Arch Linux

keltek

Member

Registered: 2017-01-08

Posts: 53

[Solved] No sound with Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 DAC

After a fresh install on my PC I'm trying to get audio set up properly. This is the first time I've ever install Arch on this computer though I have used Ubuntu and getting audio through my soundcard was plug and play there. Here though with alsa-mixer alone and with pulse audio ontop I'm unable to get any sound. The only way I can hear anything is by plugging my headphones directly into a headphone jack. This isn't ideal though and I'd like to get my full setup working. Below is the output of some commands that might be useful to solving this.

$ pacmd info | awk '/Default sink/ {print $4}'
alsa_output.usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_2i4_USB-00.analog-surround-40

$ pactl list sinks | awk '/Volume/ {print $5; exit}'
100%

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD 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
card 2: USB [Scarlett 2i4 USB], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Thanks in advance!

EDIT:

Also, running pulseaudio from the command line gives this output:

$ pulseaudio
W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/home/kyle/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/home/kyle/.config/pulse/cookie': No such file or directory
W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to open cookie file '/home/kyle/.pulse-cookie': No such file or directory
W: [pulseaudio] authkey.c: Failed to load authentication key '/home/kyle/.pulse-cookie': No such file or directory
W: [alsa-source-USB Audio] alsa-util.c: Got POLLNVAL from ALSA
W: [alsa-sink-USB Audio] alsa-util.c: Got POLLNVAL from ALSA
W: [alsa-source-USB Audio] alsa-util.c: Could not recover from POLLERR|POLLNVAL|POLLHUP with snd_pcm_prepare(): No such device
W: [alsa-sink-USB Audio] alsa-util.c: Could not recover from POLLERR|POLLNVAL|POLLHUP with snd_pcm_prepare(): No such device

Last edited by keltek (2017-12-06 01:21:36)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,435

Re: [Solved] No sound with Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 DAC

Can you post full untruncated outputs of the following during attempted playback?

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
amixer -c2 #or whatever index your usb card has at aplay -l invocation
pacmd list-cards
pacmd list-sinks
pacmd list-sink-inputs

Last edited by V1del (2017-12-05 09:24:44)

keltek

Member

Registered: 2017-01-08

Posts: 53

Re: [Solved] No sound with Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 DAC

EDIT: This wasn't working before but now the sound just works. No idea why. This isn't the first time I restarted my computer since trying to get the config set up but now the audio works no problem. Really bizzare. If anyone is really curious I can try to figure out exactly what happened.

Last edited by keltek (2017-12-06 01:19:39)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,435

Re: [Solved] No sound with Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 DAC

Good candidates for the POLLNVAL error is that the device is already busy, usually because you started an ALSA only application that occupies the device. To prevent that make sure pulseaudio-alsa is installed and that an ALSA application plays back to the 'Default device', given these conditions you should be able to manipulate the audio stream as normal in pavucontrol and similar tools. That's where the fuser command in particular is helpful. If you execute that and you see the USB card being occupied by anything other than pulseaudio, there's likely some configuration you'd have to adjust.