Arch Linux

schard

Forum Moderator

From: Hannover

Registered: 2016-05-06

Posts: 1,970

Website

[SOLVED] Sound only via aplay

I have a system with a minimalistic sound setup via alsa.
It is connected to a TV via HDMI.
The graphics output works fine, but I am struggling with the audio output.

 $ sudo amixer
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 87
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 81 [93%] [-4.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 81 [93%] [-4.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',2
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',3
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',4
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 63
  Front Left: Capture 39 [62%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 39 [62%] [12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Loopback Mixing',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled'
  Item0: 'Disabled'

With

aplay -D plughw:0,3 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

I can successfully play the test sound.
However I cannot get the sound to work with any other program, e.g. mplayer.

$ mplayer /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
MPlayer SVN-r38139 (C) 2000-2019 MPlayer Team
225 audio & 465 video codecs
do_connect: could not connect to socket
connect: No such file or directory
Failed to open LIRC support. You will not be able to use your remote control.

Playing /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav.
libavformat version 58.29.100 (external)
Audio only file format detected.
Load subtitles in /usr/share/sounds/alsa/
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [pcm] Uncompressed PCM audio decoder
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 1 ch, s16le, 768.0 kbit/100.00% (ratio: 96000->96000)
Selected audio codec: [pcm] afm: pcm (Uncompressed PCM)
==========================================================================
[AO OSS] audio_setup: Can't open audio device /dev/dsp: No such file or directory
[AO_ALSA] Playback open error: Permission denied
AO: [pulse] Init failed: Connection refused
connect(2) call to /dev/shm/jack-1000/default/jack_0 failed (err=No such file or directory)
attempt to connect to server failed
[JACK] cannot open server
AL lib: (EE) ALCplaybackAlsa_open: Could not open playback device 'default': Permission denied
[OpenAL] could not open device
DVB card number must be between 1 and 4
AO: [null] 48000Hz 1ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...
A:   1.4 (01.3) of 1.0 (01.0)  0.2% 
Audio output truncated at end.
A:   1.4 (01.3) of 1.0 (01.0)  0.2% 


Exiting... (End of file)

In the above example I hear nothing.

I read through this paragraph but also the configurations did not work:

$ cat .asoundrc 
pcm.!default {
    type hw
    card 0
    device 3
}

$ cat .asoundrc 
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 3
defaults.ctl.card 0

What am I missing?

Solution:
The respective user had to be in the group audio.
This happens if you skip the main article...

Last edited by schard (2019-11-26 12:19:08)

---

macro_rules! yolo { { $($tokens:tt)* } => { unsafe { $($tokens)* } }; }

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,645

Re: [SOLVED] Sound only via aplay

normally your user doesn't *need* to be in the audio group, you are likely just masking a deeper issue by doing so. often times your audio card is blocked because it's in some shape or form used by something else, or you don't have a proper logind session. What's your output for

sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

?

schard

Forum Moderator

From: Hannover

Registered: 2016-05-06

Posts: 1,970

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Sound only via aplay

$ LANG=C sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/pcmC0D3p:   digsig     3183 F.... adl

Which seems right. digsig is the user for the digital signage application, which is run by adl (yes, we still use flash, unfortunately).
Since I added the user to the audio group, the sound is working fine.

Last edited by schard (2019-11-26 13:33:21)

---

macro_rules! yolo { { $($tokens:tt)* } => { unsafe { $($tokens)* } }; }