Arch Linux

ben_hagel

Member

Registered: 2023-11-13

Posts: 1

Audio doesn't work on all users when logging into a dwm session

Hello, about a week ago I installed Arch and then switched from KDE Plasma to DWM. For this I have created a second user. In the beginning, the audio went without any problems, but after logging in again, you couldn't hear anything anymore. At first I thought it was a browser problem, but speaker-test didn't make any sound either.

$ speaker-test

speaker-test 1.2.10

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1000:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Playback open error: -2,No such file or directory

It became interesting when I logged back in with my original account with DWM and there were no problems with the audio whatsoever. I also made sure that the second user has all root rights for both wheel and audio. I went through several wiki pages and, in my opinion, made all the settings in Alsamixer and Pulse Audio so that it should work, but nothing helped. I even went into /etc/pulse default.pa and made changes there. Unfortunately, at the point where i leave the /home directory my knowledge about direcotries leaves me and I simply don't know enough about arch Linux to find out why the audio isn't working.
Here is my aplay -l if it is helps:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [iMac]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CS4206 Analog [CS4206 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: CS4206 Digital [CS4206 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Same game here i am just unable to get any useful information out of it, why it isn't working.

I would be very grateful, if anyone could help me. And if any more information is necessary, please let me know.

Ps: please excuse my poor English, I am a non native speaker

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 74,307

Re: Audio doesn't work on all users when logging into a dwm session

You've two cards - one is the hdmi output, the other one will drive your headphones, speakers and line out.
You might simply have to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanc … le_options ?

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,104

Re: Audio doesn't work on all users when logging into a dwm session

How are you logging in/starting DWM, and are you attempting to use the second user at the same time as the first one? session logistics will make the latter approach problematic, and the first thing should work properly assuming you are starting a proper session that starts the sound daemon.

What's your output for

echo $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS
loginctl session-status
systemctl --user status pulseaudio
sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*

post these in [ code ] rather than [ quote ] tags.

Note to apply seths suggestion (which isn't strictly necessary if you're intending to use pulse) there's the special logistics of snd_hda_intel to be aware of and your relevant options line would need to read

options snd-hda-intel index=-2,0

or similar.