Arch Linux

jjjx

Member

Registered: 2022-02-07

Posts: 1

Audio spontaneusly stops working.

Hi!

Sometimes audio on my computer just randomly stops working. I usually don't discover it immediately, but after a while (when I want to watch a video, listen to music etc.) To restore the audio I have to run these three commands:

pulseaudio -k
alsactl init
pulseaudio --start

Sometimes I have to run them multiple times, but usually one time is sufficient. Some programs don't respond and have to be restarted for audio to start working.

Having to reinitialize ALSA and pulseaudio suggests that the OS stops seeing audio sinks for a brief moment, but I have no clue besides that.

Possibly Related Issue: I lose audio when opening a secondary Xorg instance (on a different tty) and killing Xorg (any Xorg instance). It usually is restored by itself after switching back to original instance (or after some time). I didn't notice this issue until recently when I was developing a WM to familiarize myself with Xlib/X11. However, I usually run only one Xorg instance.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,292

Re: Audio spontaneusly stops working.

Before running the kill command, what do you get for

journalctl -b --user-unit pulseaudio
sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*
pacmd list-cards
pacmd list-sinks
pacmd list-sink-inputs

Post those in code tags, chances are you have a process running that takes over control over your audio device and blocks pulse from accessing it.

Last edited by V1del (2022-02-07 09:39:41)