Arch Linux

vlad_imir251

Member

Registered: 2026-02-15

Posts: 1

No sound in 2 steam games

Hi, I recently installed Arch Linux x86_64 with kernel version  Linux 6.18.9-arch1-2 and I have output sound by using speaker-test :

speaker-test

speaker-test 1.2.15.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
Period size range from 1024 to 1024
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1024
was set buffer_size = 4096
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.902572
 0 - Front Left
Time per period = 2.986651

But inside 2 steam games (World of Tanks and World of Tanks Blitz) I have no output sound, and when I launch one of the games I get this inside journalctl -f  :

steam[4199]: ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1075:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
steam[4199]: ALSA lib pcm_dsnoop.c:638:(snd_pcm_dsnoop_open) unable to open slave

aplay -l information :

**** 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 [MFG24X5Q]
  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: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC897 Analog [ALC897 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 2 is the card that I use for audio output

I do not have the ~/.asoundrc and /etc/asound.conf files but I modified /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf accordingly so card 2 is set to the default card :

defaults.ctl.card 2
defaults.pcm.card 2

Package information :

pacman -Q | grep -e "alsa" -e "pulse"
alsa-lib 1.2.15.3-2
alsa-plugins 1:1.2.12-5
alsa-topology-conf 1.2.5.1-4
alsa-ucm-conf 1.2.15.3-1
alsa-utils 1.2.15.2-2
lib32-alsa-lib 1.2.15.3-1
lib32-alsa-plugins 1.2.12-1
lib32-libpulse 17.0+r98+gb096704c0-1
libpulse 17.0+r98+gb096704c0-1
pulseaudio-alsa 1:1.2.12-5

So I would like to know, what do I need to do in order to get output sound on both games please ? If I have to provide more information let me know. Thanks in advance.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,064

Re: No sound in 2 steam games

you should never edit that path yourself, you probably want to revert that.

Define whether you are (or want to) use a sound server in which case I'd strongly suggest you opt for pipewire(-pulse) and wireplumber instead of pulseaudio, if you want this to work with plain ALSA there would be no reason for pulseaudio-alsa to be installed. If you are using pipewire you are potentially lacking lib32-libpipewire, make sure that is installed.

Maybe throw in

aplay -L
sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
systemctl --user status pipewire{,-pulse} wireplumber pulseaudio
pacman -Qs 'wire'

Last edited by V1del (2026-02-16 19:07:19)