LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Sound problem on ~Current-2023-12-26

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Sound problem on ~Current-2023-12-26

I get no sound on Current.

EDIT: Downgrade this to a problem to Chomium-based browsers. Chromium-ungoogled-120.??? & brave 1.61.???

I think it boils down to this.

Code:

bash-5.2$ cat /proc/asound/cards

 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH

                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xc0210000 irq 28

The selected soundcard gives out nothing. There's one sound setup in this elderly laptop. I can go into alsamixer, select the second option, unmute & set volumes (again), & restart all sound and it often works until the next startup.

Can I get around it by correcting some currently unknown config file, or putting something like

Code:

cat " 0 [PCH ]: HDA Intel PCH at 0xc0210000 irq 28 " > /proc/asound/cards

at the end of rc.M or maybe /etc/rc.d/rc.local?

EDIT: I can'[t actually do this. I'm not allowed (as root) or can't stop pulseaudio or alsa either. :confused:

/etc/rc.d/rc.alsa and /etc/rc.d/rc.pulseaudio should not be executable.

Forget alsa utilities. Run pavucontrol. On the top menu, click "Output Devices'. There is "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo" or similar and a speaker icon. Is the speaker icon on a grey background (muted)? Click to unmute and you get a blue volume slider below. Do you get any sound now? Is the "Port" correct?

The pulseaudio settings are saved in $HOME/.config/pulse.

Thanks for the reply.

Pulseaudio wasn't executable, fixed rc.alsa, went through pavucontrol. Things looked slightly better. Chromium-ungoogled worked with brave 'bravely chickening out' to quote Sir Robin's Minstrel (referencing "Monty Python & the Holy Grail")
Just ignore that if you're not into Monty Python.

So you fixed chromium-ungoogled for me, and I'm thanking you for the solution & marking this solved.

Rc.alsa-oss neither? Lately I haven't had chrome/chromium audio either (works in all other web browsers) so I'll try this later.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dchmelik (Post 6477112)

Rc.alsa-oss neither?

No, it should not be used either.

As I stand now, alsamixer is still randomly required to select & unmute the correct soundcard, and store settings.

Chromium sound works, Brave works. Palemoon has sopund but no video on some sites. I haven't made serious efforts to sort that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid (Post 6477146)

As I stand now, alsamixer is still randomly required to select & unmute the correct soundcard, and store settings.

Does pavucontrol not work?

pavucontrol sees no input, like I don't have any sound card fitted:confused:

Quote:

Originally Posted by business_kid (Post 6477182)

pavucontrol sees no input, like I don't have any sound card fitted:confused:

What about Output Devices?

No output devices - like I've no sound card fitted. 15.0 is OK, this is just on Current. But it's a 10 year old laptop, with a cheap intel cpu & chipset, so what can one hope for? At least it's faster than it was new, because I upgraded the spinning rust to an ssd.

I thought turning off rc.pulseaudio would turn off audio, but it didn't... what's the reason to actually have rc.pulseaudio disabled? I think I also have some old programs that use ALSA and maybe even OSS like someone explained above is needed for soundcard configuration/volume.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dchmelik (Post 6477371)

what's the reason to actually have rc.pulseaudio disabled?

From /etc/rc.d/rc.pulseaudio:

Code:

# Please note:  this is not generally the best way to use PulseAudio!

# Normally pulseaudio will start automatically as-needed with an instance

# per audio user.  Unless you really need to use system mode you should leave

# this script non-executable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dchmelik (Post 6477371)

I think I also have some old programs that use ALSA and maybe even OSS like someone explained above is needed for soundcard configuration/volume.

By default, in Slackware /etc/asound.conf redirects ALSA to PulseAudio. alsamixer only sees 'Card: PulseAudio'. If your old program only uses OSS, you might want to try aoss which redirects OSS to ALSA (which gets redirected to PulseAudio). You should not enable /etc/rc.d/rc.alsa-oss because the real OSS blocks the sound device from other sound users. From that file:

Code:

# Load the ALSA OSS kernel modules to support OSS applications.

# To use this, set this script as executable (chmod 755 rc.alsa-oss)

# and it will be run from the main rc.alsa script.  Unless you know

# that something requires OSS support, it is better to leave this

# script disabled.  Some applications will try OSS first even though

# they also support ALSA, and will block other applications from

# using audio I/O.

#

# Many programs that use OSS can be run using the aoss wrapper and

# will then use ALSA in a non-blocking way (and will not require

# loading these kernel modules).  Consider trying that before enabling

# these modules.  (See "man aoss")

I didn't think the issue was with pulse or alsa.

My soundcard is seen 1½ times in alsamixer. The ½ is selected bu default, and the '1' is muted. I have to deselect the '½' and select the (muted) '1' and unmute it. When I finish, neither pulse nor alsa is running.

After I turned off the rc scripts, seems I no longer can get input for my Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS platinum front panel microphone socket.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dchmelik (Post 6478009)

After I turned off the rc scripts, seems I no longer can get input for my Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS platinum front panel microphone socket.

If you run 'pavucontrol', do you see it under the menu item 'Input Devices' after you insert the microfone plug in the socket? Try to click 'Port:' to see what ports are available.