Arch Linux

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

[solved] pcm.default in ~/.asoundrc broken

Whithout a warning and out of the blue, my XBMC started crashing (or better: not starting) yesterday. I couldn't find anything conclusive at first, but then I discovered this in the console output:

ALSA lib conf.c:1220:(parse_def) default is not a compound
ALSA lib conf.c:1686:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:1:13:Invalid argument
ALSA lib conf.c:3406:(config_file_open) /home/awebb/.asoundrc may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it

This was my .asoundrc:

pcm.default {
	type hw
	card 1
	device 3
}

I deleted the .asoundrc and hooray, it works. With the exception of sound over hdmi.

I worked around the problem by…

pcm.nvidiahdmi {
	type hw
	card 1
	device 3
}

… and setting this new device as output device in xbmc. However, the menu clicks are gone (which is nothing dramatic), so I wonder, why I can't set a default anymore. It's not XBMC specific by the way, all the other nice toy's won't talk with the soundcard now unless directed at "nvidiahdmi".

First I figured a recent alsa update might have introduced the issue, so I had a look:

$ ll /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa*
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 382K Jan 27 08:25 /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa-lib-1.0.25-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  56K Jan 27 16:54 /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa-plugins-1.0.25-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 285K Jan 25 21:12 /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa-tools-1.0.25-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 908K Mar  2 08:36 /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa-utils-1.0.25-2-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 913K Apr 29 06:09 /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa-utils-1.0.25-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

I couldn't imagine that I hadn't rebootet the box since Apr 29, or that XBMC had been running for more than two weeks in a row, but it is possible, as the device is fileserver, mediacenter and VPN entry for my home network. So, to make sure, I rebooted, tried, downgraded alsa-utils to 1.0.25-2, rebooted, tried… but nothing.

Asking aunty google for advice gave me a lot of launchpad stuff with neither real questions nor answers, as well as this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135159

That person seems to have similar issues, however, I ran the script proposed by brebs:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=cf139 … 36db941438

So, what has happened? Why is "default" no longer valid?

Last edited by Awebb (2018-07-01 09:03:32)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,513

Website

Re: [solved] pcm.default in ~/.asoundrc broken

Have you tried this syntax

defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.pcm.device 3
defaults.ctl.card 1

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

brebs

Member

Registered: 2007-04-03

Posts: 3,742

Re: [solved] pcm.default in ~/.asoundrc broken

.asoundrc may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it

That's your big hint.

If you're redefining the standard "default", then note the exclamation mark that's needed:

pcm.!default {

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: [solved] pcm.default in ~/.asoundrc broken

Thanks, the bang made the trick, now it's neither crashing nor not-working anymore. I'm still puzzled why it worked all the time though. I wonder if there's anything inside XBMC that tinkers with the .asoundrc. Marking this as solved, though.