Arch Linux

buffalo

Member

Registered: 2015-02-02

Posts: 8

[SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

Yesterday I installed Arch and it has been going well except that I can not get my sound working. Following https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad … chitecture I installed alsa-utils and then used alsamixer to unmute channels. While I experimented with the channels I had a youtube video open and so I should have heard something if it had worked.

I seem to have two sound cards. When I run alsamixer it defaults to the "Intel Haswell HDMI" chip and "Item: S/PDIF". I can unmute the S/PDIF channels but there is no volume bar. I suspect that this device is set as a default somewhere but it is not the one I want to use.

Hitting F6 and choosing the "HDA Intel PCH" card has many columns. I have them all unmuted and I've played around quite a bit with turning various things up and down. The speaker I have in plugged into the back of the desktop I am using and is attached with both a round pale green connector and a usb connector.

When I turn up the volume on the <Rear Mic> I can hear the static volume go up on the speaker. So I could change the volume on the speaker but the speaker was not getting audio from the web browser I had open.  When I turn up the volume on the <Front Mic> I can hear a high pitched noise increase, my only guess for where its coming from is the tiny speaker that I have plugged right into the motherboard.

I've tried researching and I would like to try and change the default sound card like in this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=186597. But I'm afraid that I'm newer to Arch/Linux than those people or at least I'm confused trying to follow that advice. My /etc/modprobe.d directory is empty. If I made a .conf file like in that answer I would not know what to name it.

Here is the output of some relevant (hopefully) commands:

$ lspci -vnn | grep -A 1 -i audio
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor HD Audio Controller [8086:0c0c] (rev 06)
	Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device [1849:0c0c]
--
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series/C220 Series Chipset High Definition Audio Controller [8086:8c20] (rev 05)
	Subsystem: ASRock Incorporation Device [1849:8892]

$ aplay -lL
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=1
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=2
    HDA Intel HDMI, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
default:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
**** 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 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  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

lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     53248  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    65536  1 
snd_hda_codec_generic    65536  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_intel          28672  0 
snd_hda_controller     28672  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec         114688  5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_hwdep              16384  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                90112  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_timer              28672  1 snd_pcm
snd                    69632  8 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
soundcore              16384  2 snd,snd_hda_codec

$ speaker-test

speaker-test 1.0.29

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1024:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

Thank you for reading.

Last edited by buffalo (2015-06-13 22:47:37)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,601

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

Is pulseaudio installed, and is it running?

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buffalo

Member

Registered: 2015-02-02

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

No it is not installed.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,999

Website

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

I think you just need to do as @emeres suggested in your linked thread and create a file at /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf with this content:

options snd_hda_intel index=1

Either reboot or use these commands to reload the module with the new options:

# modprobe -rv snd_hda_intel
# modprobe -v snd_hda-intel

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,601

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

Okay, lets take a look at aplay -l,  and also of amixer -c 0.  Run that second commands for each sound card (I think you've two) by starting with 0 as shown, and incrment that parameter for each card.

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

buffalo

Member

Registered: 2015-02-02

Posts: 8

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

I followed Head_on_a_Stick's advice and the speaker is now working! Thank you so much Head_on_a_Stick. The one other time I posted on this forum was last February and you helped me out then too. You are my favorite!

Thank you ewaller as well, but rather than look at aplay -l I think I will mark this thread as [SOLVED].

The thing I'm still curious about is how did you know what to name the file  /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf ?

Time for me to figure out how to get the headphone jack working.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,999

Website

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

The thing I'm still curious about is how did you know what to name the file  /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf ?

The name is irrelevant, see modprobe.d(5)

Glad you got it working

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Thorvald

Banned

Registered: 2015-10-27

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED]No Sound - ALSA - Maybe wrong audio device.

It works like a charm