Arch Linux

xu564856686

Member

Registered: 2016-07-15

Posts: 42

[SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

Hello, I only installed Arch for the first time recently and I have made sure to do the proper research first.

I am having lots of different errors and problems with sound not working at all. Particularly, I have USB powered speakers plugged in to the motherboard audio jack, and headphones on the case front jack, and I want to be able to switch between them without muting ( I have disabled Auto-Mute in ALSA ). It is difficult for me to point out exactly what is not working, but I will try to give some info.

Problems seem to have started when I ran Steam or a Flash plugin.

Right now, I can hear sound come out of my USB speakers, but when I plug in my headphones I can only hear static.
Running
> pulseaudio --kill
> pulseaudio --start
produces the "daemon startup failed" message, but alsamixer shows both the card and chip as being "PulseAudio". Even when I run > pulseaudio --kill I still only get a single Master channel for PulseAudio in alsamixer.

I have tried editing default.pa, reinstalling pulseaudio and pulseaudio-alsa, restarting my computer, and I don't know where to look next.

EDIT: I deleted /etc/asound.conf, reinstalled pulseaudio and pulseaudio-alsa, and now I can switch between speakers and headphones okay. I haven't gotten the "daemon startup failed" message, but it doesn't seem to go back to pure ALSA when I run "pulseaudio --kill".

Last edited by xu564856686 (2016-07-23 16:48:43)

Rasi

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-08-14

Posts: 1,914

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

i dont exactly understand why you want to kill pulseaudio at all? What advantages do you expect from "pure alsa"

Last edited by Rasi (2016-07-15 13:46:42)

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xu564856686

Member

Registered: 2016-07-15

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

I don't want to kill PulseAudio if it works. I just want to know why I can't seem to kill it after it starts running. I haven't found any issues since I reinstalled it so I can mark this [SOLVED] if no one has any suggestions as to what might be the problem.

Last edited by xu564856686 (2016-07-15 18:25:59)

Rasi

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-08-14

Posts: 1,914

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

because as soon as applications try to access your audio devices pulseaudio will respawn.

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He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife.

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xu564856686

Member

Registered: 2016-07-15

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

OK. I didn't know that. Thanks.

xu564856686

Member

Registered: 2016-07-15

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

Reopening this topic because after I installed TiMidity all the problems came back.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,841

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

Make sure that you start timidity as your user instead of globally as root. Install pulseaudio-alsa if you haven't already. I'd go with fluidsynth personally since it has native pulseaudio output support. You can switch from a global systemd service to a user one, so that it is started within the scope of your user and thus will make use of pulseaudio. Use

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

to check which applications are using your soundcard(s). Properly configured you should only see pulseaudio opening the devices as your own user.

xu564856686

Member

Registered: 2016-07-15

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

I was not using timidity as root. I ran fuser while I still had timidity and timidity had taken over some devices. I uninstalled timidity, restarted my computer and fuser lists this:

                                 USER         PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  username 610 F....        panel-16-mixer
                                 username 740 F....        pulseaudio
/dev/snd/controlC1:  username 610 F....        panel-16-mixer
                                 username 740 F....        pulseaudio

However I do not have sound back after removing timidity.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,841

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

panel mixer tends to conflict as well, what happens if you kill it and use e.g. pavucontrol? You shouldn't mix volume mixers XFCE's default panel mixer (afaik a pulse supporting replacement is in development) has only support for ALSA you should use something that supports pulse.

Last edited by V1del (2016-07-22 20:39:51)

xu564856686

Member

Registered: 2016-07-15

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] Daemon startup failed + other ALSA/PulseAudio issues

That seems to have been the problem. Thank you.

EDIT: No, after uninstalling xfce4-mixer and rebooting, the sound stopped working.

EDIT: Sound came back after I stopped the timidity process.

Last edited by xu564856686 (2016-07-23 16:48:25)