Arch Linux

ashtonx

Member

Registered: 2020-07-15

Posts: 12

Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

So after recent update my sound blaster went to hell..
-had no sound, after screwing around i realized at one point i had my headphone output working after setting to line out,
-couldn't repeat it later after changing some settings, however i did hear pop sound whenever i changed settings on line out, no sound at all on headphone out
going into bugs arch i noticed someone mic not working, reference to fixed alsactl issue
figured nothing to lose

# alsactl restore

Fixed the issue.. temporarily... that said it still persists between reboots, have to do alsactl restore.. any ideas what info to gather and where to report it ? or maybe some fix ?
at this point i'm not sure if it's kernel, alsa (most likely) or pulse. and why the hell it happens.

edit:
hmm seems like its restore crashing due to nvidia ?

systemctl status alsa-restore                                                                                         ✘ 99 
● alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.service; static)
     Active: active (exited) since Fri 2021-07-30 11:18:50 CEST; 12min ago
    Process: 463 ExecStart=/usr/bin/alsactl restore (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 463 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 3ms

lip 30 11:18:50 uroboros systemd[1]: Starting Save/Restore Sound Card State...
lip 30 11:18:50 uroboros alsactl[463]: alsa-lib parser.c:242:(error_node) UCM is not supported for this HDA model (HDA NVidia at >
lip 30 11:18:50 uroboros alsactl[463]: alsa-lib main.c:1405:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import hw:0 use case configu>
lip 30 11:18:50 uroboros systemd[1]: Finished Save/Restore Sound Card State.

edit2:
pacman -Qs alsa

local/alsa-card-profiles 1:0.3.32-2
    Low-latency audio/video router and processor - ALSA card profiles
local/alsa-firmware 1.2.4-2
    Firmware binaries for loader programs in alsa-tools and hotplug firmware loader
local/alsa-lib 1.2.5.1-3
    An alternative implementation of Linux sound support
local/alsa-plugins 1:1.2.5-2
    Additional ALSA plugins
local/alsa-tools 1.2.5-1
    Advanced tools for certain sound cards
local/alsa-topology-conf 1.2.5.1-1
    ALSA topology configuration files
local/alsa-ucm-conf 1.2.5.1-1
    ALSA Use Case Manager configuration (and topologies)
local/alsa-utils 1.2.5.1-1
    Advanced Linux Sound Architecture - Utilities
local/lib32-alsa-lib 1.2.5.1-1
    An alternative implementation of Linux sound support (32 bit)
local/lib32-alsa-plugins 1.2.5-1
    Additional ALSA plugins (32-bit)
local/zita-alsa-pcmi 0.3.2-3
    The successor of clalsadrv, provides easy access to ALSA PCM devices.

Last edited by ashtonx (2021-07-30 09:45:17)

darkrocket

Member

Registered: 2019-06-13

Posts: 10

Re: Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

There was a recent update of pulseaudio, libpulse and alsa-card-profiles, maybe downgrading them will help you.

sudo pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/libpulse-14.2-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /var/cache/pacman/pkg/pulseaudio-14.2-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst /var/cache/pacman/pkg/alsa-card-profiles-1\:0.3.32-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

If you don't have the packages in the cache you'll need to use the Arch Linux Archive: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Downgr … ux_Archive

Last edited by darkrocket (2021-07-30 16:38:41)

ashtonx

Member

Registered: 2020-07-15

Posts: 12

Re: Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

alsa-card-profiles might be unlikely as it already happened before i upgraded it..
That said indeed there was no alsa update during run before. I originally thought it was alsa.
There was pulse update though. Sounds like a likely culprit.. that or kernel, but that's even less likely.

Will look for workaround before I downgrade though

Thanks for suggestion.

ashtonx

Member

Registered: 2020-07-15

Posts: 12

Re: Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

Well finally got time to get to it, tried various things ultimately nothing worked until i Dowgraded pulse audio. Indeed seems like current pulse is the issue.

Honestly not sure wtf is going on
-doing alsa restore as user or root restores sound.
-alsa-restore service clearly shows it was run on boot so it should've worked anyway.

Last edited by ashtonx (2021-08-02 20:03:16)

ashtonx

Member

Registered: 2020-07-15

Posts: 12

Re: Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

added bug report.
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/71709

mkkot

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2009-12-20

Posts: 288

Re: Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

For me the solution was surprisingly easy:
1. Open pavucontrol
2. Select correct output on Output devices tab. I had headphones selected, that's why pa was muting my PCM output.

I have those errors too:

paź 30 09:15:21 linux alsactl[433]: alsa-lib parser.c:242:(error_node) UCM is not supported for this HDA model (HD-Audio Generic at 0xfcb80000 irq 76)
paź 30 09:15:21 linux alsactl[433]: alsa-lib main.c:1405:(snd_use_case_mgr_open) error: failed to import hw:1 use case configuration -6

But they are irrelevant.

If this is not helping in your case, try to diff /var/lib/alsa/asound.state now and after downgrading alsa-lib and alsa-utils (of course use alsactl store in between attempts). For me it showed identical files, so I started looking somewhere else and found the culprit in pulseaudio setting.

ashtonx

Member

Registered: 2020-07-15

Posts: 12

Re: Sound Blaster Z stopped working (temp-fix)

Well seems like there's something retarded in pav indeed, problem is I'm running headphones.

Picking headphones mutes my audio though. Picking Line Out enables it..
Better yet changing audio out on alsa after this makes no difference there.

alsactl restore still changes shit back to how it was.

Now thing is, my audio is going through headphone out, not line out (which is also an output) so it's still a bug, but your workaround is indeed better.

Last edited by ashtonx (2021-11-03 02:01:34)