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NiskD

Member

Registered: 2016-05-02

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

I'm unable to get any sound using PulseAudio. My best guess is that PulseAudio is not detecting the sound card I need.

aplay -L gives the following output:

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

But pactl list cards only lists:

Card #0
	Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_01_00.1
	Driver: module-alsa-card.c
	Owner Module: 6
	Properties:
		alsa.card = "1"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xef080000 irq 17"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:01:00.1"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1"
		device.bus = "pci"
		device.vendor.id = "10de"
		device.vendor.name = "NVIDIA Corporation"
		device.product.id = "0fb0"
		device.string = "1"
		device.description = "HDA NVidia"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
	Profiles:
		output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5400, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 300, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround71: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 300, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra1: Digital Stereo (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5200, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra1: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 100, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra1: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 100, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra2: Digital Stereo (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5200, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra2: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 100, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra2: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 100, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-stereo-extra3: Digital Stereo (HDMI 4) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5200, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround-extra3: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 4) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 100, available: yes)
		output:hdmi-surround71-extra3: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 4) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 100, available: yes)
		off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority: 0, available: yes)
	Active Profile: output:hdmi-stereo
	Ports:
		hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority: 5900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo, output:hdmi-surround, output:hdmi-surround71
		hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (priority: 5800, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra1, output:hdmi-surround-extra1, output:hdmi-surround71-extra1
		hdmi-output-2: HDMI / DisplayPort 3 (priority: 5700, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra2, output:hdmi-surround-extra2, output:hdmi-surround71-extra2
		hdmi-output-3: HDMI / DisplayPort 4 (priority: 5600, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
			Properties:
				device.icon_name = "video-display"
			Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra3, output:hdmi-surround-extra3, output:hdmi-surround71-extra3

The Configuration tab of pavucontrol also only has an HDA NVidia section, with a bunch of HDMI output options. My monitor is connected with DVI, and either way I'm trying to use headphones connected to the audio jack on the front of my case, so that doesn't seem to be what I need. I think I need PulseAudio to recognize the HDA Intel PCH, but I haven't been able to find any solution. I am currently able to get sound using aplay -D sysdefault. Does anyone have any ideas?

Last edited by NiskD (2016-05-02 19:54:27)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,738

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

That looks strange indeed, my first guess would be that something occupies your soundcard during pulse startup which prevents it from grabbing information about it. Can you post

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

every card there should be occupied by pulseaudio running as your user. You might also want to post some pulse logs, run these (as your user):

systemctl --user mask pulseaudio.socket
pulseaudio -k
pulseaudio -vvvv

and post the output of the last command

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

OOOOHHH!! I KNOW THIS ONE!

It's because you have any of these packages installed: timidity++ or fluidsynth. They are MIDI synthesizers that do some fancy sound card stuff.

Do you have either of those packages installed? If you remove them does PulseAudio work correctly? And if yes, ISN'T THAT CRAZY?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,738

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

Why is that crazy? If you run either of them in daemon mode as their own user and start them as a systemwide systemd service they will block access to your card. That's how ALSA works but yeah that's what I was getting at as well and there are possibilities to use them in conjunction with pulseaudio, but I wanted some confirmation first in form of the fuser output. Also simply having them installed wont do anything, the conscious decision of enabling their service files will however.

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

Why is that crazy?

Because I forgot I had either of those things installed and running, and because the symptoms don't seem to match the cause in my opinion. ("Sound card not detected? It's because you have a MIDI service running!")

Also, it's possible that I'm just crazy.

Last edited by drcouzelis (2016-05-02 15:42:23)

NiskD

Member

Registered: 2016-05-02

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

It's because you have any of these packages installed: timidity++ or fluidsynth. They are MIDI synthesizers that do some fancy sound card stuff.

This turned out to be it: timidity++ was causing the problem.

That looks strange indeed, my first guess would be that something occupies your soundcard during pulse startup which prevents it from grabbing information about it. Can you post

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

every card there should be occupied by pulseaudio running as your user.

I had tried this, as the wiki's troubleshooting page suggests, but without sudo, and it only reported the cards used by pulseaudio. With sudo, I could see timidity++ hogging the card I needed.

Thank you both!

drcouzelis

Member

From: Connecticut, USA

Registered: 2009-11-09

Posts: 4,092

Website

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

This turned out to be it: timidity++ was causing the problem.

Yay! You're welcome. And, of course, you can get timidity++ to work with PulseAudio, so now you'll know what to search for if you're interested it setting that up.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,738

Re: [SOLVED] PulseAudio doesn't detect sound card

A small additional note on the fuser thing. Whenever you see terminal output mentioned in the wiki (quite a few other places as well in fact), pay close attention to the sign preceding the command in question.  If it's a $ it means that the following command is to be run as your normal user, if it is a # however, that means the command should be run as root (or with elevated privileges like with sudo). Check your own terminal while running it as a normal user and while running it as root

@drcouzelis
Well it happens with anything that occupies the soundcard, doesn't have to be a MIDI daemon (although they are often the case). Xfces panel mixer is a good example that pops up every now and then which will grab the sounddevice and prevent pulse from grabbing it itself.