youtube sound level inadequate

English Multimedia
1

alsa-info output

> inxi -Axxx
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 chip ID: 8086:0c0c
           Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:8c20
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.12.14-lp151.28.16-default

This is a 15.1 installation that is an upgrade from 42.3, which was an upgrade from 42.1. Video out is DVI, so sound is going via analog connection to the display’s speakers.

Maximum audio volume in youtube videos and SMplayer is too low. For system sounds the level is actually a little higher than I’d like. Kmix master & PCM settings are at max, so I tried to increase it using pavucontrol, but that produces an unchanging window with establishing connection to pulseaudio please wait. I saw aplay -D plughw:[0,1],[0,1] /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav in a recent thread here, which I tried, but all 4 combinations produce no such file or directory. Looking in also-info I see pulseaudio isn’t running, and neither is aRts.

# systemctl --user enable pulseaudio
Failed to connect to bus: No such file or directory

# zypper install -f libxine2-codecs ffmpeg-3 dvdauthor gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-bad-orig-addon gstreamer-plugins-base gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-good-extra gstreamer-plugins-libav gstreamer-plugins-qt5 gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-ugly-orig-addon vlc smplayer x264 x265 vlc-codecs vlc-codec-gstreamer ogmtools libavcodec58

from https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/536314-Multimedia-Guide-for-openSUSE-Leap-15-1 produces:

The following 43 NEW packages are going to be installed:
gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-bad-orig-addon gstreamer-plugins-good gstreamer-plugins-good-extra
gstreamer-plugins-libav gstreamer-plugins-qt5 gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-plugins-ugly-orig-addon libSoundTouch0
libde265-0 libffms2-4 libgraphene-1_0-0 libgstadaptivedemux-1_0-0 libgstallocators-1_0-0 libgstbadaudio-1_0-0
libgstbadbase-1_0-0 libgstbadvideo-1_0-0 libgstbasecamerabinsrc-1_0-0 libgstcodecparsers-1_0-0 libgstgl-1_0-0
libgstmpegts-1_0-0 libgstrtp-1_0-0 libgstrtsp-1_0-0 libgstsdp-1_0-0 libgsturidownloader-1_0-0 libgstwayland-1_0-0
libiec61883-0 liblilv-0-0 liblrdf2 libmms0 libofa0 libsbc1 libserd-0-0 libsord-0-0 libspandsp2 libsratom-0-0
libva-glx2 libvo-amrwbenc0 libxine2-codecs libzbar0 vlc-codec-gstreamer x264 x265

The following 8 packages are going to be reinstalled:
dvdauthor ffmpeg-3 gstreamer-plugins-base libavcodec58 ogmtools smplayer vlc vlc-codecs

43 new packages to install, 8 to reinstall…

Do I really need all that just to get volume level up, or pulseaudio to run? /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav exists. What files are aplay and systemctl not finding? Is there something in that 54k alsa-info file telling me what I need to do? How can “bigger bdl_pos_adj” be enabled?

BTW, I get no sound from Firefox at all. I play youtubes in SeaMonkey.

2

I have no trouble with sound from youtube, albeit my hardware different. I am very surprised pulse audio is not running (as you noted as is is VERY clear in the diagnostic script):


!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

Pulseaudio:
      Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
      Running - No

Obviously ‘pavucontrol’ won’t help if you do not have pulseaudio running. Did you ‘tune’ anything special in this install (or in your previous installs as a user given you upgraded (?)) that could affect pulseaudio?

I recommend pulseaudio be used. OpenSUSE was mostly tested with pulseaudio. I do not believe there was any testing per se with pulseaudio disabled.

Now the script indicated Line out is 0% … so when you state “Video out is DVI, so sound is going via analog connection to the display’s speakers” while I concede that is obvious to you wrt what it means for sound, I do not know what that means? Does it mean you did not connect any cable to Line out? Or is this HDMI audio out even thou you are relying on DVI ? To the best of my knowledge, DVI does not ‘normally’ carry sound (due to complexity wrt cabling) as I think if you want to transmit audio over DVI, you’ll need to use a special DVI-to-HDMI cable .

Wrt the" line out " … , look at the script :


Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] -34.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] -34.50dB] [on]

0% playback. I do not know if relevant, as I indicated above I do not understand your setup. Do you use line out?

Also there is also an error in the dmesg …

 1677.991674] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: IRQ timing workaround is activated for card #0. Suggest a bigger bdl_pos_adj.

… but I suspect that not relevant for this specific issue.

wrt aplay, the syntax you quote looks to be very suspicious as being wrong … or is that your copy / paste shorthand notation?

You should try for sound card-0 :


aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

and if HDMI speakers try:

aplay -D plughw:1,x /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

where “x” is 3, 7, 8, 9, or 10.

You could try above as regular user and root.

Now if you had pulseaudio possibly running and you were still struggling with sound I would also recommend also trying:


pasuspender -- aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

however that likely not relevant as pulse is not running on your system.

3

To get volume up ? Unlikely … but those are good packages … if it were me, I would install them.

4

Back in 42.1 or 42.3 I needed options snd-hda-intel index=1,0 in /etc/modprobe.d/99-local.conf to get sound from the line out to the speakers. I have not changed that for 15.1. My display has no HDMI input, only VGA, DVI, DisplayPort and pin jack audio inputs.

I recommend pulseaudio be used. OpenSUSE was mostly tested with pulseaudio. I do not believe there was any testing per se with pulseaudio disabled.
How to enable the installed pulseaudio?

# rpm -qa | grep puls | sort
libpulse-mainloop-glib0-11.1-lp151.5.3.x86_64
libpulse0-11.1-lp151.5.3.x86_64
pulseaudio-11.1-lp151.5.3.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-x11-11.1-lp151.5.3.x86_64
pulseaudio-utils-11.1-lp151.5.3.x86_64

Now the script indicated Line out is 0% … so when you state “Video out is DVI, so sound is going via analog connection to the display’s speakers” while I concede that is obvious to you wrt what it means for sound, I do not know what that means? Does it mean you did not connect any cable to Line out? Or is this HDMI audio out even thou you are relying on DVI ? To the best of my knowledge, DVI does not ‘normally’ carry sound (due to complexity wrt cabling) as I think if you want to transmit audio over DVI, you’ll need to use a special DVI-to-HDMI cable .

Wrt the" line out " … , look at the script :

Simple mixer control ‘Line’,0
Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
Limits: Playback 0 - 31
Mono:
Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] -34.50dB] [on]
Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] -34.50dB] [on]

0% playback. I do not know if relevant, as I indicated above I do not understand your setup. Do you use line out?
yes

wrt aplay, the syntax you quote looks to be very suspicious as being wrong … or is that your copy / paste shorthand notation?

You should try for sound card-0 :

aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

and if HDMI speakers try:

aplay -D plughw:1,x /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

where “x” is 3, 7, 8, 9, or 10.

> pulseaudio --check -v
I: [pulseaudio] main.c: Daemon not running
> aplay -D plughw:1,3 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
> aplay -D plughw:1,7 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
> aplay -D plughw:1,8 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
> aplay -D plughw:1,9 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
> aplay -D plughw:1,10 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo

From each I expected sound but got none, tried both as regular user and as root.

You could try above as regular user and root.

Now if you had pulseaudio possibly running
What’s the secret to get it running?

BTW, this system, as it was with 42.1 and 42.3, is a routine victim of 1047852 – knotify_libjack audio kcrash on pthread_key_create() at ../common/JackError.cpp:88 Maybe it would go away if pulseaudio was running.

5

Yast sound should allow you to turn on PA (it’s in the option menu bottom right).

If that does not work maybe try start via systemctl. If that fails need to look at systemctl status puleaudio and or logsl to see why

6

YaST2 enabled the pavucontrol window to populate, but not to have any effect on sound output level, or aplay -D plughw:1,10 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav to produce sound. Also these showed up:

Oct 03 10:54:50 <> pulseaudio[3029]: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/home/<>/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
Oct 03 10:54:50 <> pulseaudio[3029]: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/home/<>/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
# systemctl status puleaudio
Unit puleaudio.service could not be found.
# systemctl status puleaudio.socket
Unit puleaudio.socket could not be found.
7

Typically such options are placed in /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf and not in 99-local.conf. That is strange. Unless I am mistaken, its rather unconventional. Was there a particular reason you applied such to 99-local.conf? And what is your opinion as to what “index=1,0” supposed to do ? Are you doing this to try and remap the PCH and HDMI devices?

I note that some computers with an HDMI audio output will map /proc/asound/card0 as HDMI and therefore makes it default output device for applications such as firefox. I’ve read another way (easier to understand) is to remap is to add these two lines to /etc/modprobe.d/50-sound.conf (and do not use the 99-local.conf) :


# Set this to the correct number of cards.
options snd cards_limit=2

options snd-hda-intel id=PCH index=0
options snd-hda-intel id=HDMI index=1

Then reboot and test. If it does not help, then remove that. Its only for the test.

Further to the above, a possibly useful test is : What happens if you remove both the 50-sound.conf and the 99-local.conf, reboot and test? Is HDMI inappropriately mapped to sound-card-0 in that case?

My experience with two devices (HDMI and PCH) both having their own instance of the snd_hda_intel sound module, is they can swap unexpectedly upon reboot, causing sound not to work for a specific boot. Hence a more permanent way to assign them can be useful. Of course this may not be your problem, but its an unknown for myself to be certain.

As an aside, another way (that I recent read in a forum thread) to assign sound cards, is instead of edits in 50-sound.conf and also instead of them in the 99-local.conf is to put a different edit in /etc/asound.conf (that you would need to create). This is done by rebooting without those edits and find your desired sound device via :


   cat /proc/asound/cards

and then create an /etc/asound.conf with following:


   defaults.pcm.card 1
   defaults.ctl.card 1

And then replace “1” with number of your card determined above. I have not tried this myself, but I have read of a user who noted that worked for them. Again if it does not work, remove such and keep things clean.

Of course those edits are to help firefox and not your sound volume issue.

…

Back to your volume issue, wrt your sound volume levels, I assume your display does not have surround sound ? I ask that as I note in your mixer “Surround” playback=0%, “Center” playback=2%, “LFE” playback = 2%. And Line=0%.

Did you try increasing any of those volume levels?

OK, but a lot else has changed in 15.1. Just because it was needed in 42.1 or 42.3 does not mean its needed now.

OK, then am I correct you hope to get sound by cable(s) running from the PC audio out to the pin jack audio inputs on your display? If that is so, then the ‘aplay’ for HDMI are not IMHO likely to yield sound. But the

aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

should yield sound if PCH is sound card-0.

Pulse audio has always ‘just worked’ on my PCs, so I have no experience in trying to help someone fix a non-functional pulse audio - unless its some strange configuration in your /home …

Another good test … does sound work better for a brand new user?

Hmmm … this reads to be complex, with a lot of extra things going on with ‘jack’.

8

hw:1,10 is for HDMI.

I believe you noted you are not using HDMI.

If you using sound card-0, with PCH audio, then you should try:


aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

If PCH is inappropriately mapped to sound-card-1, then you should try


aplay -D plughw:1,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

… so it begs the question, where is PCH currently mapped? … as I suspect with the testing you may have modified things. I believe


   cat /proc/asound/cards

That should tell you which sound card PCH is mapped to.

9

954824 – [yast2-sound] Changing any configuration disables sound card and familiarity with why 1152770 – [TRACKER] Move system configuration files from /etc to /usr/etc eventually got filed. local files don’t get interfered with by package management.

And what is your opinion as to what “index=1,0” supposed to do ? Are you doing this to try and remap the PCH and HDMI devices?
It’s what Takashi suggested many moons ago.

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/99-local.conf
#
# please add local extensions to this file
#
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0
# cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7d10000 irq 28
 1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xf7d14000 irq 30
# aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
aplay: main:828: audio open error: Device or resource busy
> aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
aplay: main:828: audio open error: Device or resource busy

Nothing was smart enough to figure out there was nothing connected to any HDMI output and thus use analog. I suppose it must be tied to this:

# xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x45; cap: 0xf (Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload); crtcs: 3; outputs: 3; associated providers: 0; name: modesetting
    output VGA-1
    output HDMI-1
    output HDMI-2

What xrandr calls HDMI-1 is a DVI connector. The HDMI connector doesn’t have a place to be connected to my display, so is left unused except for those rare times I want two displays used at once. My other Intel chipset motherboards with multiple digital graphics outputs have the same problem, no DVI video output port is labeled DVI, only HDMI is used for DVI (and DP is used for VGA).

…
Of course those edits are to help firefox and not your sound volume issue.
…
It’s just as well Firefox stays quiet. Having sound in it would likely turn out to be negative. Volume is why this thread.

Back to your volume issue, wrt your sound volume levels, I assume your display does not have surround sound ? I ask that as I note in your mixer “Surround” playback=0%, “Center” playback=2%, “LFE” playback = 2%. And Line=0%.

Did you try increasing any of those volume levels?
None I tried had any effect. When Firefox ESR dropped alsa support (52, but whether that was during 42.1 or 42.3 I don’t remember) I tried installing pulseaudio, but it had no effect.

OK, but a lot else has changed in 15.1. Just because it was needed in 42.1 or 42.3 does not mean its needed now.

OK, then am I correct you hope to get sound by cable(s) running from the PC audio out to the pin jack audio inputs on your display? If that is so, then the ‘aplay’ for HDMI are not IMHO likely to yield sound. But the

aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav

should yield sound if PCH is sound card-0.

> aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
aplay: main:828: audio open error: Device or resource busy

Pulse audio has always ‘just worked’ on my PCs, so I have no experience in trying to help someone fix a non-functional pulse audio - unless its some strange configuration in your /home …
Until Firefox mucked things up, ALSA (aka KISS philosophy) did all I needed. :frowning:

Another good test … does sound work better for a brand new user?
No.

Hmmm … this reads to be complex, with a lot of extra things going on with ‘jack’.
I have no recollection what requires or suggests it. I can only guess

rpm -qi libjack0

…
Summary : Jack Audio Connection Kit Library
Description :
This package contains the library to access JACK
has to do with there being both digital (HDMI) and analog (legacy pin jacks) outputs available.

10

[quote="“mrmazda,post:9,topic:138112”]

It’s what Takashi suggested many moons ago.[/QUOTE]
Ok … and Takashi also explained why you should try this (from that thread):

(I edited Takashi post slightly to incorporate his fix).

IMHO its important to try and remember the reason for such edits, as later when things change in an openSUSE version, it might (or might not) help decide if such is still needed.

I note now that for an older version of openSUSE (LEAP-42.1) in year 2015 Takashi gave a recommendation, and explained why to try such. A lot may have changed in 4 years. … Also, i note Takashi suggested using the file 50-sound.conf and not the file 99-local.conf (although he left the possibility of using another .conf file ‘open’) . Out of curiousity, where did the suggestion to put the edits in the ‘99-local.conf’ come from? The edits in the 99-local.conf should accomplish the same (albeit timing slightly different) but nominally if helping in sound I would NEVER in 1,000 years think to look in 99-local.conf - it adds a level of obfuscation.

And have you tried without any 50-sound.conf and without any 99-local.conf edits ?

Was this with any 50-sound.conf or any 99-local.conf edits? Did you try a boot without these edits and then try “cat /proc/asound/cards” ? … i.e. is this the result of the 99-local.conf edits, or does this happen regardless of the edits?

The reason I ask, is I have no clue as to the baseline wrt sound on your PC, with the various tweaks, and it confuses me. I don’t have the depth of knowledge to see through many edits, and I don’t know where to start cause I may miss the point of some applied ‘tweak’ (which can affect the result).

IMHO this is good. … sort of … This likely means some other application has seized the audio device and it is refusing to share it. Any idea as to what that application may be?

I’ve never heard of such a thing. But then my hardware is different.

I ask again, are you using regular audio cables from an audio line out to plug in to the display’s audio line in? … Or are you trying to use some form of audio signal over the DVI to the display?

[quote=“mrmazda,post:9,topic:138112”]

No.[/QUOTE]
Ok - that suggests, that unless there are multiple problems (hopefully not) the issue is not at user level, but rather is at system level.

11

[quote="“oldcpu,post:10,topic:138112”]

I’ve never heard of such a thing. But then my hardware is different.[/quote]More detail about this PC and my two Kaby Lake PCs’ (audio)/video outputs:

> xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x45; cap: 0xf (Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload); crtcs: 3; outputs: 3; associated providers: 0; name: modesetting
    output VGA-1	# **VGA connector without cable connected**
    output HDMI-1	# **DVI cable**
    output HDMI-2	# **HDMI connector without cable connected**
> xrandr | egrep 'onnect|creen|\*' | grep -v disconn | sort -r
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-1 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 518mm x 324mm
   1920x1200     59.95*+
> inxi -GxxCSAMza
System:    Host: thishost Kernel: 4.12.14-lp151.28.16-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.1
           parameters: ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 noresume mitigations=auto consoleblank=0 vga=791
           video=1280x720@60 video=1024x768@60 video=1440x900@60 5
           Desktop: KDE 3 wm: kwin dm: N/A Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.1
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: B85-G41 PC Mate(MS-7850) v: 1.0 serial: <filter> BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2.9
           date: 03/30/2015
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-4150T bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell family: 6 model-id: 3C (60)
           stepping: 3 microcode: 27 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 4th Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: i915
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:041e
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: intel resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel **Haswell** v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.2 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:03.0 chip ID: 8086:0c0c
           Device-2: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:8c20
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.12.14-lp151.28.16-default
*****
# xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x47; cap: 0xf (Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload); crtcs: 3; outputs: 5; associated providers: 0; name: modesetting
    output DP-1		# **DisplayPort cable**
    output HDMI-1	# **nothing/nowhere/inexplicable**
    output HDMI-2	# **HDMI cable**
    output HDMI-3	# **Dual Link DVI cable**
    output DP-2		# **VGA connector without cable connected**
# xrandr | egrep 'onnect|creen|\*' | grep -v disconn | sort -r
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 3720, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-3 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
HDMI-2 connected 2560x1080+0+1200 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 673mm x 284mm
DP-1 connected primary 2560x1440+0+2280 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   2560x1440     59.95*+  74.92
   2560x1080     60.00*+
   1920x1200     59.95*+
# inxi -GxxCSAMza
System:    Host: ab250 Kernel: 4.12.14-lp151.28.16-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.1
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz noresume ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 mitigations=auto
           consoleblank=0 video=1024x768@60 video=1400x900@60 3
           Desktop: Trinity R14.0.6 tk: Qt 3.5.0 wm: Twin dm: startx Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.1
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME B250M-C v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1402
           date: 11/16/2018
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Pentium G4600 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake family: 6 model-id: 9E (158)
           stepping: 9 microcode: 8E L1 cache: 128 KiB L2 cache: 3072 KiB L3 cache: 3072 KiB...
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 630 vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:5912
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: modesetting resolution: 2560x1440~60Hz, 2560x1080~60Hz, 1920x1200~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 630 (**Kaby Lake** GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.2 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3
           chip ID: 8086:a2f0
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.12.14-lp151.28.16-default
*****
# xrandr --listproviders
Providers: number : 1
Provider 0: id: 0x47; cap: 0xf (Source Output, Sink Output, Source Offload, Sink Offload); crtcs: 3; outputs: 5; associated providers: 0; name: modesetting
    output HDMI-1	# **HDMI cable**
    output HDMI-2	# **Dual Link DVI cable**
    output DP-1		# **DisplayPort cable**
    output HDMI-3	# **nothing/nowhere/inexplicable**
    output DP-2		# **VGA connector without cable connected**
# xrandr | egrep 'onnect|creen|\*' | grep -v disconn | sort -r
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 3720, maximum 8192 x 8192
HDMI-2 connected 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 519mm x 324mm
HDMI-1 connected 2560x1080+0+1200 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 673mm x 284mm
DP-1 connected primary 2560x1440+0+2280 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 598mm x 336mm
   2560x1440     59.95*+  74.92
   2560x1080     60.00*+
   1920x1200     59.95*+
# inxi -GxxCSAMza
System:    Host: gb250 Kernel: 4.12.14-lp151.28.13-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.4.0
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz noresume ipv6.disable=1 net.ifnames=0 mitigations=auto
           consoleblank=0 video=1024x768@60 video=1440x900@60 3
           Desktop: Trinity R14.0.6 tk: Qt 3.5.0 wm: Twin dm: startx Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.1
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: B250M-D3H v: N/A serial: N/A
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: B250M-D3H-CF v: x.x serial: N/A UEFI: American Megatrends v: F10 date: 12/14/2018
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-7100T bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake family: 6 model-id: 9E (158)
           stepping: 9 microcode: 8E L1 cache: 128 KiB L2 cache: 3072 KiB L3 cache: 3072 KiB...
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 630 vendor: Gigabyte driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:5912
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: intel
           resolution: 2560x1080~60Hz, 1920x1200~60Hz, 2560x1440~60Hz
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 630 (**Kaby Lake** GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.2 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 200 Series PCH HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3
           chip ID: 8086:a2f0
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.12.14-lp151.28.13-default
12

Most likely as I previously replied, trying to keep the distro’s configuration separate from sysadmin configuration. However…

The edits in the 99-local.conf should accomplish the same (albeit timing slightly different) but nominally if helping in sound I would NEVER in 1,000 years think to look in 99-local.conf - it adds a level of obfuscation.
I wonder where the following came from:

# ls -Gg /etc/modprobe.d/*w
-rw-r--r-- 1 47 Mar 14  2019 99-local.conf.rpmnew
# cat /etc/modprobe.d/*w
#
# please add local extensions to this file
#

And have you tried without any 50-sound.conf and without any 99-local.conf edits ? Was this with any 50-sound.conf or any 99-local.conf edits? Did you try a boot without these edits and then try “cat /proc/asound/cards” ? … i.e. is this the result of the 99-local.conf edits, or does this happen regardless of the edits?
In 15.1 I only tried with neither file. Result was no sound from anything. Simply restoring both files and restarting KDE left both FF and SM with no Youtube sound.

‘setup-pulseaudio --disable; setup-pulseaudio --enable’ didn’t help AFAICT, but it lead to ‘zypper -v in alsa-plugins-pulse’, but still no browser sound. I got both of them back from ‘alsactl init’, ran the Kmix levels back up to the top, and tested with ‘aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav -Dplughw:0’, after which I booted again to preserve the current sound card state. Without the files, /proc/asound/cards position of HDMI & PCH are reversed, HDMI 0 & PCH 1.

Pavucontrol now works.

It seems possible the audio level from Youtube has increased slightly. I’ll have to sample more videos to be sure I’m not just having a better hearing night tonight. current alsa-info.txt

[quote]> aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
aplay: main:828: audio open error: Device or resource busy
IMHO this is good. … sort of … This likely means some other application has seized the audio device and it is refusing to share it. Any idea as to what that application may be?[/quote]Unless it’s SeaMonkey or KDE’s system sounds, no, and it hasn’t gone away since I got pavucontrol and Firefox sound working. Sometime after a fresh login I’ll have to try to remember to try before opening any browsers.

I ask again, are you using regular audio cables from an audio line out to plug in to the display’s audio line in? … Or are you trying to use some form of audio signal over the DVI to the display?
Post #11 addresses this. There is no digital audio connection to any speaker anywhere unless the actual HDMI connector is used, while my display speakers have no digital audio input except via DisplayPort. https://asset.msi.com/resize/image/global/product/five_pictures5_2845_20130515095000.png62405b38c58fe0f07fcef2367d8a9ba1/1024.png Xorg’s HDMI-1 video output is a fiction applied to a DVI output connector, so the only choice available to the speakers I use is one analog pin jack cable. I don’t know any way to associate a DVI video output connector with digital audio.

13

FF = Firefox. SM = Sea Monkey? Is it only YouTube that gives no sound with those two browsers? … Initially I was suspicious of a codec problem if that is the case - however if I read further, I think you have sound working now in both - its just you are not certain wrt volume levels.

Excellent. That is a big step in the right direction IMHO.

Another good step.

In the old days (back circa year-2012 and before then < gulp > ) I used to check for open files to see what application had seized the sound device, using the application “lsof” (list open files). Back then I would use:

lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*

However best to my knowledge, for some time with newer openSUSE versions there is no /dev/dsp*, nor /dev/audio*, nor /dev/mixer* … and only a /dev/snd/* …

When I run

lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*

I get:


oldcpu@linux-p15v:~> lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() tracefs file system /sys/kernel/debug/tracing
      Output information may be incomplete.
lsof: status error on /dev/dsp*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/audio*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/mixer*: No such file or directory
COMMAND    PID   USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF  NODE NAME
**pulseaudi** 1849 oldcpu   16u   CHR  116,2      0t0 13776 /dev/snd/controlC0
**pulseaudi** 1849 oldcpu   21u   CHR 116,16      0t0 18667 /dev/snd/controlC2
**pulseaudi** 1849 oldcpu   24u   CHR  116,9      0t0 19611 /dev/snd/controlC1
**pulseaudi** 1849 oldcpu   31u   CHR  116,9      0t0 19611 /dev/snd/controlC1

… where its pretty obvious on my PC that only ‘pulse audio’ has open files associated with sound in /dev … (unless I am missing a new /dev associated with sound). And my assumption is there are no sound devices associated with “tracefs file system /sys/kernel/debug/tracing” … although I could be wrong.

14

ATM I have:

> lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() tracefs file system /sys/kernel/debug/tracing
      Output information may be incomplete.
lsof: status error on /dev/dsp*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/audio*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/mixer*: No such file or directory
COMMAND    PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF  NODE NAME
pulseaudi 1658  ---   mem   CHR  116,3          20640 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
pulseaudi 1658  ---   mem   CHR  116,2          20639 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 1658  ---   16u   CHR 116,13      0t0 18778 /dev/snd/controlC1
pulseaudi 1658  ---   17u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   24u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   29u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   73u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   76u   CHR  116,2      0t0 20639 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 1658  ---   78u   CHR  116,3      0t0 20640 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
kmix      1792  ---   10u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
kmix      1792  ---   11u   CHR 116,13      0t0 18778 /dev/snd/controlC1
> aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
aplay: main:828: audio open error: Device or resource busy
> aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo

As to why I ever used the -D plughw:0,0 option with aplay I have no idea. It’s just what I found in old sound troubleshooting email and/or search hits.

As of now it seems like sound level seems to have been unaffected. I’m still straining to hear when volume is at 100% with some online videos, but not others. Using pavucontrol to raise sound to 157% (maximum) for SeaMonkey’s currently playing Youtube seems adequate for now, possibly the best that can be expected from tiny 2W display speakers.

15

“kmix” is unexpected by me to see here in this thread. … Nominally with my KDE in LEAP computers (I had 5 running LEAP at one point in time - now down to only 2 computers), “kmix” is not launched. I had thought one had to make an extra effort to setup and launch kmix all the time, and if I am correct, then I confess that I totally missed that kmix was being used by yourself (in this thread). That might (or might not) be relevant.

So … you are saying “aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav” works ?

My guess is kmix (?) might be blocking the ‘plughw:00’ from working.

As to why using ‘plughw:0,0’ ?? Well it is used to specifically send audio to a specific device, by varying the “hw:x,y” (where ‘x’ is a device and ‘y’ a subdevice). Its very useful especially for cases where one has multiple sound devices that might complicate the audio understanding assessment.

Audio level is of course specified inside multimedia files. Anyone who records audio and puts it in a file, should keep in mind that if they record a level too low, then some users may have a difficulty hearing such.
.

16

In both FF and SM while playing Youtubes, clicking the time bar drops the pavucontrol level from 153% to 100%, very highly annoying to recover from.

17

Not me saying so, but aplay suggesting so. In the past I’ve seen aplay make that claim without anything emanating from any speaker, but here it makes sound.

My guess is kmix (?) might be blocking the ‘plughw:00’ from working…
Closing kmix didn’t affect aplay:

> lsof /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/snd/*
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() tracefs file system /sys/kernel/debug/tracing
      Output information may be incomplete.
lsof: status error on /dev/dsp*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/audio*: No such file or directory
lsof: status error on /dev/mixer*: No such file or directory
COMMAND    PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF  NODE NAME
pulseaudi 1658  ---   mem   CHR  116,3          20640 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
pulseaudi 1658  ---   mem   CHR  116,2          20639 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 1658  ---   16u   CHR 116,13      0t0 18778 /dev/snd/controlC1
pulseaudi 1658  ---   17u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   24u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   29u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   73u   CHR  116,6      0t0 20682 /dev/snd/controlC0
pulseaudi 1658  ---   76u   CHR  116,2      0t0 20639 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
pulseaudi 1658  ---   78u   CHR  116,3      0t0 20640 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c
> aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
aplay: main:828: audio open error: Device or resource busy
> aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
18

If you are a Google chrome user, then you can update your browser http://prntscr.com/ph8itz and get this solution very quickly.

19

I’m not. I stick with FOSS, and almost entirely with Mozilla products for web use.

, then you can update your browser Screenshot by Lightshot and get this solution very quickly.
I don’t see a connection between that and this problem.