Arch Linux

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

No Sound output after fresh install

Intro:

My previous pc setup was as follows: 1 internal sound card (which I kept disabled from bios), 1 PCI card (Asus Xonar DS), 1 HDMI output from my Nvidia GFX card. I kept both internal and nvidia cards disabled from pavucontrol and this setup used to work perfectly.

Recently I had to change my mobo, cpu & ram due to hardware problems.

On first bootup of my arch install, I had no sound output. Pavucontrol meters moved (showing that arch thought it was outputting sound) but nothing was heard from 5.1 headphones.

Today:

Formatted and reinstalled from Arch CD Image. During udev rules intialisation during bootup, I can hear my pci card's line in clicking as it is activated. However, with aplay, speaker-test etc, there is still no sound output.

I prioritized my xonar ds by creating /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf with the following

 options snd slots=snd_virtuoso

Thus the following is my aplay -L output:

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=DS
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=DS,DEV=0
    Xonar DS, Multichannel
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
default:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC887-VD Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output

and aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: DS [Xonar DS], device 0: Multichannel [Multichannel]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: DS [Xonar DS], device 1: Digital [Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 

Alsamixer shows the XonarDS card as card 0 and all channels are unmuted.

Help!

Edit: I also followed a number of threads in this forum that appear to have similar issues. I have created an .asoundrc in /root with

pcm.!default {
                type hw
                card 0
                device 0
}

but to no avail.

Last edited by mewt (2012-01-22 16:02:17)

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

bump anyone ?

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

bump!

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,362

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

What does pavucontrol show? You can move streams around to your soundcard (it sounds like you may be defaulting to the nvidia card).

---

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mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

pavucontrol show all 3 cards. I turned off the nvidia and Intel cards in pavucontrol. The card shows up as a valid sink with all 7 channels showing up. Applications appear in the input stream window and their levels move up and down just as if audio is being output.

byte

Member

From: Düsseldorf (DE)

Registered: 2006-05-01

Posts: 2,046

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

My end-user support background forces me to ask if you're sure that the cabling is correct ;-p

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1000

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

@byte, fair question (I deal with customers all day myself)...Cabling has been checked and rechecked several times. Same cabling works perfectly under windows (im still on dual-boot)

majesticmerc

Member

Registered: 2012-01-29

Posts: 3

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

Hey mewt fellow Arch/Xonar DS user here, I just wanted to offer a suggestion. Have you unmuted your channels in alsamixer? I reinstalled my Arch today and had your problem, Took me about an hour to realise that when setting the volume levels I forgot to unmute the channels (i.e. unmute the channels AND set the volume). D'oh!

Might just have been me being an idiot, but I hope it helps.

Last edited by majesticmerc (2012-01-29 17:36:30)

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

Hi majesticmerc,

I checked and rechecked and everything seems to be on...in fact i took a picture

I'm at my wits end by now...(Sorry for the crappy image quality but i took that with my phone since I haven't installed a WM yet )

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

Update: I installed OSSv4 and my sound card is detected and works (or sorta works). I can hear audio etc. So this is definately an ALSA issue, however I have no idea how to fix it

mewt

Member

Registered: 2008-06-24

Posts: 36

Re: No Sound output after fresh install

Solved it!

I was reading through the alsa changelog for my driver from 1.23.0 to 1.24.0 and I noticed a small note about a fix that should fix auto muting when the front panel is in use. Even though my front panel has never been used, I tried unplugging it from the sound card and VOILA!, it works now!