Arch Linux

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,723

sound not working sometimes after boot

With my new system I've occasionally encountered a problem with sound.
Unfortunately I forgot to copy the exact error message, but it came from alsa and stated it couldn't use a pcm .
I used aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav to verify at which level the issue occurs.

journal from boot with the issue at http://0x0.st/PNxN.txt
joumal after rebooting where sound works normally http://0x0.st/PNxq.txt

Below are the outputs of aplay -l & -L from the working situation.
The motherboard is an ASRock X870E Taichi Lite that presents the onboard audio as usbaudio .

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Audio [USB Audio], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audio [USB Audio], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audio [USB Audio], device 2: USB Audio [USB Audio #2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audio [USB Audio], device 3: USB Audio [USB Audio #3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [DELL U2722D]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
$ 

$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault
    Default Audio Device
lavrate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Libav/FFmpeg Library
samplerate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Samplerate Library
speexrate
    Rate Converter Plugin Using Speex Resampler
jack
    JACK Audio Connection Kit
oss
    Open Sound System
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
speex
    Plugin using Speex DSP (resample, agc, denoise, echo, dereverb)
upmix
    Plugin for channel upmix (4,6,8)
vdownmix
    Plugin for channel downmix (stereo) with a simple spacialization
default:CARD=Audio
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Audio
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Audio,DEV=0
    USB Audio, USB Audio
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
iec958:CARD=Audio,DEV=1
    USB Audio, USB Audio #1
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
usbstream:CARD=Audio
    USB Audio
    USB Stream Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=1
    HDA ATI HDMI, DELL U2722D
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=2
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
usbstream:CARD=HDMI
    HDA ATI HDMI
    USB Stream Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=1
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=2
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=3
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
usbstream:CARD=Generic_1
    HD-Audio Generic
    USB Stream Output
front:CARD=Generic
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=Generic
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Generic
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Generic
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Generic
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Generic
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Generic
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
usbstream:CARD=Generic
    HD-Audio Generic
    USB Stream Output
$ 

---

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5hridhyan

Member

From: Asia

Registered: 2025-12-25

Posts: 210

Re: sound not working sometimes after boot

well I don't know if this will help,
prevent it's power saving

/etc/modprobe.d/meow123.conf

options snd_usb_audio power_save=0 vid=0x26ce pid=0x0a0b

in "/etc/asound.conf" add
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 0
defaults.ctl.card 0
snd_hda_intel 0000:73:00.6: no codecs found!
or blacklist it?
blacklist snd_hda_intel]

edit2:
striked out upon follow up, re-arranged order.

Last edited by 5hridhyan (2026-01-28 14:21:16)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,723

Re: sound not working sometimes after boot

I've never needed an asound.conf in all my years of running archlinux, not going to start with that unless it's the only option left.

Disabling powersave for audio is a good idea, just hadden't gotten around to that.

EDIT :
the no codecs part seems to be normal for this motherboard / Realtek ALC4082 sound chipset .

---

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seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 72,812

Re: sound not working sometimes after boot

Below are the outputs of aplay -l & -L from the working situation.

"aplay -l" when things don't work will be interesting - particularly whether the card order chages.
Taking some form of control over that might be inevitable, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … Card_index

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Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 14,723

Re: sound not working sometimes after boot

It's indeed the card order that caused this.

Setting

options snd slots=!snd_usb_audio

reliably gives the exact error/non-functioning sound.

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1000:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) [error.pcm] unable to open slave
aplay: main:850: audio open error: No such file or directory

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [DELL U2722D]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Audio [USB Audio], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Audio [USB Audio], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Audio [USB Audio], device 2: USB Audio [USB Audio #2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Audio [USB Audio], device 3: USB Audio [USB Audio #3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I added /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf with options snd slots=snd_usb_audio as content and expect this will solve the issue completely.
I'll wait until end of next week, if it doesn't come back I'll declare this solved.

---

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