Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

Alp · 2008-09-29 23:16:03

I have a relativly fresh arch install and was astonished how easy the installation of alsa was. I just installed the alsa-lib package and it automatically detected my PCI soundcard instead of using my onboard chip.

But suddenly (about some hours ago) Amarok refuses to playback on the right soundcard. Instead i get output on my onboard card. I'm using gnome and if i check the Audio settings everything is on "Alsa" and if i click on the "Test" button i get that annoying sine-sound - on the right soundcard. If i try to manually change the sound output in Amarok from "Autodetect" to "Alsa" i get a xine error and Amarok crashes.

Then i tried to define my default soundcard in my .asoundrc:

pcm.!default {
    type hw
    card 2
}
ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 2
}

No luck. What's happening here?

Last edited by Alp (2008-09-29 23:16:35)

brebs · 2008-09-30 11:15:55

"card 2" would be the *third* card - C geeks start counting from zero. See alsa wiki.

obsrv · 2008-09-30 14:49:40

I have also problem with alsa, dont want to make a new thread so maybe someone can help me here. This is what I have:

[obsrv@home ~]$ aplay
ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:3513:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3513:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3513:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:3985:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2184:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:583: audio open error: No such file or directory

Any ideas?

Alp · 2008-09-30 15:35:29

brebs wrote:

"card 2" would be the *third* card - C geeks start counting from zero. See alsa wiki.

Card 2 should be the right one, because if i start alsamixer i get the right soundcard mixer settings. When starting alsamixer with default card 1 i get an error message: "No mixer elems found"

obsrv · 2008-09-30 15:38:31

Just needed to reboot the system, now it works, I'm such a noob :S

Alp · 2008-10-01 02:01:24

I deactivated my onboard card in my BIOS and it works now. But this is not a good solution because i want to use mic input of my onboard card. Still searching for a way to use both.

Alp · 2008-10-23 11:06:02

Still the same problem. It worked for a while (no idea why and not every application), but now suddenly some sound comes out of the wrong soundcard and some doesnt work at all.

In Amarok i get sound from wrong soundcard. If i deactivate my onboard souncard, i get that annoying xine playback error.
In Gnome Audio Settings, all outputs are set to "Alsa" and if i click on the Test Button, i hear the test sound on the right sound card.
In Firefox/Youtube/Flash i get no sound at all atm.

What could i do? It seems to change randomly its mind, and i cant control it

UnbreakableMJ · 2008-10-24 15:51:09

I was looking for posts here to see if anyone is having sound problem recently, because after my latest system upgrade, sound stopped working..

I changed the settings in GNOME as Alp, and got sound working. It worked when I use GNOME applications, like totem. But does not work with vlc or mplayer for example.

My problem is now solved by adding the following to my /etc/rc.conf:
MODULES=(!snd_pcsp ... )

Posted this here in hope it helps someone with similar problem.

Alp · 2008-10-24 15:57:26

thanks for your reply. i added it to my rc.conf but didn't try a restart yet.

MODULES=(forcedeth slhc ac97_bus !snd_pcsp snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm-oss snd-seq-oss snd-seq-device snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-page-alloc snd-pcm snd-rawmidi snd-timer snd snd-mpu401-uart snd-mpu401 snd-ak4114 snd-ak4xxx-adda snd-pt2258 snd-i2c snd-ac97-codec snd-ice1724 snd-ice17xx-ak4xxx snd-intel8x0 soundcore)

but my MODULES line is very long, do i really need so much stuff in there?

Last edited by Alp (2008-10-24 15:58:14)

UnbreakableMJ · 2008-10-24 16:12:36

You are welcome And yeah I needed a reboot for it to work.

I do not know enough to answer about most modules mentioned in your post, but am sure many of them can be safely removed, especially the ones that start with snd-, because surely you do not have that many soundcards installed in one machine.

Alp · 2008-10-24 16:14:21

Maybe there is a help page somewhere which describes all that modules?

UnbreakableMJ · 2008-10-24 16:36:03

1. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ALSA
2. http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCards (temporary cached version: http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:5mQx … =firefox-a) + other links from this site should be very helpful.

EDIT: what type/brand of card are you trying to get working?

Last edited by UnbreakableMJ (2008-10-24 16:37:19)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-29 23:16:03

Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#2 2008-09-30 11:15:55

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#3 2008-09-30 14:49:40

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#4 2008-09-30 15:35:29

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#5 2008-09-30 15:38:31

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#6 2008-10-01 02:01:24

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#7 2008-10-23 11:06:02

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#8 2008-10-24 15:51:09

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#9 2008-10-24 15:57:26

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#10 2008-10-24 16:12:36

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#11 2008-10-24 16:14:21

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

#12 2008-10-24 16:36:03

Re: Alsa sound and xine engine suddenly stopped using the right soundcard

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