Arch Linux

zsurnz

Member

From: France

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 18

no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

Hi, I recently noticed that I had no sound any more. Don't know what caused it to stop working as I rarely use sound. Multimedia apps seems to work normaly without error msg - but I get no sound.
alsa-utils alsa-lib installed. did pacman -Suy. get the following:

/etc> sudo amixer set Master 100% unmute
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
/etc> sudo amixer set PCM 100% unmute
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'PCM',0

/etc> ls -l /dev/snd/
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  4 nov. 10 21:42 controlC0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  7 nov. 10 21:42 controlC1
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 14 nov. 10 21:42 controlC2
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  3 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  6 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC1D0c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  5 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC1D0p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 13 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC2D0c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 12 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC2D0p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 11 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC2D1c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 10 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC2D2c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  9 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC2D3c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  8 nov. 10 21:42 pcmC2D4p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 15 nov. 10 21:42 seq

/etc> lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_oss            31872  0
snd_seq_midi_event      8192  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                49968  4 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          8332  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_pcm_oss            40192  0
snd_mixer_oss          16512  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_intel8x0           30748  0
snd_intel8x0m          15500  0
snd_pcsp               11040  0
snd_ac97_codec        100516  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m
snd_pcm                69636  5 snd_pcm_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcsp,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              21384  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    50724  11 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcsp,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer
soundcore               8160  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          9224  3 snd_intel8x0,snd_intel8x0m,snd_pcm
ac97_bus                3584  1 snd_ac97_codec

sm4tik

Member

From: Finland, Jyväskylä

Registered: 2006-11-05

Posts: 248

Website

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

You might want to see what alsamixer has to say. It might be you have PCM1 PCM2.. instead of just PCM. Just a guess?

$ alsamixer

test1000

Member

Registered: 2005-04-03

Posts: 834

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

before, when alsa used to get hogged and no sound could be heard i could do sudo lsof /dev/snd/* and kill the app hogging the device to get sound again. haven't had that problem lately and maybe it's not related but maybe this is useful for someone..

---

KISS = "It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience." - Albert Einstein

zsurnz

Member

From: France

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 18

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

alsamixer, don't know how to use it, but it displays three entries: 'Master', 'PC Speak' and 'BaseFRQ'.
it displays for all tree entries: card: pcsp and chip:PC-speaker

zsurnz

Member

From: France

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 18

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

here is another output if it might help:
~> fuser /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0:   3075

kendosperling

Member

From: Dresden

Registered: 2007-08-28

Posts: 49

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

I think you should add "!snd_pcsp" to your modules array.

bgc1954

Member

From: Edmonton, AB, Canada

Registered: 2006-03-14

Posts: 1,160

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

kendosperling is probably right. This just happened to me the other day with my old T21 Thinkpad laptop.  I was trying out mpd and the sound was horrid.  It didn't used to be like that with audacious but when I checked out alsamixer snd_pcsp was my default sound device.  I had banged out !snd_pcsp but was using a udev speedup that ignores the regular blacklisting script and so my problem came about.

This seems to be becoming a common problem and should be addressed in the beginners guide, or snd_pcsp shouldn't be loaded by default, or perhaps bang out the !snd_pcsp in the install /etc/rc.conf.  I can't imagine anyone wanting the pc speaker over their sound card.

Last edited by bgc1954 (2008-11-11 15:49:17)

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Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils ... - Louis Hector Berlioz

zsurnz

Member

From: France

Registered: 2006-03-23

Posts: 18

Re: no more sound - alsa looks broken but no error msg.

Thank you, blacklisting snd_pcsp solved the problem.