Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

NGCjmo · 2014-06-20 13:08:29

Check new message dated 30.06.2014

Hi,

I'm having a weird problem. After booting my computer, the audio sometimes works perfectly, sometimes not at all, and sometimes it works on some programs but not on others. For example last night audio played without problem on Chromium, VLC and Amarok. Today after boot it played on VLC, but not Amarok (didn't realise to check Chromium), and now after reboot it plays on VLC and Amarok but not on Chromium.

Chromium means YouTube (HTML5) and others (Flash).

My DE is KDE (was xfce4 with mostly same audio trouble). Soundcard is USB DAC (SMSL Fort) and on KDE's Audio and Video setting I have it listed at the top and the "test" button works (i.e. it plays a sound).

$ lsmod | grep '^snd'
snd_hda_codec_realtek    54547  1 
snd_usb_audio         131640  2 
snd_hda_codec_generic    56366  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     40208  1 
snd_usbmidi_lib        21428  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            20278  1 snd_usbmidi_lib
snd_seq_device          5244  1 snd_rawmidi
snd_hda_intel          22270  4 
snd_hda_controller     22911  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec         104665  5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_hwdep               6652  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                83207  5 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_timer              19294  1 snd_pcm
snd                    60780  24 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device

$ ls -l /dev/snd/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root       60 Jun 20 15:48 by-id
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root      100 Jun 20 15:48 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  2 Jun 20 15:48 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  8 Jun 20 15:48 controlC1
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  6 Jun 20 15:48 controlC2
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  5 Jun 20 15:48 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 13 Jun 20 15:48 hwC1D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  3 Jun 20 15:48 pcmC0D3p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  4 Jun 20 15:48 pcmC0D7p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 10 Jun 20 15:48 pcmC1D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  9 Jun 20 15:48 pcmC1D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 11 Jun 20 15:48 pcmC1D1p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 12 Jun 20 15:48 pcmC1D2c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  7 Jun 20 15:57 pcmC2D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  1 Jun 20 15:48 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Jun 20 15:48 timer

Many thanks.

Last edited by NGCjmo (2014-06-30 16:55:39)

firekage · 2014-06-20 13:11:26

What is the ouput of cat /proc/asound/cards, aplay -l?

For an example:

[firekage@arch_desktop ~]$ cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [XFi            ]: SB-XFi - Creative X-Fi
                      Creative X-Fi 20K1 SB073x
 1 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xf6080000 irq 17
 2 [U0x46d0x825    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x825
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x825 at usb-0000:00:14.0-7, high speed
[firekage@arch_desktop ~]$

[firekage@arch_desktop ~] aplay -l
card 0: XFi [Creative X-Fi], device 4: ctxfi [IEC958 Non-audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
[firekage@arch_desktop ~]$

I think that you have multiple sound devices and their boot order changes after each reboot.

Last edited by firekage (2014-06-20 13:13:05)

NGCjmo · 2014-06-20 13:26:31

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xdfc34000 irq 47
 1 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xdfc30000 irq 46
 2 [DAC            ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio DAC
                      Burr-Brown from TI USB Audio DAC at usb-0000:00:14.0-9, full speed

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: DAC [USB Audio DAC], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

firekage · 2014-06-20 15:02:23

If i understand:
-0 is hdmi card from graphic card?
-1 is from motherboard?

Which card would you like to use as a default one? You have to assing correct order for this device. If i'm not wrong, ALC892 is an Realtek device, it is your sound card from motherboard. If you want to use it as a default sound device, you should create something like this, assuming that you use alsa as a sound server:

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

options snd slots=snd_hda_intel,snd_usb_audio
options snd_hda_intel index=0
options snd_usb_audio index=1

If you don't use Alsa, but rather pulseaudio than install pavucontrol and choose in gui default sound card (check the correct one by a checkbox).

BTw - i forgot to mention about one thing. If you use kmix with KDE than in multimedia settings you can choose default sound card, place it above all others and it should works too (but...in fact, sometimes it does not, that's why i have placed something similar in alsa-base.conf). If you have usb sound device, that is plugged, you use udev and have kmix from kde than KDE will always asks to forget sound devices because udev will detect USB that is plugged in, and plugged out during reboots.

Last edited by firekage (2014-06-20 15:06:16)

NGCjmo · 2014-06-20 17:51:20

I forgot to mention that KDE has asked to forget about the devices, to which I answered yes. This didn't seem to make much difference. And I'm using ALSA.

And my hardware setup is: Asus Z97-A mobo w/ integrated ALC892 soundcard and integrated graphics from Intel i5-4670K. And then the USB DAC that I actually use to plug my headphones on. I don't have "normal" speakers at all.

But what I don't get is: Even if I'm using the USB DAC should I still put the snd_hda_intel as index=0? I actually did try that alsa-base.conf couple of days ago (found it on wiki), but then I put snd_usb_audio index=0 and the sound stopped working completely.

And finally, I will give that alsa-base.conf a try now. Will report back after some testing and rebooting.

EDIT: After using that alsa-base.conf the exact way as above Chromium sounds were still not working. But I changed so that snd_usb_audio was 0 and snd_hda_intel was 1. And now sound has worked for two reboots on all programs. I don't know why it didn't work for me before? Perhaps I forgot the first line, or typo'd something.

As for know, I'll mark this thread as [SOLVED] and change it back if more problems arise. Big thanks to firekage.

Last edited by NGCjmo (2014-06-20 18:11:58)

NGCjmo · 2014-06-30 16:54:50

Hi,

I have to reopen this thread because it seems that the problem isn't gone yet after all (and it's starting to piss me off ). So, yesterday audio wasn't working (on any program) on first boot, but after reboot it worked fine. Today I tried rebooting twice, but it still won't work, so I'm falling back to the integrated for now. Here is a screenshot from Kmix when the audio is not working.

Any ideas?

Arch Linux

#1 2014-06-20 13:08:29

Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

#2 2014-06-20 13:11:26

Re: Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

#3 2014-06-20 13:26:31

Re: Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

#4 2014-06-20 15:02:23

Re: Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

#5 2014-06-20 17:51:20

Re: Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

#6 2014-06-30 16:54:50

Re: Audio doesn't work on some programs after boot (sometimes)

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