Arch Linux

Multivac

Member

Registered: 2020-01-12

Posts: 3

Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

I recently installed arch on an HP chromebook. I've been trying to set up sound with alsa, but my speakers are still not working. When I run alsamixer, I get this:

https://i.imgur.com/160h7Nv.png

instead of what I expected, something like this:

https://www.maketecheasier.com/assets/u … ixer-c.png

It seems as if none of the channels are muted, so I tried doing a speaker test:

$ speaker-test -c 2

speaker-test 1.2.1

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1089:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

With this result. To give you more complete information, here's my sound card:

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xc2b18000 irq 127

Has anyone had a similar issue? Is there any more information I should share to get an answer?

Thanks for any and all help.

moderator edit -- replaced oversized images with links.
Pasting pictures and code

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2020-02-07 19:14:18)

uhmzilighase

Member

Registered: 2020-01-21

Posts: 5

Re: Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

I don't have your soundcard but for me alsa-lib on Braswell is broken.
Downgrade to alsa-lib 1.1.9-2 fixes it.

$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xd1314000 irq 315
 1 [chtrt5650      ]: chtrt5650 - chtrt5650
                      GOOGLE-Edg

wallace

Member

Registered: 2018-12-06

Posts: 7

Re: Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

Try changing your kernel to `linux-lts`

Multivac

Member

Registered: 2020-01-12

Posts: 3

Re: Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

I tried changing the kernel to lts and got the same result. How would I go about downgrading alsa? I see multiple options on the wiki, but I can't use the pacman cache and I'm not sure which of the others would be most reliable.

Lone_Wolf

Member

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 11,911

Re: Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

Don't downgrade, try to find the cause of the issue.

Post full dmesg and/or journalctl -b also output of

$ aplay -l
$ aplay -L
$ pacman -Qs pulse

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

Multivac

Member

Registered: 2020-01-12

Posts: 3

Re: Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

Here's my dmesg output: http://ix.io/2e7X

aplay -l and aplay -L

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$aplay -L
surround21
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=1
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=2
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=3
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=4
    HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 4
    HDMI Audio Output

pacman -Qs pulse shows that libpulse 13.0-3 is installed.

uhmzilighase

Member

Registered: 2020-01-21

Posts: 5

Re: Sound not working on chromebook. ALSA "unable to open slave"

How would I go about downgrading alsa?

yay downgrader
downgrader alsa-utils
downgrader alsa-libs

As of today, March 14, 2020 these version work on Braswell
alsa-utils-1.1.9-1
alsa-lib-1.1.9-2