[SOLVED] A sound system configuration for idiots is sorely needed

klopfersoft · 03-04-2012, 04:41 AM

The sound system is very elusive here. I've got a new AMD64 4-core mainboard and installed openSuse 12.1 64 bit into it.

However the whole sound schtik is hard to follow. There is an onboard soundcard and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I simply want this Amorak mp3 player to play the mp3 files and actually generate the sound.

If it works, then when apper demands I make 103 updates/installations and I follow three of the suggestions, then the next time I boot the sound is gone.

Is there any way for an idiot like me to simply let the sound system work--aside from going back to WinXP, I mean.

Any tips, links would be greatly appreciated.

ButterflyMelissa · 03-04-2012, 06:07 AM

Just of the top of my head...if there's no sound, do a "ps -A" and check if pulsaudio was loaded. Possibly, something happened to make it crash, or not get loaded at all...

Maybe an other thought...have you tried with a different distro I dont want to "lure" you away from openSuse, dont get me wrong, but, just to "compare notes"...

By the way, can you run lspci to see what onboard sound card you have? Maybe the thing gives issues...or is "giving up" - about to break down. That could be a hardware thing...
Can I tempt you to steer away from the onboard stuff? A dedicated soundcard could give the results you need...

Following up (to learn something)

Thor
Oh, and welcome here!

repo · 03-04-2012, 06:13 AM

Quote:

If it works, then when apper demands I make 103 updates/installations and I follow three of the suggestions, then the next time I boot the sound is gone.

Which suggestions?
Try to run

Code:

alsamixer

in a terminal and see if something is muted

Kind regards

klopfersoft · 03-04-2012, 12:36 PM

Quote:

have you tried with a different distro

Quote:

Can I tempt you to steer away from the onboard stuff?

Thanks Thor but it reminds me of a story I heard once. There was a man who had a car accident and laying in the wreckage he called out to a passing motorist for help. The motorist replied : "You should have bought a Toyota."

The onboard sound thing is called Azelia. I try to play mp3 files with Amorok. Yesterday it worked, today it doesn't. In Amorok I can configure Phonon but I don't know what a Phonon is.

I have a "mixer" called KMix. It says its "master" is HDAATI SB but I don't know what HDAATI SB is. This mixer Kmix can show a "Mischpult" with about 9 different channels but seeing as I only have two ears I don't know what I should do with it.

I ran alsamixer and it showed a single slide bar. I put it from zero up to 95% but there still is no sound.

I ran ps -A and this is the result :

Code:

  PID TTY          TIME CMD
    1 ?        00:00:00 systemd
    2 ?        00:00:00 kthreadd
    3 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
    6 ?        00:00:00 migration/0
    7 ?        00:00:00 rcuc0
    8 ?        00:00:00 rcun0
    9 ?        00:00:00 rcub0
   10 ?        00:00:00 rcun1
   11 ?        00:00:00 rcub1
   12 ?        00:00:00 watchdog/0
   13 ?        00:00:00 migration/1
   15 ?        00:00:00 rcuc1
   16 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/1
   17 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:1
   18 ?        00:00:00 watchdog/1
   19 ?        00:00:00 migration/2
   21 ?        00:00:00 rcuc2
   22 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/2
   23 ?        00:00:00 watchdog/2
   24 ?        00:00:00 migration/3
   25 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:0
   26 ?        00:00:00 rcuc3
   27 ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/3
   28 ?        00:00:00 watchdog/3
   29 ?        00:00:00 cpuset
   30 ?        00:00:00 khelper
   31 ?        00:00:00 kdevtmpfs
   32 ?        00:00:00 netns
   33 ?        00:00:00 sync_supers
   34 ?        00:00:00 bdi-default
   35 ?        00:00:00 kintegrityd
   36 ?        00:00:00 kblockd
   37 ?        00:00:00 ata_sff
   38 ?        00:00:00 khubd
   39 ?        00:00:00 md
   40 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:1
   41 ?        00:00:00 khungtaskd
   42 ?        00:00:00 kswapd0
   43 ?        00:00:00 ksmd
   44 ?        00:00:00 khugepaged
   45 ?        00:00:00 fsnotify_mark
   46 ?        00:00:00 crypto
   50 ?        00:00:00 kthrotld
   51 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_0
   52 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
   53 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_2
   54 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_3
   57 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:3
   58 ?        00:00:00 kworker/u:4
   60 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:1
   62 ?        00:00:00 kpsmoused
   63 ?        00:00:00 kworker/0:2
   93 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_4
   94 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_5
   96 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_6
   97 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_7
  194 ?        00:00:00 ttm_swap
  227 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_8
  228 ?        00:00:00 usb-storage
  230 ?        00:00:00 scsi_eh_9
  231 ?        00:00:00 usb-storage
  311 ?        00:00:00 kworker/3:2
  337 ?        00:00:00 jbd2/sda14-8
  338 ?        00:00:00 ext4-dio-unwrit
  344 ?        00:00:00 flush-8:0
  376 ?        00:00:00 udevd
  388 ?        00:00:00 kauditd
  389 ?        00:00:00 systemd-stdout-
  532 ?        00:00:00 edac-poller
  546 ?        00:00:00 hd-audio0
  594 ?        00:00:00 udevd
  595 ?        00:00:00 udevd
  687 ?        00:00:00 kworker/1:2
  709 ?        00:00:00 kworker/2:2
  797 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  798 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  799 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  800 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  801 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  802 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  803 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  804 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  805 ?        00:00:00 jbd2/sda15-8
  806 ?        00:00:00 ext4-dio-unwrit
  808 ?        00:00:00 mount.ntfs-3g
  876 ?        00:00:00 systemd-logind
  893 ?        00:00:00 rsyslogd
  922 ?        00:00:00 acpid
  941 ?        00:00:00 cron
  975 ?        00:00:00 avahi-daemon
  993 ?        00:00:00 nscd
  996 ?        00:00:00 haveged
 1016 ?        00:00:03 dbus-daemon
 1081 ?        00:00:00 cupsd
 1110 ?        00:00:00 kdm
 1296 ?        00:00:00 mcelog
 1450 ?        00:00:00 console-kit-dae
 1517 ?        00:00:00 polkitd
 1570 tty1     00:00:00 agetty
 1673 ?        00:00:00 modem-manager
 1675 ?        00:00:00 upowerd
 1716 ?        00:00:01 udisks-daemon
 1717 ?        00:00:00 udisks-daemon
 2101 ?        00:00:00 rtkit-daemon
 2254 tty7     00:00:10 Xorg
 2258 ?        00:00:00 kdm
 2283 ?        00:00:00 startkde
 2327 ?        00:00:00 gpg-agent
 2365 ?        00:00:00 dbus-launch
 2366 ?        00:00:00 dbus-daemon
 2373 ?        00:00:00 start_kdeinit
 2374 ?        00:00:00 kdeinit4
 2375 ?        00:00:00 klauncher
 2377 ?        00:00:00 kded4
 2384 ?        00:00:00 kglobalaccel
 2386 ?        00:00:00 kwalletd
 2391 ?        00:00:00 kwrapper4
 2392 ?        00:00:00 ksmserver
 2394 ?        00:00:04 kwin
 2401 ?        00:00:00 kactivitymanage
 2404 ?        00:00:00 knotify4
 2407 ?        00:00:03 plasma-desktop
 2411 ?        00:00:00 kuiserver
 2443 ?        00:00:00 kaccess
 2450 ?        00:00:00 nepomukserver
 2453 ?        00:00:01 krunner
 2455 ?        00:00:00 nepomukservices
 2462 ?        00:00:03 virtuoso-t
 2510 ?        00:00:00 nepomukcontroll
 2512 ?        00:00:00 kmix
 2515 ?        00:03:43 amarok
 2517 ?        00:00:02 konsole
 2528 ?        00:00:00 pulseaudio
 2530 ?        00:00:00 polkit-kde-auth
 2535 ?        00:00:00 klipper
 2557 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
 2601 ?        00:00:00 nepomukservices
 2602 ?        00:00:00 nepomukservices
 2605 ?        00:00:00 nepomukservices
 2606 ?        00:00:00 nepomukservices
 2649 ?        00:00:00 kio_trash
 2650 ?        00:00:00 kio_file
 2673 pts/0    00:00:00 ps

Quote:

then when apper demands I make 103 updates/installations and I follow three of the suggestions

Quote:

Which suggestions?

I tried to install the updates/installation that the apper application suggested and each time came the response "could not find the device" which I don't understand.

If this isn't enough, the last time I booted into openSuse that box came with

Code:

KDE detected that one or more internal devices were removed

Do you want KDE to permanently forget about these devices?

This is the list of devices KDE thinks can be removed :

Capture : HDAATI SB, ALC889 Analog (default Audio Device)
Output    HDAATI SB, ALC889 Analog (Default Audio Device)

I always say no.

HDAATI SB, ALSAMixer, the Azelia onboard sound system/gizmo/thing, KMix, Master, PulseAudio, ...

How do all these get the sound from an MP3 file into the loudspeaker? Can you depict these in a straight line?

jlinkels · 03-04-2012, 07:44 PM

I would say the current sound system using PulseAudio is broken.

The intention was nice, but the implementation is not ready for showtime yet. In Debian, the Pulse Audio Mixer is not even installed (PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) ), leaving you wondering how you can connect or enable audio sources. What you describe, that sometimes you have sound and others not, is my typical experience with Pulse.

My best advice is to go back to Alsamixer. Uninstall everything related to Pulse. If that was successful, you'll see that KMix now contain exactly the same controls again as alsamixer. The latter is a command line application, so you have to open a console. But it is a GUI in text mode, not a command line app.

This page: http://www.seehuhn.de/pages/alsa is a good guide to adjust things in Alsa the way you want it.

And no, an idiot's guide to Linux audio doesn't exist yet. The problem is that Linux audio is versatile and orthogonal with way too many crosspoints, links and choices. Have you ever seen an iPad with audio problems? That is because you don't have any options (to screw up).

jlinkels

klopfersoft · 03-05-2012, 12:32 AM

Your suggestion helped. I think.
This morning suddenly, the wlan was working again. I removed almost all apps containing the word "pulse" except for two with over 400 dependencies each. Deleting those two was too scary.

I rebooted and (oddly) wlan was !! still !! working and I hadn't event done the modeprobe ndiswrapper command !!!

The sound appeared. Then disappeared. Then the whole system locked up and wouldn't turn off.
Another reboot with the reset button and it has appeared again.

Kmix dispays are confusing.

Seems that I must click on the icon with red waves coming from the loudspeaker on the third slider : "front"

So : click on the red = start
click on the green = stop, I've worked with computers for 32 years and this is a new one.

Kmix says it is using HDAATI SB as "master".

With Kmix bringing up the GUI shows !! two !! tabs with HDAATI SB on one and HDAATI SB (playback) on the other.

So Kmix has two masters, right?

WinXP was never like this.

ButterflyMelissa · 03-05-2012, 09:05 AM

Quote:

WinXP was never like this.

...Welcome to our planet

and yes, your life will never be the same again...

jlinkels · 03-05-2012, 04:09 PM

I hope it is a type that you refer to the wlan, I can't remember I saw that in your first post. Anyway, wlan is totally independent from audio, if you use knetworkmanager that should be reasonable painless. (Even easier than XP

)

As far as I know I don't have pulse running on any of the 5 machines I work usually on, so I can't try and test what you see. What you see is odd, and by no means the ordinary performance of a Linux system. I am not sure about Suse, but I won't tell you to buy a Toyota

These are commands to be entered in Konsole:

Try this:

Code:

ps ax | grep pulse

You shouldn't see any lines containing pulse, or except maybe this command you just entered.

Try this also

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards

and post back.

Also do

Code:

alsamixer

and see if it makes any sense. With F6 you can select a different sound card.

jlinkels