[SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

yoanar · 2013-05-20 13:40:19

OK, so when i initially installed ArchLinux my sound didn't work.
I found out it was because ALSA defaulted to sound-card 0, which
happens to be HDMI out. I then went on to put the following in my .asoundrc

pcm.!default {
    type hw
    card 1
}

ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 1
}

When i rebooted, i could rejoice, for my sound was working... But not for long.
For some reason it stopped working again. The only thing i could pinpoint the
problem to, was the fact that I'd been messing around with MPD.
Output of "speaker-test -c 2 -r 48000 -D hw:1":

speaker-test 1.0.27

Playback device is hw:1
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Playback open error: -16,Enheten eller ressursen opptatt

In the likely case that you don't understand Norwegian, the error message says
"Unit or resource busy"

And here is mplayer (seems to play the file, but makes no sound)

MPlayer SVN-r35920-4.8.0 (C) 2000-2013 MPlayer Team
203 audio & 421 video codecs
mplayer: could not connect to socket
mplayer: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing [DnB] - Feint - Snake Eyes (feat. CoMa) [Monstercat Release].mp3.
libavformat version 54.63.100 (internal)
Audio only file format detected.
Load subtitles in ./
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mpg123] MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III
AUDIO: 44100 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 128.0 kbit/9.07% (ratio: 16000->176400)
Selected audio codec: [mpg123] afm: mpg123 (MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III)
==========================================================================
[AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: No such file or directory
[AO_ALSA] alsa-lib: pcm_hw.c:1559:(snd_pcm_hw_open) open '/dev/snd/pcmC1D0p' failed (-16): Device or resource busy
[AO_ALSA] Playback open error: Device or resource busy
AO: [pulse] 44100Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
A:   2.4 (02.3) of 264.0 (04:24.0)  0.6% 


MPlayer interrupted by signal 2 in module: play_audio
A:   2.6 (02.5) of 264.0 (04:24.0)  0.6% 

Exiting... (Quit)

Installing alsa-oss and executing the same command with aoss did nothing, and produced the same output.

Here is the output of "lsmod | grep snd"

snd_hda_codec_realtek    30893  1 
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     29298  1 
snd_hda_intel          35816  3 
snd_hda_codec         145736  3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep               6364  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                76860  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          7266  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              18687  1 snd_pcm
snd                    58893  12 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
soundcore               5418  1 snd

I am not using PulseAudio, just "clean" ALSA. And i am not running a DE, just AwesomeWM.

Update:
I rebooted and logged in, then ran mplayer again. This time it worked- although- running a second mplayer session produced no sound at all. Does this mean i can only have one application using the soundcard at once? I can remember having several just after i fixed the first problem (wrong soundcard, fixed with asoundrc.)
I once again tried running "aoss {application_using_sound}" but this did nothing, and produced the same output as it's "non-aoss" counterpart.
I'm confused...

Last edited by yoanar (2013-05-23 14:19:02)

brebs · 2013-05-20 14:34:16

See config in my sig.

yoanar · 2013-05-20 16:27:24

@brebs

Sorry, i rebooted, and now the sound doesn't work at all.
I started up PulseAudio, still no sound.

mich41 · 2013-05-20 20:22:36

It's possible that some new kernel version scans PCI devices in different order and your soundcards got different numbers. Running aplay -l (alsa-utils package) will print something like:

 $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: VT1708S Analog [VT1708S Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 3: VT1708S Digital [VT1708S Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Here SB is the "name" of the soundcard and it probably won't ever change. Yours may be different if you have different chipset. Try to use names instead of numbers, like:

pcm.default "hw:SB"          # play directly to hardware, one application at a time, only sample rates and formats supported by hardware
pcm.default "sysdefault:SB"  # use all default plugins, allows mixing sound from different applications, sample rate conversion, etc.

yoanar wrote:

I started up PulseAudio

So now you have two problems

Last edited by mich41 (2013-05-20 20:23:44)

yoanar · 2013-05-23 14:18:32

Going to mark this as solved, after 4 years of solely using GNU/Linux, i got so pissed off that...

I switched to Windows 7.

brebs · 2013-05-23 15:07:12

Windows? Hah, that doesn't even support ALSA. You won't have much luck with that

abstracity · 2013-05-23 16:55:41

Don't be a quitter. At least switch to Debian or Linux Mint, where audio tends to "just work."

Aperculum · 2013-05-25 10:08:11

> Don't be a quitter. At least switch to Debian or Linux Mint, where audio tends to "just work."

Or simply boot Linux Mint or Ubuntu livecd or liveusb and if the sounds work, check their sound config and copy it to your system

zb3 · 2013-05-25 11:44:47

my sound settings don't work either. volume gets reset every reboot, and I have alsa store, restore "services enabled"

but you'd need to pay me over $100000 to make me switch to windows

Mektub · 2013-05-25 11:56:12

My sound problems went away since one year ago I eliminated Pulseaudio.

Mektub

rtfreedman · 2013-05-26 21:54:57

The wiki would be a natural place to look for before posting:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Al … sound_card

Regarding sound level restore, alsa-utils 1.0.27.1-2 fixed it by adding udev alsa-restore.rules file that was missing

zb3 · 2013-05-31 12:07:54

rtfreedman wrote:

Regarding sound level restore, alsa-utils 1.0.27.1-2 fixed it by adding udev alsa-restore.rules file that was missing

no. the problem still exists (I did -Syu of course)

Last edited by zb3 (2013-05-31 12:08:18)

emto · 2013-06-09 14:20:38

Me too, alsa stop to work these days, after the changes to bin and sbin, perhaps yes, perhaps no. There was another update after that change.
Pure alsa, modules are ok, alsamixer too, same order devices (0: sb live value, 1: nvidia motherboard hdmi)

I know the philosophy of arch linux but there are things that are unacceptable.
I just migrate to my last distro, xubuntu (now 13.04), at least things worked: sound, last sane version with my canon, opengl programs doesn't close suddenly, and the most important, I can print a pdf tax file with a correct code points, it's impossible to do that with zathura or acroread under arch for me, it prints only trash.

I'll take a look occasionally to arch linux to see if things go better.

Sorry for my bad english and thank you for all those nice wiki and forums.

bye ( for now)

Arch Linux

#1 2013-05-20 13:40:19

[SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#2 2013-05-20 14:34:16

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#3 2013-05-20 16:27:24

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#4 2013-05-20 20:22:36

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#5 2013-05-23 14:18:32

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#6 2013-05-23 15:07:12

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#7 2013-05-23 16:55:41

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#8 2013-05-25 10:08:11

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#9 2013-05-25 11:44:47

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#10 2013-05-25 11:56:12

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#11 2013-05-26 21:54:57

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#12 2013-05-31 12:07:54

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

#13 2013-06-09 14:20:38

Re: [SOLVED] ALSA worked, now it doesn't. Why?

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