Arch Linux

jcmeza

Member

Registered: 2012-07-28

Posts: 11

alsa keeps choosing the incorrect sound device

Hello to all, I have the following issue,
it's random, but 90% of the times my computer boots, my volume manager(volwheel) has an "x" instead of the sound meter, and it's because alsa is choosing my USB wecam's mic as a default sound device instead of my intel PCH integrated sound card.
I have tried what is in the archwiki article "Advanced Linux Sound Architecture" in the sections: "Random Lack of Sound on Startup", "No Sound with Onboard Intel Sound Card" and "Set the default sound card" to make sure I have all the correct settings.

aplay -l gives back:

[jay@(none) ~]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC662 rev1 Digital [ALC662 rev1 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
[jay@(none) ~]$

I check in alsamixer and the "USB2.0 camera" is selected as the sound device, and even if I try to change it(I'm not really sure if you can change it in alsamixer) it will not switch to "HDA Intel PCH".
I asked in #archlinux, but no one seems to know what the problem is. Again, the issue is random, but by now I'm clueless on how to fix it, any ideas will be greately appreciated.

Jay.

Last edited by jcmeza (2012-07-28 19:04:02)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,700

Re: alsa keeps choosing the incorrect sound device

It sounds like whichever device is enumerated first, wins.
Compare the output of dmesg when it works the way you want, versus the way you do not want.  See if the order in which they are enumerated changes.
Are you using initscripts or systemd  ??  (If you don't know, it is the former)

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brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: alsa keeps choosing the incorrect sound device

Useful debugging info:

wget -O alsa-info.sh http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh
bash alsa-info.sh --upload

Then show us the URL that the script shows at the end.

Jasa

Banned

Registered: 2011-08-05

Posts: 41

Re: alsa keeps choosing the incorrect sound device

Having usb camera and also television card myself, it had likewise issues in past where tv card won the selection of being main target.
To fix that is to modify /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf and add "options snd-usb-audio index=-2" (for usb camera audio) and also some other minor "tweaks" what gets working only if the line of modprobe.conf is being put to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf where it reads there by default and new initramfs made for kernel with "mkinitcpio -p linux".

Beemer

Member

Registered: 2012-05-02

Posts: 13

Re: alsa keeps choosing the incorrect sound device

I've had the same issue in keep my volumeicon and alsa device sync'd.

I posted a perl script that let's you sync them: http://bbs.archbang.org/viewtopic.php?id=3107

It assumes you're using 'volumeicon' and 'asoundconf' but could be modified to use whatever.

Beemer