[SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

Greg K · 2013-09-07 21:02:36

I performed a system upgrade this evening and have had a series of issues, most I've managed to resolve except for my audio, which is not working.

I had black screen issues in Xfce (with Compiz installed), switching to indirect rendering seems to have sorted that. Light DM now looks like it's loading twice but I digress.

I've checked the suggestions in this thread: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=141728

I renamed ~/.asound to .old.asound

My sound card seems to be detected:

# lspci | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC898 Analog [ALC898 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC898 Digital [ALC898 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Alsamixer works, I've disabled auto-mute. When I login to Xfce, my volume slider is at the bottom. Speaker test works.

# speaker-test -c 2

speaker-test 1.0.27.2

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
Period size range from 1024 to 1024
Using max buffer size 16384
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1024
was set buffer_size = 16384
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 5.652407
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right

Should I have more than 0 next to snd_hda_intel ?

# lsmod | grep snd
snd_usb_audio         115982  0 
snd_usbmidi_lib        18835  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            18710  1 snd_usbmidi_lib
snd_seq_device          5180  1 snd_rawmidi
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     29701  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    35645  1 
snd_hda_intel          35309  0 
snd_hda_codec         147506  3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep               6332  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                77765  4 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
snd_page_alloc          7234  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              18718  1 snd_pcm
snd                    58950  11 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device
soundcore               5418  1 snd
usbcore               177183  8 snd_usb_audio,uvcvideo,usb_storage,snd_usbmidi_lib,ehci_hcd,ehci_pci,usbhid,xhci_hcd

I think this latest system upgrade moved me to kernel 3.10.10

pacman -Qi linux                       
Name           : linux
Version        : 3.10.10-1
Description    : The Linux kernel and modules
Architecture   : x86_64
URL            : http://www.kernel.org/
Licences       : GPL2
Groups         : base
Provides       : kernel26=3.10.10
Depends On     : coreutils  linux-firmware  kmod  mkinitcpio>=0.7
Optional Deps  : crda: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
Required By    : None
Optional For   : None
Conflicts With : kernel26
Replaces       : kernel26
Installed Size : 66538.00 KiB
Packager       : Tobias Powalowski <tpowa@archlinux.org>
Build Date     : Fri 30 Aug 2013 10:34:57 BST
Install Date   : Sat 07 Sep 2013 20:19:52 BST
Install Reason : Explicitly installed
Install Script : Yes
Validated By   : Signature

Any ideas?

Last edited by Greg K (2013-09-07 23:14:49)

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-07 21:10:41

Welcome to the forums!

I think that in a case like this, you have already determined that something that was upgraded is suspect in causing this issue. So I think the first step would be to downgrade all the packages to see if you can get that functionality back. If that succeeds, then start upgrading packages either one by one, or in small groups. When you lose your audio again, then you will have a better idea of the specific package that is to blame.

Greg K · 2013-09-07 21:39:31

Could this be a Flash thing? Or something to do with X?

I can hear this perfectly:

# aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav 
Playing WAVE 'Front_Center.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono

When I try to play the same file in VLC I get the error:

Audio output failed:
The audio device "default" could not be used:
No such file or directory.

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-07 22:03:26

Okay, well then you need to be much more explicit about what does and doesn't work here then. I assumed "audio not working" to mean that… your audio doesn't work. I just now noticed that you managed to wedge something about speaker-test working into that first post.

Vlc does not use the flashplugin, so it is unlikely that those two things are related. But from that comment it sounds like your flash sound is not working either.

So it sounds like your audio worked fine at one point, is this the case? You provided a pretty good bit of info in your first post, espeically for a first ever post. But you need to clarify what the problem is precisely. No one can be expected to be able to debug the situation off of the info provided so far.

Greg K · 2013-09-07 22:39:39

My audio has worked fine for the last 8 months and then this latest pacman -Syu has killed it.

I did mention speaker test working in the first post, which corresponds with my sound card being detected and showing up in aplay etc. Just have no idea why VLC / Chrome / Flash can't access it.

I did some reading up before posting this as I didn't want to add to the pile of unresearched, easily solved issues that already have a solution in other threads.

I don't mean to digress but I've been looking at my Light DM set up as I thought this might be causing other issues. When I boot up now, lightdm starts, I wait ~3 secs and then it flashes to console and lightdm reappears but it looks like a crash / restart or a second instance. systemd is set to restart lightdm, I can't see a crash from the logs though.

I checked my systemd units, none fail to start.

I only went down that path as I can play sounds from console but anything in X doesn't seem to be able to access the default sound device. The other oddity is on logging out. Usually when I click restart from Xfce action panel my machine will reboot but now it falls to lightdm where I have to select restart from there. That smelled like two instance of lightdm starting?

I'm confused as to what this update has done to my machine.

Thanks, Greg

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-07 22:42:13

Greg K wrote:

I'm confused as to what this update has done to my machine.

So I think that brings us full circle to the whole idea of downgrading and seeing if thigs get fixed. Then proceeding one by one with updating the packages in question to see where the breakage occurs.

BTW, I have found that LightDM mucks with settings far less than some other DMs out there. But if you are still suspect of that being part of the cause, see if starting with 'startx' provides any better sound situation.

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2013-09-07 22:43:54)

Greg K · 2013-09-07 22:49:42

That's quite a few packages. This is my upgrade log, I see a lightdm upgrade in there among other things.

I'll read up on downgrading packages. Thanks for the help so far.

[2013-09-07 20:18] [PACMAN] Running 'pacman -Syu'
[2013-09-07 20:18] [PACMAN] synchronizing package lists
[2013-09-07 20:18] [PACMAN] starting full system upgrade
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Generating locales...
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   en_GB.UTF-8... done
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Generation complete.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded glibc (2.18-2 -> 2.18-3)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded bash (4.2.045-4 -> 4.2.045-5)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] updating font cache... done.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded fontconfig (2.10.93-1 -> 2.10.95-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded wayland (1.2.0-1 -> 1.2.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] installed elfutils (0.155-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] installed llvm-libs (3.3-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded mesa (9.1.6-1 -> 9.2.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded mesa-libgl (9.1.6-1 -> 9.2.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded cairo (1.12.14-4 -> 1.12.16-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded poppler (0.24.0-1 -> 0.24.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded cups-filters (1.0.36-1 -> 1.0.37-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded curl (7.32.0-1 -> 7.32.0-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded dmd (2.063.2-1 -> 2.063.2-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded gettext (0.18.3-1 -> 0.18.3.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded ghostscript (9.07-3 -> 9.10-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lcms (1.19-2 -> 1.19-4)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded librsvg (2.37.0-2 -> 1:2.37.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libmng (1.0.10-4 -> 2.0.2-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded gimp (2.8.6-1 -> 2.8.6-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded perl-error (0.17020-1 -> 0.17021-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded git (1.8.3.4-1 -> 1.8.4-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded gnutls (3.2.3-1 -> 3.2.4-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded groff (1.22.2-3 -> 1.22.2-5)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded gtk3 (3.8.2-1 -> 3.8.4-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded intel-dri (9.1.6-1 -> 9.2.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded kmod (14-1 -> 15-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-fontconfig (2.10.93-1 -> 2.10.95-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-glibc (2.18-2 -> 2.18-3)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libldap (2.4.35-4 -> 2.4.36-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-libldap (2.4.35-1 -> 2.4.36-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] installed lib32-lcms2 (2.5-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-libmng (1.0.10-6 -> 2.0.2-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] installed lib32-elfutils (0.155-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] installed lib32-llvm-libs (3.3-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-mesa (9.1.6-1 -> 9.2.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-mesa-libgl (9.1.6-1 -> 9.2.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded sqlite (3.7.17-2 -> 3.8.0.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-sqlite (3.7.17-1 -> 3.8.0.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded qt4 (4.8.5-1 -> 4.8.5-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-qt4 (4.8.5-1 -> 4.8.5-3)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libarchive (3.1.2-1 -> 3.1.2-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libbsd (0.5.2-2 -> 0.6.0-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libmodplug (0.8.8.4-1 -> 0.8.8.4-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libreoffice-en-GB (4.0.5-1 -> 4.1.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded python (3.3.2-1 -> 3.3.2-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] installed harfbuzz-icu (0.9.19-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libreoffice-common (4.0.5-1 -> 4.1.1-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libreoffice-calc (4.0.5-1 -> 4.1.1-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libwpd (0.9.6-1 -> 0.9.9-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded libreoffice-writer (4.0.5-1 -> 4.1.1-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded lightdm (1:1.6.0-6 -> 1:1.6.1-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Updating module dependencies. Please wait ...
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> Generating initial ramdisk, using mkinitcpio.  Please wait...
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.10.10-1-ARCH
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Hook 'usbinput' is deprecated. Replace it with 'keyboard' in your config
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Starting build: 3.10.10-1-ARCH
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [base]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [udev]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [modconf]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [block]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: bfa
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: aic94xx
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Possibly missing firmware for module: smsmdtv
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> WARNING: Hook 'usbinput' is deprecated. Replace it with 'keyboard' in your config
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]   -> Running build hook: [fsck]
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Generating module dependencies
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Creating gzip initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> Image generation successful
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded linux (3.10.7-1 -> 3.10.10-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Nginx now includes only upstream bundled modules.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Thus, passenger module support was dropped.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded nginx (1.4.2-1 -> 1.4.2-4)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM] warning: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist installed as /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.pacnew
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded pacman-mirrorlist (20130626-1 -> 20130830-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] ==> The agent is no longer autostarted by default except in GNOME Flashback.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]     For Xfce, LXDE etc., "lxpolkit" is the suggested lightweight alternative.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]     See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Polkit#Authentication_agents for
[2013-09-07 20:19] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]     more details.
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded polkit-gnome (0.105-1 -> 0.105-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded portaudio (19_20111121-1 -> 19_20111121-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded python2 (2.7.5-1 -> 2.7.5-2)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded reiserfsprogs (3.6.23-1 -> 3.6.24-1)
[2013-09-07 20:19] [PACMAN] upgraded rpcbind (0.2.0-12 -> 0.2.1-2)
[2013-09-07 20:20] [PACMAN] upgraded ttf-dejavu (2.33-4 -> 2.34-1)
[2013-09-07 20:20] [PACMAN] upgraded vim-runtime (7.4.0-2 -> 7.4.16-2)
[2013-09-07 20:20] [PACMAN] upgraded vim (7.4.0-2 -> 7.4.16-2)
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] >>> This driver now uses SNA as the default acceleration method. You can
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]     still fall back to UXA if you run into trouble. To do so, save a file
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]     with the following content as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-intel.conf :
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]       Section "Device"
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]         Identifier  "Intel Graphics"
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]         Driver      "intel"
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]         Option      "AccelMethod"  "uxa"
[2013-09-07 20:20] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]       EndSection
[2013-09-07 20:20] [PACMAN] upgraded xf86-video-intel (2.21.14-2 -> 2.21.15-1)

Greg K · 2013-09-07 23:03:30

OK, gold star for you then. I've just downgraded lightdm and rebooted and my audio is back.

sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/lightdm-1:1.6.0-6-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz

It's nothing major but the only 'weird' thing left is I now see too many users in lightdm, with uids between 501 - 1000 (lightdm and git).

When I downgraded lightdm, I saw:

[ALPM] warning: /etc/lightdm/users.conf installed as /etc/lightdm/users.conf.pacnew

I should probably move users.conf.pacnew to users.conf as this pairs with the downgraded version? There are differences (and might resolve the above issue)

diff -y users.conf users.conf.pacnew
#								#
# User accounts configuration					# User accounts configuration
#								#
# NOTE: If you have AccountsService installed on your system,	# NOTE: If you have AccountsService installed on your system,
# use this instead and these settings will be ignored		# use this instead and these settings will be ignored
#								#
# minimum-uid = Minimum UID required to be shown in greeter	# minimum-uid = Minimum UID required to be shown in greeter
# hidden-users = Users that are not shown to the user		# hidden-users = Users that are not shown to the user
# hidden-shells = Shells that indicate a user cannot login	# hidden-shells = Shells that indicate a user cannot login
#								#
[UserAccounts]						      |	[UserList]
minimum-uid=1000						minimum-uid=1000
hidden-users=nobody nobody4 noaccess lightdm git	      |	hidden-users=nobody nobody4 noaccess
hidden-shells=/bin/false /sbin/nologin				hidden-shells=/bin/false /sbin/nologin

My guess is the earlier version of lightdm might not look for a UserAccounts section but UserList.

Last edited by Greg K (2013-09-07 23:04:52)

Greg K · 2013-09-07 23:12:31

Yup, that's done the trick. User list reduced and back to normal now. Thanks for your help.

WonderWoofy · 2013-09-07 23:33:43

Neat, glad you got this worked out.

Typically if you havne't actually made any modifications to the file, you can simply move the pacnew file into place. But be warned that a pacnew file is typically not created unless the original does not match pacman's checksum of what it thinks it should have been. So basically, if all is working correctly, the pacnew file will not be created unless you modify it.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-09-07 21:02:36

[SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#2 2013-09-07 21:10:41

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#3 2013-09-07 21:39:31

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#4 2013-09-07 22:03:26

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#5 2013-09-07 22:39:39

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#6 2013-09-07 22:42:13

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#7 2013-09-07 22:49:42

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#8 2013-09-07 23:03:30

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#9 2013-09-07 23:12:31

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

#10 2013-09-07 23:33:43

Re: [SOLVED] Intel HD audio not working after system upgrade

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