[Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

revberaldo · 2014-08-22 21:28:20

I'm not sure what went wrong, so I'll tell the full story: I was struggling to get the Catalyst driver working. I have a Dell 5547, which has two graphics cards, an Intel HD 4400 and a Radeon R7 M260. I had installed the packages catalyst-hook and catalyst-utils-pxp from Vi0l0's repositories, but couldn't start X when I switched to the AMD card. Eventually, I downgraded to Xorg 1.14, also from Vi0l0's repositories, and now I was able to start X with both graphic cards. I'd read on The AMD/ATI Bar & Grill that downgrading to the Linux kernel 3.15.8 solved Daniel.White's problems, so I downloaded the corresponding linux and linux-headers packages from the Arch Rollback Machine. Later, I installed the last Linux kernel (version 3.16.1) and verified that I could still start X with both cards.

Before downgrading to Xorg 1.14, I installed Gnome 3 and everything worked great. I could listen to my music and watch videos on YouTube. Somewhere along the way, however, my sound stopped working. I'm using pulseaudio, and even after changing the settings using pavucontrol, I still can't get the audio to work -- on X. Sound works great on the console, but it refuses to work after I start X.

When I boot my computer and open an audio file with, say, mplayer, it complains that the "Audio device got stuck!"

pavucontrol reports that I have two built-in audio devices. The first one is off, and the second is set to "Analog Stereo Duplex". If I turn it off and then back on, mplayer stops complainning, but no sound comes out. On the "Output Devices" tab, pavucontrol now says that I have a "Dummy Output". It reverts back to normal once I reboot the machine.

Here's some info I think might be useful:

/etc/asound.conf:

# Use PulseAudio by default
pcm.!default {
  type pulse
  fallback "sysdefault"
  hint {
    show on
    description "Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)"
  }
}

ctl.!default {
  type pulse
  fallback "sysdefault"
}

Output of aplay -L:

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)

/proc/asound/cards:

0 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDMI
                      HDA Intel HDMI at 0xb0c10000 irq 65
 1 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xb0c14000 irq 62

Please let me know if you need more information. Thanks for reading!

Last edited by revberaldo (2014-08-23 15:03:17)

emeres · 2014-08-22 21:42:36

So I assume before starting X, in the console pulseaudio is not running? You may want to set PCH as default using modprobe, try this:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa-base.conf
#first try those 2 lines
options snd-hda-intel index=1
options snd-hda-intel index=0
#if it does not work, please report and try this 1 line instead
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0

Post the output of 'aplay -l' after each attempt and also 'lspci -nn|grep -i audio' for completeness sake. I would appreciate it, if you would do that.

If the problem persists, I would remove ~/.config/pulse and whatever pavucontrol uses to store its settings. Check what blocks mplayer with 'fuser -v /dev/snd/*'.

revberaldo · 2014-08-22 23:22:21

Hi emeres, thanks for the answer. I edited /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa-base.conf as you suggested, then rebooted.

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa-base.conf
options snd-hda-intel index=1
options snd-hda-intel index=0
$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:268: no soundcards found...
$ lspci -nn | grep -i audio
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller [8086:0a0c] (rev 0b)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller [8086:9c20] (rev 04)

While mplayer is trying to play an MP3 file, I ran:

$ lspci -nn | grep -i audio
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller [8086:0a0c] (rev 0b)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller [8086:9c20] (rev 04)

I edited 50-alsa-base.conf once again and rebooted the system.

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa-base.conf 
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0
$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:268: no soundcards found...
$ lspci -nn | grep -i audio
00:03.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller [8086:0a0c] (rev 0b)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller [8086:9c20] (rev 04)

I even tried adding this to 50-alsa-base.conf:

options snd-hda-intel index=1 model=auto vid=8086 pid=0a0c
options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=auto vid=8086 pid=9c20

Then rebooted. Nothing changed. I swapped the indexes and that didn't work either.

Then I exited Gnome and ran aplay -l on tty1:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3234 Analog [ALC3234 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

pgrep indicated that pulseaudio was indeed running, and I could play an MP3 with mplayer -ao pulse a.mp3. So, pulseaudio is running before X starts. I've checked my ~/.xinitrc and /etc/X11/xinit. Nothing there. That's crazy; what could be running that only affects X? Also, this problem is window-manager independent. It doesn't matter whether I'm running gnome3 or i3, I can't play audio inside X. If I go to tty3, for instance, sound works just fine.

emeres · 2014-08-22 23:34:36

That wiki part about vid and pid needs updating, those parameters in case of snd-hda-intel are ignored, check "dmesg | egrep -i 'ignor|hda'|intel".
As for the issue, 'aplay -l' should always return those sound cards, so this goes beyond pulseaudio. Are you in the audio group? Check everything related to startup profiles and settings like ~/.bashrc{,_profile}, ~/.profile, ~/.asoundrc, ~/.config/autostart and others. You could try to init alsa using '# alsactl init' inside X and check 'aplay -l' again.

Edit: How are you starting X?

Last edited by emeres (2014-08-22 23:44:23)

revberaldo · 2014-08-23 13:18:42

I checked all the files you mentioned (are there any others that I should check?). # alsactl init also didn't work. EDIT: I'm not in the audio group because the wiki recommends that.

I'm starting X with startx.

$ cat .xinitrc 
exec gnome-session
#exec i3

I'm going to give GDM and LightDM a try.

EDIT: Using a display manager worked. After logging in from GDM, I have audio. What's changed? When I first installed GNOME, I could start it with start X and I'd have audio.

Thanks for all the help!

Last edited by revberaldo (2014-08-23 13:32:27)

emeres · 2014-08-23 13:36:18

I am aware of that. Does '# aplay -l' return also nothing from within X? I am not familiar with gnome-session, but I guess it starts a whole bunch of processes. What is the output of 'lsmod | grep ^snd' outside and inside X? Here is the snd_hda_intel relevant.

Edit: Too slow. Glad that you got it working, you are welcome.

Last edited by emeres (2014-08-23 13:38:21)

emeres · 2014-08-23 13:47:17

Would do me a favour? Please repeat those steps. Boot into console and run this script:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa-base.conf >> ~/test
aplay -l >> ~/test

Use only the lines I mentioned, 3 combinations, the 2 mentioned and this one:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/50-alsa-base.conf
options snd-hda-intel index=1

I need further confirmation that this procedure works. You can run speaker-test after each reboot, sound should be heard. The previous attempt was corrupted because of lacking 'aplay -l' output. So please post test afterwards.

Edit: Reboot between modprobe changes is necessary.

Edit2: Also remember to mark the thread as solved.

Last edited by emeres (2014-08-23 14:07:24)

revberaldo · 2014-08-23 15:11:15

Sure!

$ cat test 
options snd-hda-intel index=1
options snd-hda-intel index=0
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3234 Analog [ALC3234 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
options snd-hda-intel index=1,0
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3234 Analog [ALC3234 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
options snd-hda-intel index=1
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3234 Analog [ALC3234 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Sound worked with all settings I tried. It looks like a permissions problem. Using a display manager solves it, but can I get the same result without having to use one?

emeres · 2014-08-23 15:19:58

Thank you. Try what I posted here. When I run 'aplay -l' as 'nobody', I get the same error. 'ls -al /dev/snd/' probably lists the devices with audio group.

revberaldo · 2014-08-23 16:12:34

I started X using startx, here's what I got:

$ aplay -l
aplay: device_list:268: no soundcards found...
$ sudo aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC3234 Analog [ALC3234 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

So it certainly is a permissions issue. I've already tried uninstalling all of gnome and gnome-extras to see if that would reset the permissions, but that didn't work. Here's the output of lsmod | grep ^snd inside X:

snd_hda_codec_hdmi     45117  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    67127  1 
snd_hda_codec_generic    63126  1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_intel          26327  5 
snd_hda_controller     26727  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec         108552  5 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_hwdep              17244  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                88487  4 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_timer              26614  1 snd_pcm
snd                    69340  18 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel

EDIT: I saved the outputs inside X and outside X to text files, and diff inx.txt outx.txt doesn't show any differences.

Also:

$ ls -al /dev/snd/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root      280 Aug 23 11:51 .
drwxr-xr-x  20 root root     3120 Aug 23 11:51 ..
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root       80 Aug 23 11:51 by-path
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  7 Aug 23 11:51 controlC0
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  2 Aug 23 11:51 controlC1
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116, 10 Aug 23 11:51 hwC0D0
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  6 Aug 23 11:51 hwC1D0
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  9 Aug 23 13:00 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  8 Aug 23 13:14 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  3 Aug 23 13:00 pcmC1D3p
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  4 Aug 23 13:00 pcmC1D7p
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  5 Aug 23 13:00 pcmC1D8p
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116,  1 Aug 23 11:51 seq
crw-rw----+  1 root audio 116, 33 Aug 23 11:51 timer

Last edited by revberaldo (2014-08-23 16:16:45)

emeres · 2014-08-23 16:16:18

And if you run "sg audio -c 'aplay -l'" it will probably also work.

revberaldo · 2014-08-23 16:35:41

emeres wrote:

And if you run "sg audio -c 'aplay -l'" it will probably also work.

Yup!

OK, I solved it. I noticed that there's a directory /etc/X11/xinit/. I remember deleting everything inside /etc/X11/ when configuring Catalyst, hoping that starting with a fresh configuration would solve the issues I was having. This directory's content was certainly destroyed in the process. Reinstalling the package xorg-xinit was enough to restore the old configuration files. One of these two files did the trick:

$ cat /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps
if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
    xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
    xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
    xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

# start some nice programs
if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
 for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
  [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
 done
 unset f
fi

twm &
xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &
exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login

$ cat /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc 
#!/bin/sh
if [ -z "$XDG_VTNR" ]; then
  exec /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp "$@"
else
  exec /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp "$@" vt$XDG_VTNR
fi

Thanks for all the help! I couldn't have figured it out without it.

Last edited by revberaldo (2014-08-23 16:36:43)

Arch Linux

#1 2014-08-22 21:28:20

[Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#2 2014-08-22 21:42:36

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#3 2014-08-22 23:22:21

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#4 2014-08-22 23:34:36

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#5 2014-08-23 13:18:42

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#6 2014-08-23 13:36:18

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#7 2014-08-23 13:47:17

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#8 2014-08-23 15:11:15

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#9 2014-08-23 15:19:58

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#10 2014-08-23 16:12:34

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#11 2014-08-23 16:16:18

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

#12 2014-08-23 16:35:41

Re: [Solved] No sound on X, but it works on the console

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