Arch Linux

brokengestalt

Member

Registered: 2012-07-24

Posts: 55

Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

First off, I'm just following the guide here. I've unmuted the sound using alsamixer. Both master and PCM are set to -0.0dB.

When I try

speaker-test -c 2

, I hear nothing.

[xz@gestalt ~]$ groups
lp wheel games network video audio optical storage power users

[xz@gestalt ~]$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[xz@gestalt ~]$ sudo nano ~/.asoundrc 
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 1 //I also tried 0
defaults.ctl.card 0

[xz@gestalt ~]$ lsmod | grep '^snd' | column -t
snd_hda_codec_conexant  46154  1
snd_hda_intel           24053  0
snd_hda_codec           94305  2  snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep               6300   1  snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                 74958  2  snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          7217   2  snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer               18966  1  snd_pcm
snd                     58997  6  snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_conexant,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel

[xz@gestalt ~]$ ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root       60 Jul 29 22:05 by-path
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  6 Jul 29 22:05 controlC0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  5 Jul 29 22:05 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  4 Jul 29 22:05 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  3 Jul 29 22:05 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  2 Jul 29 22:23 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  1 Jul 29 22:04 seq
crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Jul 29 22:04 timer

According to the wiki entry, if I see "controlC0 and pcmC0D0p or similar," then the sound modules have been loaded properly...

But, even though beeps are set to 0 in the mixer, I can still hear pcbeeps on errors through my speakers. What did I miss?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,507

Website

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

But, even though beeps are set to 0 in the mixer, I can still hear pcbeeps on errors through my speakers. What did I miss?

This is not at all related to alsa.  This is the pcskr module which is commonly blacklisted to stop that beep.

As for your other sound problems, this may sound silly but have you checked the volume and mute?

---

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

brokengestalt

Member

Registered: 2012-07-24

Posts: 55

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

And here is  my new confusion: isn't that what alsamixer is supposed to show me and allow me to change?

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,507

Website

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

Yes.  You haven't said much about what alsamixer shows.  you can also try amixer for more "verbose" output.

---

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

brokengestalt

Member

Registered: 2012-07-24

Posts: 55

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

Does this help at all? Am I supposed to "set" this to >0.0dB? I'm pretty sure it's maxed out...

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 74
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 74 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 74 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 3
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-18.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 80
  Front Left: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 80 [100%] [6.00dB] [on]

Last edited by brokengestalt (2012-08-02 15:34:12)

brokengestalt

Member

Registered: 2012-07-24

Posts: 55

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

Anybody have any insight on this? I'm not sure what I'm missing here... Master and PCM channels are both set to 100% and are unmuted...

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

Are you sure the PCM channel is unmuted? Your PCM channels don't say [on] like your master channels. Here is (part of) the output from "amixer" on my machine:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono: Playback 58 [91%] [-6.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 56 [88%] [-8.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 56 [88%] [-8.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 56 [86%] [21.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 56 [86%] [21.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 54 [84%] [-10.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 54 [84%] [-10.00dB] [on]

And did you create ~/.asoundrc or was it there already? Do you have an /etc/asound.conf file?

If you created .asoundrc, did you create it before or after you first tested sound (have you tested sound without the file)?

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-08-02 16:02:39)

brokengestalt

Member

Registered: 2012-07-24

Posts: 55

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

Wow, deleting ~/.asoundrc worked. My PCM channel still doesn't say [on] next to it in the amixer output.

I don't know if that's important. Thanks for the help.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: Having trouble getting sound with ALSA

You're welcome. Does alsamixer show everything working now? If you're satisfied with the solution, please mark your thread [solved] (edit the title of your first post).