Arch Linux

jdevelop

Member

Registered: 2014-04-18

Posts: 48

Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

I have Lenovo T540p, I installed both ALSA and Pulse libraries:

alsa-lib 1.1.0-1
alsa-oss 1.0.28-1
alsa-plugins 1.1.0-1
alsa-utils 1.1.0-1
alsaequal 0.6-12
lib32-alsa-lib 1.0.29-1
lib32-alsa-plugins 1.0.29-2
lib32-libpulse 7.1-1
libcanberra-pulse 0.30-5
libpulse 7.1-1
pulseaudio 7.1-1
pulseaudio-alsa 2-3
zita-alsa-pcmi 0.2.0-2

aplay -l
**** 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: ALC3232 Analog [ALC3232 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

pacmd list-sinks | grep -e 'name:' -e 'index'
    index: 1
        name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_03.0.hdmi-stereo>
  * index: 5
        name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo>

Now the problem is that I have no sound in headphones, at all. I configured my .asoundrc as

pcm.pulse {
    type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
    type pulse
}
pcm.!default {
    type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
    type pulse
}

pavucontrol and alsamixer -c 1 show that headphones are not muted and audio level is 90%.

Removing pulseaudio doesn't solve the problem.

It used to work yesterday, before I had used pacman -Suy  (no kernel update thus)

Anything else to try?

Last edited by jdevelop (2015-11-16 22:25:41)

anatolik

Developer

Registered: 2012-09-27

Posts: 458

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

alsa libraries were updated to 1.1.0. Try to downgrade packages "alsa-lib alsa-plugins alsa-utils" and see if it makes any difference.

---

Read it before posting http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
Ruby gems repository done right https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=182729
Fast initramfs generator with security in mind https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Booster

ilusi0n

Member

Registered: 2010-06-09

Posts: 187

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

I had the same problem. I just reboot it and started working.

jdevelop

Member

Registered: 2014-04-18

Posts: 48

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

This is weird. I did a "hot" reboot multiple times - nothing helped, so I powered off - not hibernate -  the laptop for a hour or so, then powered it on - and voila, everything works.

I'm not sure if this could be marked as "solved", because well - I did nothing and it started to work because of some magic.

milouse

Member

From: Nantes, France

Registered: 2011-08-14

Posts: 16

Website

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

I can confirm this bug or else. After having upgraded alsa packages this morning I had to reboot my computer (no need to wait... just do a real reboot) to have music working again. Anyone have an idea how to do it without rebooting ? Is this because of some kernel module ?

---

AUR – Various projects

saedelaere

Member

Registered: 2009-04-24

Posts: 30

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

No sound at all here. Even after a reboot. Funny enough the speaker test works...

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,601

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

In pavucontrol, are the audio level meters for the headphones tracking the audio you are trying to play?

---

Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
The shortest way to ruin a country is to give power to demagogues.— Dionysius of Halicarnassus
---
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way

jdevelop

Member

Registered: 2014-04-18

Posts: 48

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

In pavucontrol, are the audio level meters for the headphones tracking the audio you are trying to play?

In my case - yes, they were. Also "headphones" was set as the output method.

I think that the problem is related to Alsa itself, cuz when I've got those problems (solved by some glitch within the universe, as usual with Pulse/Alsa) - I could see that audio levels are changing in pavucontrol too.

wiegraf

Member

Registered: 2013-11-09

Posts: 32

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

I had the same problem on my T450 (Everything appeared normal in pavucontrol but no sound). Logging in and out and Rebooting the computer did not resolve the problem, but power cycling it did.

Witko

Member

Registered: 2010-12-07

Posts: 17

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

This looks as my problem too. Usually i have everything working fine. I have 3 outputs at work - hdmi into monitor and then into headphones, bluetooth speaker and laptop speakers. Sometimes, not necessarily when conected to all these things, the sound just does not work - i can see everything as fine in pavucontrol. I also think the other devices work. Usually the sound does not start working even after reboot(i also tried reloading snd_hda_intel, restarting pulseaudio and many more).
What works 100% is to boot to windows and then back to arch.
I also checked the noob mistakes - mute, volume levels both in alsamixer and pavucontrol. Nothing unusual there.
Nothing in dmesg either.

Thanks

jdevelop

Member

Registered: 2014-04-18

Posts: 48

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

For my T540p the following works 10 times out of 10:

- shut down the laptop
- take off the battery
- wait for 30 seconds
- put the battery back
- power on and enjoy sound in headphones again

Shut down w/o taking off the battery doesn't work, neither restart does. Nevertheless, if you shut down the laptop for 20+ minutes - the problem is likely to be fixed. Taking off the battery seems to reset some circuits.

Nothing to do about ALSA, Pulse etc - pavucontrol shows the audio levels are changing for headphones, alsamixer shows that the playback channels are not muted etc, no errors in dmesg/journalctl.

The problem is more likely to appear if the laptop is shut down while playback is active - something happens inside the Intel HDA chip.

Last edited by jdevelop (2015-12-23 19:42:20)

marcvangend

Member

Registered: 2013-04-22

Posts: 21

Re: Pulseaudio / Alsa - no sound in headphones, Lenovo T540p

To be honest, I didn't expect this to work. Come on, it's 2016... But anyway, shutting down and taking out the battery worked for me too on a Dell Latitude E7250. Thanks.