Arch Linux

Polarity

Member

Registered: 2019-05-03

Posts: 32

[SOLVED] Pulseaudio not working

After my system upgrade today (pacman -Syu) I can no longer start pulseaudio. (Last upgrade before this was no longer than 5 days, I believe)

When I try to start it manually I get:

pulseaudio --start

E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Daemon startup failed.

I've been searching for hours now and can't find a solution.
It would be great if someone here could take a look at this and help me get the sound back on my system.

Here are some outputs - let me know if I can provide anything else.

journalctl -e | grep Error

Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device dcahdmi:0,5: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device dcahdmi:0,6: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device hdmi:0,7: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device hdmi:0,7: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device hdmi:0,7: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device dcahdmi:0,7: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device hw:0: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device hw:0: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:14 arch pulseaudio[7902]: Error opening PCM device hw:0: No such file or directory
Apr 25 20:52:40 arch gnome-shell[8106]: [Child 8106, MediaDecoderStateMachine #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f34c0225000 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /build/firefox/src/firefox-75.0/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3758
Apr 25 20:52:41 arch gnome-shell[8106]: [Child 8106, MediaDecoderStateMachine #1] WARNING: Decoder=7f34c0225000 [OnMediaSinkAudioError]: file /build/firefox/src/firefox-75.0/dom/media/MediaDecoderStateMachine.cpp, line 3758

journalctl -b --user-unit pulseaudio

-- Logs begin at Tue 2020-03-31 17:57:30 CEST, end at Sat 2020-04-25 21:27:25 CEST. --
Apr 25 20:38:49 arch systemd[1455]: Starting Sound Service...
Apr 25 20:38:49 arch pulseaudio[1511]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: No card found by this name or index.
Apr 25 20:38:49 arch pulseaudio[1511]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon due to errors while executing startup commands. Source of commands: /home/mike/.config/pulse//default.pa
Apr 25 20:38:49 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 25 20:38:49 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 25 20:38:49 arch systemd[1455]: Failed to start Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: Stopped Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: Starting Sound Service...
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch pulseaudio[1549]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: No card found by this name or index.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch pulseaudio[1549]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon due to errors while executing startup commands. Source of commands: /home/mike/.config/pulse//default.pa
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: Failed to start Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: Stopped Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:50 arch systemd[1455]: Starting Sound Service...
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch pulseaudio[1616]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: No card found by this name or index.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch pulseaudio[1616]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon due to errors while executing startup commands. Source of commands: /home/mike/.config/pulse//default.pa
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: Failed to start Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: Stopped Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: Starting Sound Service...
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch pulseaudio[1652]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: No card found by this name or index.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch pulseaudio[1652]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon due to errors while executing startup commands. Source of commands: /home/mike/.config/pulse//default.pa
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: Failed to start Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: Stopped Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:51 arch systemd[1455]: Starting Sound Service...
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch pulseaudio[1704]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: No card found by this name or index.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch pulseaudio[1704]: E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to initialize daemon due to errors while executing startup commands. Source of commands: /home/mike/.config/pulse//default.pa
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: Failed to start Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: Stopped Sound Service.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: pulseaudio.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Apr 25 20:38:52 arch systemd[1455]: Failed to start Sound Service.

(I don't have a /home/mike/.config/pulse//default.pa)

aplay -lL

fish: Unknown command: aplay

dmesg | grep snd

[    6.362151] snd_hda_intel 0000:09:00.3: Skipping the blacklisted device
[    6.362479] snd_hda_intel 0000:42:00.1: Disabling MSI
[    6.362500] snd_hda_intel 0000:42:00.1: Handle vga_switcheroo audio client

Thank you!

Last edited by Polarity (2020-10-16 21:25:50)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,447

Re: [SOLVED] Pulseaudio not working

That's weird that file it shouldn't be in the error message if it didn't exist and pulse doesn't do index based identification by default. Anyway the real issue seems to be that your sound card disappeared, presumably due to the same issue discussed in: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=255045

So try to downgrade the kernel to 5.6.4 and follow kernel changelogs until you see the commit mentioned in my last post included in the changelog.

Last edited by V1del (2020-04-26 02:15:28)

Polarity

Member

Registered: 2019-05-03

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Pulseaudio not working

Oooh, thank you! I'll try downgrading or just wait it out. Thanks again for your help! I'll make sure to mark as solved when it is working again.

Polarity

Member

Registered: 2019-05-03

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Pulseaudio not working

Installed 5.6.8 and it worked again. Marked as solved. Thanks for the help!

Polarity

Member

Registered: 2019-05-03

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Pulseaudio not working

I just upgraded and it seems this popped up again. No Pulseaudio / Sound. Is anyone else having this issue as well?

Polarity

Member

Registered: 2019-05-03

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Pulseaudio not working

I figured it out. I had added

set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_09_00.3 output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo

to /etc/pulse/default.pa

I needed it to fix another issue some time ago. Now it's fine without this line.