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#1 2017-01-11 06:51:10

NiklArchs
Member
Registered: 2017-01-11
Posts: 3

[SOLVED] Audio issue, can only hear test sound as root and from laptop

Hi!

I'm having a tiny issue with my sound, more precisely that I don't hear any sound except for beeps, unless I play it as root. I'm using a HP laptop and

[niklas@localhost ~]$ uname -a
Linux localhost 4.8.13-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Dec 9 07:24:34 CET 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

The sound used to work before christmas, but since I've come back to work it has stopped working. I know that
I had to do something to get it to work back then too, but I can't remember what it was. My audio devices are as follows:

[niklas@localhost ~]$ lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Turks HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500/6600 / 6700M Series]
 

and I've made sure that mute is not the problem. I use alsa and don't have pulseaudio installed. One thing I've found that doesn't really seem right is

[niklas@localhost ~]$ speaker-test 

speaker-test 1.1.3

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to create IPC semaphore
Playback open error: -13,Permission denied

but if I run it as root I hear noise from the laptop speakers, even though I have a 3,5mm headset plugged in.
I've also ran the "ALSA Information Script" for more extensive information.

I've been googling for some hours but haven't found any solution that works for me, so I'm humbly asking you for any advice on what to try next. If I forgot anything important
I apologize, and will gladly supply that information if asked to!

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: So, for some reason I got the sound to my headset this time at least. I can only play sound as root still though and speaker-test doesn't really do it for me musically. Had to mute Mic and turn Line Boost down to 0 to stop a scraping noise that started when the sound started to come out of the headset.

Last edited by NiklArchs (2017-01-11 09:22:23)

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#2 2017-01-11 09:01:05

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,428

Re: [SOLVED] Audio issue, can only hear test sound as root and from laptop

Can you post

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

also every mention of alsaequal I see on the internet, specifically mentions that you should create an user local ~/.asoundrc containing the configuration, so it might be that the alsaequal plug hogs the interface as the running user, which will be root in the system wide case. Therefore move that configuration to your local user directory, reboot and retry.

Something else I notice, which will surely cause you trouble further down the line: You shouldn't have localhost as your hostname, properly define one: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ne … e_hostname

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#3 2017-01-11 09:20:04

NiklArchs
Member
Registered: 2017-01-11
Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Audio issue, can only hear test sound as root and from laptop

Well, that made it very clear what the problem was.. My VM was hogging the sound and turning it off solved my problem! I don't seem to have an ~/.asoundrc file at all but I have a /etc/asound.conf, so I copied it in place for local use instead of global.

As for the hostname I don't even remember switching it or why, but thanks for pointing it out, I'll get it changed immediately!

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#4 2017-01-11 13:10:43

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,428

Re: [SOLVED] Audio issue, can only hear test sound as root and from laptop

Yeah fuser is a command to remember, especially in this case it tells you where a permission issue due to an application might lie. The /etc/asound.conf vs. ~/.asoundrc was likely a red hering and probably shouldn't matter, but is just something I stumbled on when I googled for that. Yeah you don't remember changing the hostname because you never did tongue , localhost is the default hostname if there is none and this can lead to all sorts of issues, because it also a "reserved keyword" for certain purposes.

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#5 2017-01-11 13:27:41

NiklArchs
Member
Registered: 2017-01-11
Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] Audio issue, can only hear test sound as root and from laptop

V1del wrote:

Yeah fuser is a command to remember, especially in this case it tells you where a permission issue due to an application might lie. The /etc/asound.conf vs. ~/.asoundrc was likely a red hering and probably shouldn't matter, but is just something I stumbled on when I googled for that. Yeah you don't remember changing the hostname because you never did tongue , localhost is the default hostname if there is none and this can lead to all sorts of issues, because it also a "reserved keyword" for certain purposes.

It's actually a bit embarassing than that. I changed it at first, but I used the root account and never made a user account for the first weeks after installing due to time constraints, when I then made my regular user account I forgot to change it from "localhost". hmm

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