[SOLVED] alsa speaker test - sound repeats

witts_end · 2010-10-24 04:00:33

I've been running Arch on a desktop machine for several years now and never had any Alsa problems. I recently swapped out the Asus K8V-x mainboard in this machine for an Asus A8V-x board. With both boards I have been using the on board sound only, no sound card installed. Video card in both builds is an ATI Radeon 9250.
With the A8V-x build, and Arch release 2010.05 install, came an Alsa config problem. The Arch base system, X, and Gnome all install without problems, except for sound. Everything seems normal with regard to alsamixer volume controls but the sound test using '$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav' results in a continuously repeating 'front, front, front.........' speaker output. This looping effect can't seem to be stopped short of a control-alt-delete reboot.
I've been through the Arch alsa wiki and the results of discovering the audio device and checking which sound modules are loaded seem pretty normal in comparison to the wiki info.
In searching various forums for this particular I don't find much discussion specific to my particular issue.
If anyone can provide some feedback or advise a direction for further troubleshooting it would be appreciated.

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: VT82xx [HDA VIA VT82xx], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: VT82xx [HDA VIA VT82xx], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lsmod|grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_hda_codec_analog  72140  1
snd_seq_dummy         1463   0
snd_seq_oss           28792  0
snd_seq_midi_event    5436   1   snd_seq_oss
snd_seq               50146  5   snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device        5297   3   snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss           39189  0
snd_mixer_oss         17106  1   snd_pcm_oss
snd_hda_intel         22285  0
snd_hda_codec         77223  2   snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep             6110   1   snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm               71445  3   snd_pcm_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer             19265  2   snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                   57626  11  snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
snd_page_alloc        7249   2   snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

I was able to find reference to the same problem on a Fedora related site. The successful fix was to add the following to modprobe.conf.

options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 single_cmd=1

Last edited by witts_end (2010-11-05 18:08:39)

Mago · 2014-02-26 05:25:49

Hi, sorry to revive this old topic, but I want tell that it work for me.

I'm not a Arch user, actually I'm using Debian, but this work! I having this problem with Slackware. Any sound that I start with aplay or alsaplayer, loop the beginning endlessly, continuously.
Because my little knowledge in GNU/Linux and short time, I change to Debian hoping that it was a missed configuration of my system.

I'm using Debian 7 32 bit, Kernel 3.2.0-4.

My Sound Card:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: VT82xx [HDA VIA VT82xx], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: VT82xx [HDA VIA VT82xx], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

My Codec:

cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 | grep Codec
Codec: Analog Devices AD1986A

In this version, I need to change the file /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf from this:

# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2

To this:

# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-hda-intel enable_msi=0 single_cmd=1

Thanks witts_end.

Sorry again to revive this post.

Inxsible · 2014-03-26 18:32:53

Mago, thanks for providing another solution. I'll go ahead and close this thread now.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-24 04:00:33

[SOLVED] alsa speaker test - sound repeats

#2 2014-02-26 05:25:49

Re: [SOLVED] alsa speaker test - sound repeats

#3 2014-03-26 18:32:53

Re: [SOLVED] alsa speaker test - sound repeats

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