMI 2)"
                alsa.mixer_name = "Nvidia GPU 60 HDMI/DP"
                alsa.components = "HDA:10de0060,104384dd,00100100"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        Profile:
                hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (priority: 5800, available)
        Aktive Profile: hdmi-output-1
        Formate:
                pcm

Ziel #1
        Status: RUNNING
        Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
        Beschreibung: Internes Audio Analog Stereo
        Treiber: module-alsa-card.c
        Abtastwert-Angabe: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        Kanalzuordnung: front-left,front-right
        Besitzer-Modul: 7
        Stumm: nein
        Lautstärke: front-left: 46514 /  71% / -8,93 dB,   front-right: 46514 /  71% / -8,93 dB
                Verteilung 0,00
        Basis-Lautstärke: 65536 / 100% / 0,00 dB
        Quellen-Monitor: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
        Latenz: 34653 usec, eingestellt 36000 usec
        Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY  
        Eigenschaften:
                alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
                device.api = "alsa"
                device.class = "sound"
                alsa.class = "generic"
                alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
                alsa.name = "ALC1150 Analog"
                alsa.id = "ALC1150 Analog"
                alsa.subdevice = "0"
                alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
                alsa.device = "0"
                alsa.card = "0"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xef310000 irq 29"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "8086"
                device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
                device.product.id = "8ca0"
                device.product.name = "9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller"
                device.form_factor = "internal"
                device.string = "front:0"
                device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
                device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"
                device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
                device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
                device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
                device.description = "Internes Audio Analog Stereo"
                alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ALC1150"
                alsa.components = "HDA:10ec0900,1462d918,00100001"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        Profile:
                analog-output-lineout: Line-Ausgang (priority: 9900, available)
                analog-output-headphones: Analoge Kopfhörer (priority: 9000, not available)
        Aktive Profile: analog-output-lineout
        Formate:
                pcm

I only use the internal Audio, the Nvidia HDMI sound is not active (I think…). If you have any idea what I can do or maybe know the solution for that, I would be very thankful.

Thank you!

I also noticed that sometimes = not always, but always when the sound is distorted, the left speaker is lower than the right one (about half the volume), but the channels are locked together. When the sounds seem to be correct, also the left Speaker is the same volume… :dont-know:

So, I guess I know what the reason is, for the distorted sounds:

Its file operations. Copy-paste, as well as Baloo indexing files. Now Baloo has indexed everything and the sounds are okay. When there are new files, which will be indexed, the sounds get choppy again. Tested it already and I am pretty sure that this is repeatable.

So, conclusion: nevermind, its the old Linux-issue with copy-paste etc., which fully utilizes the computer without resembling this in the system load.

Never seen this. Maybe check top while this is happening. It maybe a matter of older hardware or maybe low memory???