Arch Linux

nesk

Member

Registered: 2011-03-31

Posts: 181

[solved] USB sound card not producing sound

Hi,
When connected, it just produces quiet white noise in headphones. It's some kind of a clone card (pic), I think that's why it's called "Device" in ALSA outputs.
Here's the journal:

Jun 25 17:47:26 arch kernel: input: C-Media Electronics Inc.       USB PnP Sound Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-2/2-2.1/2-2.1:1.3/0003:8086:0808.0008/input/input32
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch acpid[389]: inotify read bytes: 32
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch acpid[389]: inotify name len: 16
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch acpid[389]: inotify about to open: /dev/input/event29
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch acpid[389]: input layer /dev/input/event29 (C-Media Electronics Inc.       USB PnP Sound Device) opened successfully, fd 31
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch mtp-probe[9005]: checking bus 2, device 15: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-2/2-2.1"
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch mtp-probe[9005]: bus: 2, device: 15 was not an MTP device
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch kernel: hid-generic 0003:8086:0808.0008: input,hidraw5: USB HID v1.00 Device [C-Media Electronics Inc.       USB PnP Sound Device] on usb-0000:00:14.0-2.1/input3
Jun 25 17:47:26 arch systemd-udevd[9007]: Process '/usr/bin/alsactl restore 3' failed with exit code 99.

This is how ALSA sees it.

$ aplay -L | grep :CARD
default:CARD=Device
sysdefault:CARD=Device
front:CARD=Device,DEV=0
surround21:CARD=Device,DEV=0
surround40:CARD=Device,DEV=0
surround41:CARD=Device,DEV=0
surround50:CARD=Device,DEV=0
surround51:CARD=Device,DEV=0
surround71:CARD=Device,DEV=0
iec958:CARD=Device,DEV=0

So I'm trying to test it with this:

$ speaker-test -t sine -D iec958:Device -c 2
$ speaker-test -t sine -D default:Device -c 2
$ speaker-test -t sine -D sysdefault:Device -c 2
$ speaker-test -t sine -D front:Device -c 2

Nothing works (same white noise in headphones). Any tips please?

Last edited by nesk (2017-06-26 07:59:05)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,743

Re: [solved] USB sound card not producing sound

Since the alsactl restore fails, as it tries to restore a card nr 3 which doesn't exist, have you confirmed that the outputs aren't still muted? Whats the output of

amixer -c0
aplay -l

Last edited by V1del (2017-06-25 17:25:25)

nesk

Member

Registered: 2011-03-31

Posts: 181

Re: [solved] USB sound card not producing sound

Thanks for replying. I see some volumes on Left/Right:

$ aplay -l
# <Other cards>
card 3: Device [USB PnP Sound Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
$ amixer -c3
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 151
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 44 [29%] [-20.13dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 44 [29%] [-20.13dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined cvolume cvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 127 Capture 0 - 16
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [0.00dB] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Auto Gain Control',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,743

Re: [solved] USB sound card not producing sound

Are you absolutely certain your speaker-tests go to the correct device? In general your volume is a bit low try to up that, and you might want to try and use different sampling rates e.g.

speaker-test -t sine -r48000 $device

also because it happens often enough, the headphones you plug in aren't muted themselves and/or you did connect it to the correct jack and not accidentally into the mic output or something?

nesk

Member

Registered: 2011-03-31

Posts: 181

Re: [solved] USB sound card not producing sound

Thanks V1del, solved it. Key was to choose correct card in alsamixer (pressing F6 is easier).