[Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

the sad clown · 2013-02-24 22:23:37

I am having permissions issues with alsa and alsa utilities. When I am in TTY, I everything functions normally, but when I am in X, I get the following:

$ alsamixer
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:256: no soundcards found...

However, if I use 'sudo' or if I add myself to the 'audio' group, these commands work fine, even in X. I am using urxvt for my VTE. I am using vanilla systemd/udev without any added rules.

Here is ls-l /dev/snd:

ls -l /dev/snd
total 0
0 drwxr-xr-x  2 root root       60 Feb 24 11:11 by-path
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  7 Feb 24 11:35 controlC0
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  6 Feb 24 11:35 hwC0D0
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  5 Feb 24 11:35 hwC0D3
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  4 Feb 24 11:35 pcmC0D0c
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  3 Feb 24 11:35 pcmC0D0p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116,  2 Feb 24 11:35 pcmC0D3p
0 crw-rw----  1 root audio 116,  1 Feb 24 11:11 seq
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 Feb 24 11:35 timer

Edit: I was wrong, I have one rule in /etc/udev/rules.d for powerdown:

$ cat 99-powerdown.rules 
SUBSYSTEM=="power_supply", ATTR{online}=="0", RUN+="/usr/bin/powerdown"
SUBSYSTEM=="power_supply", ATTR{online}=="1", RUN+="/usr/bin/powerup"
SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE}=="0", ENV{UDISKS_DISABLE_POLLING}="1"
SUBSYSTEM=="block", ENV{POWER_SUPPLY_ONLINE}=="1", ENV{UDISKS_DISABLE_POLLING}="0"

Last edited by the sad clown (2013-02-25 15:34:08)

thesystematic · 2013-02-25 02:07:00

The wiki says to have access to the mixers you need to be part of the audio group if you're logging in remotely, but it is unnecessary for local. Is that related?

I found I had to add myself to audio anyway to run things like spotify - is there a reason you don't want to be part of the audio group?

the sad clown · 2013-02-25 02:45:05

I've never needed to be part of audio group before with systemd and I don't access this computer (a laptop) remotely. There really is no reason to add myself to the group, and while doing so "solves" my problem, it doesn't deal with the underlying issue that systemd/udev ought to be able to grant me access without adding myself to the audio group.

the sad clown · 2013-02-25 03:32:37

Perhaps this will help? Here are the error messages when running firefox without a privileged status:

ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_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:4246:(_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:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4725:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1401:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card
ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_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:4246:(_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:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4725:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1401:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card

I don't think it really demonstrates anything other than what I've already established, which is that there is a permissions issue.

the sad clown · 2013-02-25 15:32:57

The solution sort of came to me from a discussion in this thread:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 7#p1236537

However, when I attempted to activate my session, it crashed X (but left the applications I start from .xinitrc not dependent on X running).

What solved it for me was changing my command to startx. I had been using'xinit'. Switching to startx resolved the issue for me. I had been using 'xinit' in the past without issue, so I suppose I need to still look into the additional commands startx brings with it in order to understand what went wrong.

Last edited by the sad clown (2013-02-25 16:03:37)

the sad clown · 2013-02-27 03:39:55

Does anyone know if there was a change in the driver? The reason I ask is that the example of 'ls -l /dev/snd' given in the wiki (see here) doesn't have the trailing '+' for access control lists that is shown in my setup (see first post).

Last edited by the sad clown (2013-02-27 03:40:07)

karol · 2013-02-27 12:16:54

the sad clown wrote:

Does anyone know if there was a change in the driver? The reason I ask is that the example of 'ls -l /dev/snd' given in the wiki (see here) doesn't have the trailing '+' for access control lists that is shown in my setup (see first post).

Isn't the '+' the consequence of using systemd? If so, the wiki needs to be updated.

the sad clown · 2013-02-27 23:55:18

I didn't know that. I really do need to just sit down and look at startx to see what it is doing in addition to xinit that corrects my permissions issue.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-02-24 22:23:37

[Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#2 2013-02-25 02:07:00

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#3 2013-02-25 02:45:05

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#4 2013-02-25 03:32:37

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#5 2013-02-25 15:32:57

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#6 2013-02-27 03:39:55

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#7 2013-02-27 12:16:54

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

#8 2013-02-27 23:55:18

Re: [Solved-ish] Permission issues with alsa

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