Arch Linux

Archimaredes

Member

Registered: 2013-01-23

Posts: 60

["SOLVED"] PulseAudio - some applications won't output sound sometimes

So, I have KDE 4 and PulseAudio installed, with VLC as Phonon's backend software.

After startup, I often find that Skype won't output sound at all for seemingly random periods of time. This also often happens (sometimes simultaneously, but not necessarily) to Chromium. Pavucontrol and the KDE audio mixer, don't show anything useful at all in terms of the output of Skype and Chromium, and messing with master output in Pavucontrol doesn't affect anything.

After a completely random period of time (usually a very long period of time), these applications start outputting sound again. It's very frustrating, and restarting the applications doesn't help whatsoever. While these two applications are affected, all other applications output sound perfectly.

I don't even know. I've searched, but I haven't found any similar problems documented elsewhere. Any advice?

EDIT: Solved, for now.

Last edited by Archimaredes (2013-03-14 20:22:04)

Archimaredes

Member

Registered: 2013-01-23

Posts: 60

Re: ["SOLVED"] PulseAudio - some applications won't output sound sometimes

I fixed it (for now, at least!)

I ran the below command:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [U0x46d0x804    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x804
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x804 at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2, high speed
 1 [MID            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel MID
                      HDA Intel MID at 0xf9ff8000 irq 47
 2 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfbd7c000 irq 17

Basically, my USB webcam, which also acts as a microphone, was being treated as my default sound card. I changed this by creating a file in /etc/modprobe.d with the following:

options snd-hda-intel index=0

Which set my real sound card as default:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [MID            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel MID
                      HDA Intel MID at 0xf9ff8000 irq 47
 1 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfbd7c000 irq 17
 2 [U0x46d0x804    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x804
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x804 at usb-0000:00:1a.0-1.2, high speed

The problem isn't ENTIRELY fixed. Skype's still being a bit buggy, but at least Chromium is now playing sound, including in Flash media. Strangely enough, after playing a Flash video (e.g. on YouTube), Skype's sound seems to fix itself if it's defunct.

Last edited by Archimaredes (2013-03-14 20:23:49)

vfbsilva

Member

From: Brazil

Registered: 2010-04-08

Posts: 103

Re: ["SOLVED"] PulseAudio - some applications won't output sound sometimes

I`m having this very same issue, I can have sound in mozilla but not in skype.

 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfbff4000 irq 16
 1 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfebf8000 irq 19
 2 [VX2000         ]: USB-Audio - Microsoft® LifeCam VX-2000
                      Microsoft Microsoft® LifeCam VX-2000 at usb-0000:00:12.2-2, high speed
 3 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech G930 Headset
                      Logitech Logitech G930 Headset at usb-0000:00:13.2-1.1, full speed

What should I do?