Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

fusion809 · 2016-02-27 03:55:54

Hi,

I have noticed that Pulseaudio is not working for either VLC or Spotify and by "not working" I mean I am getting no audio whatsoever. Switching VLC's audio module (in the "Simple Preferences" window, under the "Audio" tab. This window was opened by going to Tools->Preferences) to "ALSA audio output" causes its audio to work, but with the default option of "Automatic" there is no audio. Likewise switching the audio module setting to "Pulseaudio output module" causes there to be no audio output from VLC. So I am confident that Pulseaudio is causing the problem with VLC. As for Spotify, to my knowledge it uses Pulseaudio by default and I have found it providing me with no volume (and yes volume in the program itself is set to 100%, it is not muted either). Spotify was installed from the AUR with Yaourt, if that detail is at all helpful. Running:

$ start-pulseaudio-x11

did not fix this problem (i.e., Spotify still has no volume) and produced no output. I have checked that my master volume and other volume settings are correctly set with

$ alsamixer -c 0

as the Wiki's Pulseaudio Troubleshooting guide suggested and set the relevant settings (as I am using my headphones only so I do not need to set my speaker to 100%) to 100% (with 00 underneath them). I have also run:

$ pulseaudio -k
$ pulseaudio --start

per the Wiki's instructions, although my volume in Spotify is still non-existent (these commands produced no output, in relevant). I have also tried running:

$ amixer -D pulse sset Master toggle

which returned:

ALSA lib control.c:954:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL pulse
amixer: Mixer attach pulse error: No such file or directory

although installing pulseaudio-alsa caused that error to disappear (although still no audio output in Spotify, after restarting Spotify) and caused this output instead to appear:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]

and:

$ pacmd list-sink-inputs

which returned an output I couldn't see any errors in, myself:

1 sink input(s) available.
    index: 0
        driver: <protocol-native.c>
        flags: START_CORKED 
        state: CORKED
        sink: 0 <auto_null>
        volume: front-left: 36699 /  56% / -15.11 dB,   front-right: 36699 /  56% / -15.11 dB
                balance 0.00
        muted: no
        current latency: 1842.70 ms
        requested latency: 980.00 ms
        sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
        channel map: front-left,front-right
                     Stereo
        resample method: (null)
        module: 7
        client: 5 <Spotify>
        properties:
                media.role = "music"
                media.name = "Spotify"
                application.name = "Spotify"
                native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
                native-protocol.version = "30"
                application.process.id = "22243"
                application.process.user = "fusion809"
                application.process.host = "brenton-pc"
                application.process.binary = "spotify"
                window.x11.display = ":0"
                application.language = "en_AU.UTF-8"
                application.process.machine_id = "ce2daebcea9e48f8bda2d24819933c4d"
                application.process.session_id = "c2"
                application.icon_name = "spotify-client"
                module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-media-role:music"

This did not start after a suspend, so I did not follow the instructions in that section at the ArchWiki article previously linked, I saw this thread and hence ran:

$ pulseaudio --log-level=4 --log-target=file:log.txt

to get some (hopefully) helpful output, namely: http://paste2.org/4k57Kcmt. The package jack is installed, if that is somehow relevant. I've been trying to provide as much detail here as I can possibly think of as potentially being relevant. If there is something I missed, just ask and I will provide the info you request.

Thanks for your time,
Brenton

Last edited by fusion809 (2016-02-27 04:10:56)

fusion809 · 2016-02-27 04:03:47

I just noticed that the audio is not running (i.e., no audio whatsoever) in Google Chrome when watching YouTube videos, if that is relevant to this problem.

Last edited by fusion809 (2016-02-27 04:14:01)

V1del · 2016-02-27 09:09:23

Your pulseaudio is likely configured to play to the wrong card or you are blocking access to your card by having an ALSA using program directly take over the card instead of routing it via pulseaudio-alsa, in general you should manipulate pulseaudio via it's own tools like pacmd and pavucontrol instead of setting the ALSA compatibility sink with amixer. While you posted a few relevant bits and pieces, we still have no clue what cards are on your system and what it is that pulseaudio detects and tries to use. Can you post the following

aplay -lL #Lowercase l followed by uppercase -L
sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
pacmd list-cards
pacmd list-sinks

Last edited by V1del (2016-02-27 09:13:05)

fusion809 · 2016-02-27 09:23:53

That returns:

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, CX20590 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CX20590 Analog [CX20590 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  fusion809   2795 F.... java
                     fusion809   6177 F.... vlc
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p:   fusion809   2795 F...m java
                     fusion809   6177 F...m vlc
/dev/snd/timer:      fusion809   2795 f.... java
                     fusion809   6177 f.... vlc
Daemon not responding.
Daemon not responding.

V1del · 2016-02-27 11:25:39

You have a whole lot of stuff blocking access to your card, can you identify which java program is blocking access here? which JVM are you using? if you use something with java 8 pulseaudio support should technically be available. what happens if you quit the offending java process and vlc and then try to restart pulseaudio with e.g.

systemctl --user start pulseaudio

and then try to use programs that use pulseaudio (vlc with pulse set as output or chromium or other programs) if you get pulseaudio can you repost the last 2 commands?

Last edited by V1del (2016-02-27 11:27:09)

bt · 2016-02-28 12:05:46

Works in gnome-mplayer, LXMusic simple music player, Firefox. Does not play in vlc or Chrome.

Correction: The headset works in vlc. The separate speaker system does not. The speaker system works perfectly for Firefox, etc.

EDIT: The pulseaudio volume control show volume working on built-in audio, but no sound from the speakers.

Last edited by bt (2016-02-28 12:22:24)

V1del · 2016-02-28 12:27:25

@bt it's very unlikely that your problem is the same as OP's if you want help with it you should open a separate thread, and provide all the info I asked for here, preferably while having a working and non working program open

fusion809 · 2016-02-29 06:40:45

@V1del, the only Java program I run on a regular basis (or ran when I got this error) was RuneScape and I ran it with OpenJDK 7. I closed it, ran

systemctl --user start pulseaudio

and re-opened Spotify and it made no difference.

V1del · 2016-02-29 16:20:14

Repost the fuser command, and the last 2 if you actually get something meaningful out of them. If neither is the case try something like

systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.socket 
pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio --log-level=4 --log-target=file:log.txt

That output should contain some actually relevant info

Arch Linux

#1 2016-02-27 03:55:54

Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#2 2016-02-27 04:03:47

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#3 2016-02-27 09:09:23

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#4 2016-02-27 09:23:53

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#5 2016-02-27 11:25:39

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#6 2016-02-28 12:05:46

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#7 2016-02-28 12:27:25

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#8 2016-02-29 06:40:45

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

#9 2016-02-29 16:20:14

Re: Pulseaudio fails to work for VLC and Spotify

Board footer