Yet another "so sound" thread

English Multimedia
1

Well, I have no sound!
(no surprise there :p)

I have reinstalled ALSA, I have reinstalled Amarok, I have deinstalled the afore mention as well as phonon-xine Yet STILL, sometimes, for no apparent reason, my computer will boot, and not have sound support.
Amarok will incite the message “the device mysoundcard does not work, falling back to .”

I’ve viewed and tried the solutions (URLs) quoted in this thread:
openSUSE Forums - View Single Post - openSUSE 11.1 display and audio problems

To no avail unfortunately.

This output should be of note:

grim0x@Bax:~> cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [CA0106 ]: CA0106 - CA0106
Audigy SE [SB0570] at 0xa800 irq 18

So, alsa sees knows my card is there.
The card has worked fine in times past, and is currently listed under Hardware>sound.

2

First, ensure your PC has alsa-firmware installed. If not, install it and reboot and test.

Then take a look at the thread here:
[Solution] Creative Audigy 1/2 + 11.0 + KDE/GNOME + ALSA - openSUSE Forums](http://forums.opensuse.org/get-help-here/hardware/386773-solution-creative-audigy-1-2-11-0-kde-gnome-alsa.html)

and then after sound does not work, please provide the information recommended to be provided in the second half of our multimedia stickie: Welcome to multimedia sub-area - openSUSE Forums

and I will quote that for you:

If that that does not help you get your basic sound working, please post in this “multimedia” sub-forum, providing in your post the following information:

  • provide the URLs (of a summary webpage) that are created by running the diagnostic script noted here:
    SDB:AudioTroubleshooting - openSUSE - Script to run to obtain detailed information. On openSUSE-11.1 and newer that will ask you to run the script /usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh and after the script finishes it will give you a URL to pass to the support personnel. Please post here the output URL. Just the URL. You may need to run that script twice (the first time with root permissions to update in the /usr/sbin directory, and the second time to get the URL).
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -qa ‘alsa’ #and post output here
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -qa ‘pulse’ #and post output here
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: rpm -q libasound2 #and post output here
  • in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: uname -a #and post output here
  • for openSUSE-11.1 or earlier, in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound #and post output here
  • for openSUSE-11.2 or later, in a terminal, or xterm, or konsole, type: cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf #and post output here
3

Well oldcpu - I am back from my journey of URLs.

The Audigy KDE installtion Thread, though informative, wasnt the solution for me.

For starters, when I have this problem, ie, when I get the message “the device mysoundcard does not work, falling back to .”, KMIX is perpetually blank - no slides, no mention of any device/hence nothing to configure. So the issue of the analog front out actually being mute doesn’t apply - its nonexistent @ this point!

Now, If I restart (which is my usual solution for regaining sound) I wont get my usual error message, and on and entering Kmix, I can configure my device’s controls (my device is listed by driver name rather than Device name).
However, Kmix has no mention of “Audigy Analog/Digital Output Jack” as indicated in the thread your reffered me to, and subsequently, there is no mention of toggling/enabling the SPDIF / Digital/Analog output.

So, I’ve concluded that thread applies to problems other than the one I’m experiencing.

(I am currently trying every diagnostic/troubleshooting step in the SDB:audio trouble shooting guide - but the truth is I do it in the name of absolutism:They haven’t mentioned the symptoms of the nature of problem I’m experiencing).

SO! - as you directed. here’s my Alsa-info produced link.

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=9abb1ad47881c8dbfdc0dea8fc60834ef167e9e3

—EDIT----
Ah yes, I forgot to mention an observation of mine:

The error message I get (about “falling back to period” lol), almost ALWAYS happens synonymously with a resolution problem I experience;

After boot, My login (and everything else) sometimes starts up at 800 x 600, rather than 1024. When this happens I cannot change back my res to 1024 unless I restart X. (the option is not there- almost as if it had been wiped from xorg).
Now, When I boot and see a 800 x 600 login screen, one of 2 things happens:

1.I get my error message, and hence no sound.
This happens 95% of the time.

Recently - I’ve seen it do something else.
2.Sound works - but when I restart X to get my correct Res, the error message returns!

I don’t recall having ever boot up with my CORRECT res, and having sound problem - EVEN IF, I restart X after it first boot (with the correct RES).

Go figure (just thought i’d throw that in there)
VGA is a native PCI 4MB legacy. (DX/GX virge).

So far - sound has been my only issue with suse.

4

Your master volume is VERY low (too low IMHO):
Simple mixer control ‘Master’,0
Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Limits: Playback 0 - 255
Mono: Playback 96 [38%] -39.75dB] [on]

Your mixer source looks wrong to me:
Simple mixer control ‘Digital Source’,0
Capabilities: cenum
Items: ‘IEC958 out’ ‘i2s mixer out’ ‘IEC958 in’ ‘i2s in’ ‘AC97 in’ ‘SRC out’
Item0: ‘i2s in’
Does your Audigy use digital audio? I ask because I note it is switched OFF:
Simple mixer control ‘IEC958’,0
Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
Playback channels: Mono
Mono: Playback [off]

this is likely a bug with no effect.

If you are using KDE, please take a look at the order of sound devices in YaST > Hardware > Sound and also look at the order of devices in KDE > Configure Desktop > Multimedia and ensure the order of devices there are consistent.

Also, what are you using for a speaker test ?

Before you conclude sound does not work at any given time, please try each of these speaker tests:

  • first:
 speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -l5 -twav
  • second, try again:
speaker-test -c2 -l5 -twav
  • third:
speaker-test -c2 -D hw:0,0 -t wav -l3
  • fourth, this next command has a volume meter at the bottom of its output with a changing number of #'s and %'s to show volume levels so run this command and tell me if the number of #'s and %'s are changing:
aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_*
  • fifth: and also:
aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

Do any of those give an indication of sound ?

Try with and without headset. Also try as a regular user and in a terminal as a user with root permissions.

5

Ok oldcpu, from the top:

@ Master volume:
It was just low at the time I ran the script.

@ simple mixer controll (source).

If the simple mixer is the mixer accessed with ONE click on the sound icon (which displays a single slider) then my simple mixer works just fine WHEN I dont get that error message.
The only mention of ‘i2s in’ in Kmix is when one enables the selection of “DIGITAL SOURCE” as a channel in Kmix.
I have the options (not in order) :
-i2s in
-i2s mixer out
-IEC958 out
-SRC OUT
-AC97 in
-IEC958 in.

I neither see, nor have ever seen mention of that option (i2s in) in any other place.

The fact that this is listed as the item for DIGITAL SOURCE, and Digital source is the source for my simple mixer - makes me doubtful about my earlier conclusion of what “simple mixer” is ;p

@ digital audio

My soundcard’s output is all analog and the only digital input is through the PCI interface/slot lol. (no external input be it analog or digital).
That aside though - I noticed that the DIGITAL audio mono playback is off for “Simple mixer control ‘IEC958’,0” :wink:

@ Yast vs configure desktop.

Yast has one devices listed, and thats my SB.
This, as in my process of diagnosis, I disabled the AC97 soundcard from bios.

Configure desktop has a whole slew of different SB audigy listings.
It seems to either create a new one of these, or fall back to one of these on boot (apparently random).
This is my own (perhaps limited) understanding though.
Here’s a Pic of them all (in configure desktop). -
I’d LOVE AN EXPLANATION ON THIS :
http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/2082/rayja20installedsoundde.png](http://img541.imageshack.us/i/rayja20installedsoundde.png/)

@ Sound tests.
Tried those some time ago - No avail - No sound once I receive this error on boot.

I’ll try those other commands as soon as the sound misbehaves again. (OR, would it be of profit for me to try it now that this issue istn currently rearing its head?)

Ps- if its a big with no effect - it sure is a very smart bug!
(as it only crawls about when the sound issue manifests itself! :p)

Thanks much.
And btw - I hope novell has added you to their payroll! And handsomely so as well ;p
(just how many posts do you handle per day on average!? ^_^)

6

I’m confused by this. I confess I thought you had no sound at all. … This suggests to me that sound is not misbehaving and thus ergo it works ?

7

Not at all!
Your only misunderstanding is that I had no sound at ALL I suspect.

Thats the weird thing about this issue!
(perpahs you just missed it).

It happens on and off!

one minute I boot and have sound, and the other, I boot and get the mentioned error message.

The error message as I mentioned, usually being followed by the screen resolution bug.

8

That error message is imho a bug and should not always be believed.

Please use the speaker tests I gave above. Also, try them as a regular user, and as root, and try them with a headset and without a headset. Do NOT rely on the start up system sound as your criteria (nor that error message) as to whether sound works or not works, as that is IMHO notoriously unreliable.

I’ve see the sound error message you refer to, but not recently the resolution bug. … I confess to being skeptical that they are related. But something is scratching on my brain on this screen resolution bug, back from the forum pre-merge old SFS forum days … but the details won’t come to me (a bad memory) and hence I can’t say anything on this at this time.

9

Hello again.
I appreciate the support, I’d love to get this working, and i’m learning in the process.

Had to restart KDE today, so the error came back.
I did the sound tests, they failed.
Then I did them as r00t - they all passed! (my mistake - forgive my n00bity).

Still, Amarok will incite the said error message - and will show its tracking slider moving as though it were playing - but no sound.
Makes me curious to figure out whats going on - because if amarok really had nothing to work with, it wouldnt do that.
Added to that is the fact that - the sound tests work.

I’ve been trying to find other error messages to give you clues.
Here’s what songbird had to say:
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1447/songbirderror.th.png](http://img94.imageshack.us/i/songbirderror.png/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

10

Its strange. … Its almost as if when the error comes back, that you have a permissions problem.

Try adding your regular user to group “audio”. You can do this by:

  • YAST » Security and Users » User Management » “select your user” » Edit » Details » Groups » check “audio” and then click on “ACCEPT”
    .
    or
    .
  • run **usermod -A audio yourusername** in a terminal as root
    Then restart your PC.
11

If this is not a permissions problem, another possibility is some boot process has seized your audio device and is refusing to share it.

In which case, try restarting your alsa sound driver with:

su -c 'rcalsasound restart'

and enter root password when prompted. Then as a regular user type ‘kmix’ to restart your KDE mixer, and then again try your audio.

12

I used to us rc alsasound restart a lot. There are times when it works.
But it never alieviates sound loss precursored by that error message :\

(yes, it was a permissions problem - it indicated that).

Any other Ideas?
I’m contemplating switching my sound card from its current PCI slot (which has a dedicated bus).

I put it there to begin with, to acheive lower latency from my card…
But, I’m running out of Ideas.

13

I have no idea if you followed the suggestion to add your user to group audio? Did you read that post?

14

No, in fact I did miss that post. Thanks.
I’ve ran the command, and i’ll see about testing the system a bit later today.

15

I’ve feared speaking too early on the matter (since our last conversing).

But it seems that permissions/group cmd usermod -A audio yourusername did the trick.

Desktop has started with the smaller res.
Played sound.

Restarted X.
Plays sound.

Starts desktop correctly, restarted X - plays sound.

The issue hasnt been observed since that time, so i’m going to Call this one a success, and thank you for all I’ve learned.
THANKS! ; p

16

Glad to read the sound problem has a work around. I recommend you start another thread for the resolution being a random levels at different boot occasions. Use an appropriate technical title to get the necessary attention ? Title: Inconsistent resolution upon starting X with S3 Virge DX/GX graphics and describe your problem in the thread. Also note what graphic driver your openSUSE is using if you can in that thread.

I’ll mark the tag on this thread to “SOLVED” (you will see the tag is a very small word at the bottom of the thread).