[SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

Zhme · 2017-10-25 23:35:55

Fresh install of Arch, 10-20-17 newer.. I have attempted to troubleshoot using the advanced linux sound architecture page as well as various google searches. I am sure that I'm missing or overlooking a simple fix to my problems but I continuously get the errors from playing videos on youtube with no sound. Using speaker-test -D default:Generic gives me a test sound which is very fuzzy but it's better than silence. I imagine that my cards/firmware/drivers are fine but the setting for which device to use by default is the issue. From reading the forums i've seen some posts that involve blacklisting devices/etc but I haven't be able to find a clear method in the wiki that doesn't send me away. Can anyone point me in the right direction.

P.S. I've already tried using sound application which manage said events, and I only felt confident enough as to go as far as PulseAudio and without configuring ALSA I feel like i'm failing myself.

Last edited by Zhme (2017-10-26 21:41:47)

circleface · 2017-10-26 00:00:55

Is pulseaudio running? I don't know what browser you use, but firefox requires pulseaudio to have sound.

Zhme · 2017-10-26 16:27:16

I use opera for my web browser currently and I removed PulseAudio when it didn't fix my problem. I don't really want to use Pulse if it can be avoided, i'd like to figure out what is wrong right now. In the past the sound has worked using different distros and also previous installations of Arch where I had desktop environments set up, so I know that my hardware is working. Also the speaker-test does make a sound when I append the '-D default:Generic' so I feel like there is a simple setting that could be changed to solve my problem.

lo1 · 2017-10-26 16:42:58

What do you see when you open

alsamixer

?
EDIT: assuming you're having problems with alsa and not with whatever web browser, this is a good reading.

Last edited by lo1 (2017-10-26 18:19:46)

Zhme · 2017-10-26 18:20:36

Alsamixer does open without error and it always opens to 00 S/PDIF with no bars for volume levels. When I change the sound card the list says

- (default)
0 HDA ATI HDMI
1 HD-Audio Generic
Enter name...

I select the HD-Audio Generic, option 1, then I do get bars, although the GUI is slightly misaligned. Not sure if that has anything to do with alsa or possibly my terminal emulator?

After I select a different card and bump up the volumes a bit I tried speaker-test -c 2 which returns:

Playback device is default
48k Hz, S16_LE, 2 Channel
16 Oct pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1099:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

Also, I realize that using a paste client would be much better on the eyes. I will be heading over to that thread after this post.

lo1 · 2017-10-26 18:34:50

Zhme wrote:

Alsamixer does open without error and it always opens to 00 S/PDIF with no bars for volume levels. When I change the sound card the list says
- (default)
0 HDA ATI HDMI
1 HD-Audio Generic
Enter name...
I select the HD-Audio Generic, option 1, then I do get bars, although the GUI is slightly misaligned. Not sure if that has anything to do with alsa or possibly my terminal emulator?
After I select a different card and bump up the volumes a bit I tried speaker-test -c 2 which returns:
Playback device is default
48k Hz, S16_LE, 2 Channel
16 Oct pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1099:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory
Also, I realize that using a paste client would be much better on the eyes. I will be heading over to that thread after this post.

Don't mind that post, i'm figuring that's just for your own knowledge at this point. This and this are more appropriate to set your default device properly. I've had some similar problems, especially playing sound through my earphones.

Zhme · 2017-10-26 19:29:21

I tried creating the /etc/asound.conf and adding the simple control mixer to the file as well but I definitely am not adding it correctly. The speaker-test -c 2 test throws these errors

speaker-test 1.1.4

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pcm.c:2501:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM Generic
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

My config file has this in it at the moment:

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm {
        @func getenv
        vars [ ALSAPCM ]
        default "Generic"
        amixer -c 0 cset name='IEC958 Playback Switch' on
    }
}

Note: I removed the amixer line because it was giving me several errors, i couldn't even run aplay -l with this line included.

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC3227 Analog [ALC3227 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Edit: thought this might also be useful information

amixer sset Master unmute

amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Master',0

Last edited by Zhme (2017-10-26 19:37:00)

seth · 2017-10-26 20:14:48

Using speaker-test -D default:Generic gives me a test sound which is very fuzzy

speaker-test generates white noise, if you hear that, your sound works and this is either a problem w/ the video or the browser.

Ensure to install mpv or mplayer and try youtube-viewer to play your video. If you still don't have sound, try playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=566OSZgLTjU (hey, it's close to Halloween ... ;-)

Zhme · 2017-10-26 20:30:58

Well I found that my asound.conf file had a typo, I was missing the hw: in the card line. After fixing that and doing a speaker-test to find the /proc...hw_params the file had this in it.

access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 48000 (48000/1)
period_size: 262144
buffer_size: 1048576

I don't have any type of audio files to test my audio with at the moment so i've been relying on speaker tests and a youtube video using opera browser to test my sound. Seeing as the speaker-test worked as 'speaker-test -c 2' which has given me many problems until now I assumed that my problem now lies in opera browser plugins possibly.

From the newest error on the terminal when i run opera & to open my browser I get this error when I play a video (I have installed gstreamer package for plugins in hopes to solve this problem):

ALSA lib pcm.c:2501:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM Generic
ALSA lib pcm.c:2501:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM Generic

I know that my sound works I just keep getting errors from ALSA when I play videos though. I will install mpv or mplayer and try using youtube-viewer but I feel like my configuration may still be incorrect... O.o Although I could be wrong!

Zhme · 2017-10-26 20:42:56

I downloaded those packages you mentioned and I just tried youtube-viewer a few times. I got it to work after a little bit of tweaking but it still doesn't play with sound.

lo1 · 2017-10-26 21:09:50

...and i'm still sure you need to specify your default sound card read carefully the alsa Wiki page

Zhme · 2017-10-26 21:41:27

lo1 wrote:

...and i'm still sure you need to specify your default sound card read carefully the alsa Wiki page

Good Lord... K.I.S.S. defined...

I don't know why I had assumed that when i tried to open that .conf file and saw it empty that I could just ignore it. Adding one options line with intel hda solved the problem immediately! Thank you very much! I will try to avoid neglecting the Wiki so fiercely.

Now my thread title just seems comical to me.. xD

Arch Linux

#1 2017-10-25 23:35:55

[SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#2 2017-10-26 00:00:55

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#3 2017-10-26 16:27:16

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#4 2017-10-26 16:42:58

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#5 2017-10-26 18:20:36

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#6 2017-10-26 18:34:50

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#7 2017-10-26 19:29:21

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#8 2017-10-26 20:14:48

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#9 2017-10-26 20:30:58

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#10 2017-10-26 20:42:56

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#11 2017-10-26 21:09:50

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

#12 2017-10-26 21:41:27

Re: [SOLVED]Alsa configured incorrectly

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