How do I make ALSA play sound in my HDMI output?

alnexus · 2022-02-27 22:09:51

I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm using PipeWire and ALSA. I don't know how I'm supposed to change my default device. I have 2 devices: my HDMI monitor (I have the NVidia drivers installed) and I have my headphones, which aren't connected. I'm using PipeWire instead of PulseAudio. I am trying to use speaker-test to make sound play in the monitor speakers but I don't have any idea of what I'm doing and even after reading the wiki I still haven't managed to make it work. Can anyone help me? The "aplay -L" lists the default device as "Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server)". I think I just have to change my default device but how do I do that? How do I even use speaker-test on my monitor speakers to check if the sound is even working bfore using it as default?

V1del · 2022-02-27 23:30:54

Having pipewire be your default device is correct and wanted, to manipulate that you'd use a tool that shows you pipewire nodes, there are some native ones, but the way this is "generally" done is via the relevant pulseaudio abstraction layers, e.g. pavucontrol etc.

If you want to test your speaker-test outside of pipewire guarantees you can pass the audio device directly e.g.

speaker-test -Dhw:0,3 -c2

where hw:0,3 is the device according to aplay -l . But if you generally want to change your default device, change your pulse/pipewire default with the aforementioned pavucontrol or pactl set-default-sink ...

If you need more help beyond this post the outputs of

aplay -lL
pactl list cards
pactl list sinks
#During active playback you expect on a HDMI device
pactl list sink-inputs

Last edited by V1del (2022-02-27 23:32:29)

alnexus · 2022-03-02 19:58:38

Thanks, it seems that the device isn't really there. On pavucontrol it shows up as GP106 controller but when I go into the configuration the output is configured as *Digital* HDMI Output 0, which is Generic or I don't know... The HDMI audio is working on Windows though.

V1del · 2022-03-02 20:07:55

Post the outputs I don't see what you see so I don't know what "seems" means. You can switch between different HDMI ports in the "Configuration" tab under pavucontrol though it should generally show things where actual monitors are connected to, assuming general detection to be working fine.

alnexus · 2022-03-02 21:22:06

hey, sorry (again) for the delay. Huh, weird. It just worked now! I changed the configuration to HDMI / DisplayPort2 and set the device as default and it is working. Thanks a ton and sorry for bothering with another reply.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-02-27 22:09:51

How do I make ALSA play sound in my HDMI output?

#2 2022-02-27 23:30:54

Re: How do I make ALSA play sound in my HDMI output?

#3 2022-03-02 19:58:38

Re: How do I make ALSA play sound in my HDMI output?

#4 2022-03-02 20:07:55

Re: How do I make ALSA play sound in my HDMI output?

#5 2022-03-02 21:22:06

Re: How do I make ALSA play sound in my HDMI output?

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