[SOLVED] Audio not working after system update

vrg · 2012-10-29 06:04:48

Hi all,

About 4 days ago, I installed Arch Linux (full systemd) with LXDE on a Dell Inspiron Mini netbook. Everything seemed to be OK until today, when I did pacman -Syu and then installed the SLiM login manager. After rebooting there was no audio. I am not sure if this happened because of the upgrade or because of SLiM. I am pretty new to systemd, so I could be missing something very obvious. I have tried many things so far, with no success:

1) I disabled SLiM and instead started X from the terminal at boot, and nothing happened.

2) I have removed my username from the 'audio' group, added it again, removed it, etc... No change.

3) I downgraded systemd, systemd-sysvcompat, and xine-lib (just in case) to their previous version and nothing happened.

4) I seem to be detecting the sound card correctly. If I run "aplay -l" as my normal, non-root user I get the same output as the root user:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC272 Analog [ALC272 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

5) If I login with SLiM, my session seems to be setup correctly, as far as I can tell:

$ loginctl show-session $XDG_SESSION_ID
Id=1
Timestamp=Mon, 2012-10-29 00:38:35 EDT
TimestampMonotonic=14973592
DefaultControlGroup=name=systemd:/user/vrg/1
VTNr=7
Display=:0.0
Remote=no
RemoteUser=root
Service=slim
Leader=274
Audit=1
Type=x11
Class=user
Active=yes
State=active
KillProcesses=no
IdleHint=no
IdleSinceHint=0
IdleSinceHintMonotonic=0
Name=vrg

6) I reinstalled pulseaudio, pulseaudio-alsa, alsa-plugins, and alsa-oss... Nothing.

7) I do not have the ~/.asoundrc file.

Here is a full list of the packages I upgraded:

[2012-10-28 11:19] Running 'pacman -Syy'
[2012-10-28 11:19] synchronizing package lists
[2012-10-28 11:19] Running 'pacman -Syu'
[2012-10-28 11:19] synchronizing package lists
[2012-10-28 11:19] starting full system upgrade
[2012-10-28 11:20] upgraded linux-api-headers (3.5.5-1 -> 3.6.3-1)
[2012-10-28 11:20] Generating locales...
[2012-10-28 11:20]   en_US.UTF-8... done
[2012-10-28 11:20] Generation complete.
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded glibc (2.16.0-4 -> 2.16.0-5)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded binutils (2.22-10 -> 2.23-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded bison (2.6.2-1 -> 2.6.4-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded coreutils (8.19-1 -> 8.20-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded systemd (194-4 -> 195-2)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded device-mapper (2.02.97-1 -> 2.02.98-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded cryptsetup (1.5.0-2 -> 1.5.1-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] installed nss-myhostname (0.3-3)
[2012-10-28 11:21] warning: /etc/shadow installed as /etc/shadow.pacnew
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded filesystem (2012.10-1 -> 2012.10-2)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded firefox (16.0.1-1 -> 16.0.2-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded gcc-libs (4.7.2-1 -> 4.7.2-2)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded gcc (4.7.2-1 -> 4.7.2-2)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded lirc-utils (1:0.9.0-32 -> 1:0.9.0-33)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded lvm2 (2.02.97-1 -> 2.02.98-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded mkinitcpio (0.10-1 -> 0.11.0-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded syslinux (4.05-7 -> 4.06-1)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded systemd-sysvcompat (194-4 -> 195-2)
[2012-10-28 11:21] upgraded xine-lib (1.2.2-2 -> 1.2.2-3)

More information:

$ ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root      60 Oct 29 00:38 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  5 Oct 29 00:38 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  4 Oct 29 00:38 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  3 Oct 29 00:38 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116,  2 Oct 29 01:53 pcmC0D0p
crw-------  1 root root 116,  1 Oct 29 00:38 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root root 116, 33 Oct 29 00:38 timer

$ lsmod | grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_hda_codec_realtek  52245  1
snd_hda_intel          22256  1
snd_hda_codec          83677  2  snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              4746   1  snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                61470  2  snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc         5869   2  snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              14902  1  snd_pcm
snd                    44874  8  snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel

If I run 'fuser -v /dev/snd/*' I get nothing (blank) and if I run 'fuser -v /dev/dsp' I get file not found. I've also done 'amixer sset Master unmute' and 'speaker-test'. Everything seems OK, except that I can't hear anything!

Any help or suggestions that could point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by vrg (2012-10-29 07:25:36)

Rasi · 2012-10-29 06:43:41

have you checked all sliders in alsamixer?

vrg · 2012-10-29 07:24:14

Thanks Rasi. Incidentally, I just solved the issue a few minutes ago and was about to post the answer, but yes, you are right... the device was muted. It's embarrassing, but it did not seem obvious to me that the device was muted... All the sliders seemed OK, with nice, green values between 50 and 100. Also, the LXDE volume control was unmuted with a value between 50% and 100%, and I ran the 'amixer sset Master unmute' command several times. Clearly, this command does not do the job.

What I was missing is nicely described in the PulseAudio troubleshooting:

If one experiences no audio output via any means while using ALSA, attempt to unmute the sound card. To do this, launch alsamixer and make sure each column has a green 00 under it (this can be toggled by pressing 'm')

I was not pressing 'm'... I know it's on the wiki, but this did not seem to be a PulseAudio issue, which was working perfectly yesterday and was not upgraded, so the PulseAudio troubleshooting was not the first place I looked for solutions. I wonder why the device got muted in the first place.

Thanks again for the help!

Arch Linux

#1 2012-10-29 06:04:48

[SOLVED] Audio not working after system update

#2 2012-10-29 06:43:41

Re: [SOLVED] Audio not working after system update

#3 2012-10-29 07:24:14

Re: [SOLVED] Audio not working after system update

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