Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

joshdmiller · 2011-04-18 01:01:21

I assume PulseAudio may have something to do with this, but audio works neither from within Gnome nor from without - no sound. Another thread (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=116712) suggested changing the output settings in Gnome, so I changed the only thing I could ("Connector") from "Analog Headphones" to "Analog Output", which then provided feedback when attempting to play sound - this behavior makes sense, but I tried it anyway per suggestion. I am running an Nvidia sound card which alsamixer identifies as "HDA Nvidia".

I was able to get a sound to play by manually specifying a device:

aplay -D front /usr/share/sounds/error.wav

Now aplay works without specifying a device again, but other applications (like MPD) and anything graphical do not work. The error from mpc is "ERROR: problems opening audio device" (with or without the pulse audio output uncommented).

For what it's worth, "pacmd list" does list my sound card, and:

joshua ~ $  fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                     USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC0:  joshua     1550 F.... pulseaudio
joshua ~ $  fuser -v /dev/dsp
joshua ~ $

Any ideas?

Update (17 Apr, 19:46 PST):

Logging into KDE, Phonon with a Xine backend seems to work a little magic. Now, aplay, mplayer, and the graphical players work without tweaking. But MPD still does not. So, in summary: on boot to init 3, no sound; in Gnome 3, no sound; in KDE, sound from most applications.

What is going on here?

Last edited by joshdmiller (2011-04-18 02:46:29)

ngoonee · 2011-04-18 03:27:50

pulseaudio needs control of your sound card to work. Something else is grabbing that control.

If you want to use gnome3, you'll have to set pulseaudio up properly. On a new install that shouldn't be too hard, just follow the wiki.

Of course, if you've made audio-related changes/tweaks before (.asoundrc or whatever /etc stuff) you're expected to know at least how to revert them and what they do/don't do.

joshdmiller · 2011-04-18 03:47:19

Thanks for the reply.

This is not a new install, but I have not tweaked any audio-related settings. Sound worked out of the box for me after install (through ALSA) so I never had a need to change anything. I have KDE, Gnome3, XFCE, LXDE, Ion, Musca, Awesome, DWM, etc. I like to play with the DEs and WMs but I spend almost all my time in Xmonad. Sound worked in all DEs and WMs since blasting a few months ago (I have used Arch for a couple of years now) and sound has never been an issue (even when I used pulse with Gnome2 when I first converted from Fedora).

I wanted to try Gnome 3, so I followed the wiki instructions and now my sound works unpredictably in all DEs and WMs. Thinking the problem was probably PulseAudio, and this not being my first barbeque, the first thing I did was read the entire wiki page, follow all steps it outlined (just in case) and try all troubleshooting it provided.

As an example, I've used MPD for years with NCMPCPP / NCMPC as a front end. Always worked immediately on boot and followed me working completely through any DE. Now I can't get it to play at all. Same config. No pulse. I don't want to run Gnome 3 - I just wanted to try it. I'm an Xmonad guy. Right now, sound ONLY works in KDE, and not with MPD. No other DE or WM does sound work at all.

But I want to avoid blasting or reverting the changes retrieved from testing right now and this seems like it should be fixable, I think.

Thanks.

ngoonee · 2011-04-18 03:55:19

You should set up pulseaudio properly, then. Check if a pulseaudio process is running, first (it should auto-start at least in Gnome, probably in KDE as well). Start up a new process after killing the old one, with high verbosity. Most likely you'll see errors regarding the sound hardware being already taken by some other app. You'd need to find it and kill it .

Once pulseaudio can start up properly (without the null audio sink) the next step is making sure all your apps use it. I've found mpd to be a bit problematic by default, so I use mpd-pulse. Similarly, I use mplayer-pulse and wine-pulse (the last isn't really necessary though if you don't mind prefixing your wine apps with padsp/aoss).

joshdmiller · 2011-04-18 04:28:42

Ok. Yes, pulse is started in Gnome (and in KDE). It also auto-respawns when I kill it, so I have to be very quick in adding the log-level argument.

So here's where we are. I log in to tty1 on boot, no pulse running (obviously), I "xinit gnome", open a terminal, and "mpc error.wav" produces no sound. Then:

joshua ~ $  killall pulseaudio
joshua ~ $  pulseaudio --log-level=error

Starts up fine, nothing at all reported. So, I open a new tab, run some commands and voila: sound works perfectly in aplay and mplayer but not MPD. Why does it work now? Back on tab 1, pulseaudio still has reported no issue. On tab 2, I run "mpc play", which produces no error this time, but also produces no sound. So I try aplay and mplayer again and they no longer work. Kill pulse, restart it. Rinse and repeat, same result.

So, fine, Gnome3 from testing has some quirks - I knew what I was getting into when I installed it. And I know that MPD and pulse do not always get along. But - and please forgive my pulse ignorance here - when I am not in Gnome3 and pulse isn't running (and even the X server isn't running), why would MPD not work on the alsa output that's configured by default and that worked prior to the install of Gnome3?

Thanks!

Edit: A couple typos: Should be "aplay error.wav" and not "mpc error.wav". And on log in to the tty, aplay produces no sound then either. And the MPD question at the end is also for aplay, mplayer, and everything else.

Last edited by joshdmiller (2011-04-18 04:38:51)

jolttz · 2011-04-30 12:16:50

I got mpd working by uncommenting pulseaudio in mpd.conf:

audio_output {
    type        "pulse"
    name        "My Pulse Output"
##    server        "remote_server"        # optional
##    sink        "remote_server_sink"    # optional
}

Last edited by jolttz (2011-04-30 12:18:22)

soylent_green_is_hamster · 2011-05-03 21:40:13

I have the same problem....gnome 3 appears to have borked my sound. I simply cannot get it to work in XFCE or GNOME. I've gone through the pulseaudio wiki page, and I appear to have set it up correctly. But no sound. Pulseaudio doesn't report anything for me either

I forced an uninstall of pulseaudio-alsa, and I still don't get sound!! Even though everything looks fine in alsamixer.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Last edited by soylent_green_is_hamster (2011-05-03 21:56:33)

nicopsycho · 2011-05-26 12:21:16

@jolttz
Thanks it worked for me!

Arch Linux

#1 2011-04-18 01:01:21

Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#2 2011-04-18 03:27:50

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#3 2011-04-18 03:47:19

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#4 2011-04-18 03:55:19

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#5 2011-04-18 04:28:42

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#6 2011-04-30 12:16:50

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#7 2011-05-03 21:40:13

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

#8 2011-05-26 12:21:16

Re: Audio Stopped Working after Gnome3 Install

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