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Sudden loss of sound

https://forum.salixos.org/viewtopic.php?t=6922

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Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 10. Apr 2016, 22:19
by cavit8
Hi all

I lost my sound output suddenly and am trying to figure out what's going on. I use a Zotac Zbox with this running on it currently

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Linux B 2.6.37.6-smp #2 SMP Sat Apr 9 23:39:07 CDT 2011 i686 Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU D525   @ 1.80GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
This started more or less when I was playing around with getting mpdroid connected so I can control mpd to output sound to my stereo via my landline wiring. While I'm not sure if this could damage the sound card, I had left the output jack in while running sound from other devices around the house.

Running aplay -l identifies my card properly

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**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Running alsamixer does not show mute on the outputs and volumes are where I'd normally have them.

I installed Audacity and it appears my mike jack is working properly based on the equalizer display.

Any thoughts?

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 11. Apr 2016, 02:10
by rokytnji
I'd try

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play <name of music file>
Just to see if sound works OK and not a application is blocking/breaking it. Any error messages may help you out also.

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 11. Apr 2016, 03:24
by cavit8
Hmmm, play fails with

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ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM “softvol”
play FAIL formats: can't open output file `default': snd_pcm_open error: No such file or directory
Opening audacity from terminal provides

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ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM “dmix”
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM “dmix”
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:957:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) The dmix plugin supports only playback stream
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM “softvol”
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM “softvol”
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server socket
jack server is not running or cannot be started
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3875
Expression 'stream->playback.pcm' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 3875

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 11. Apr 2016, 14:07
by rokytnji
Since Jack server is not starting.

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jack_control start

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jackd -d alsa
to route ALSA directly to jack without pulseaudio.

http://alsa.opensrc.org/Jack_%28plugin%29

Just wondering> Are you using pulseaudio for anything like bluetooth speakers?

Just letting you know. Your problem is above my paygrade. :oops:

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 13. Apr 2016, 03:40
by Atip
I just had a similar problem for a few days and solved it this morning.

Whenever I opened skype my sound was muted, in skype and overall.
This just happened w/o me having done any upgrades or touching pavucontrol.
I could get the sound back only after a reboot and not opening skype then.

Now this morning I looked at parvucontrol and I could see that some settings had
changed. After some experimenting with the settings in pavucontrol sound is back
in skype and overall. Strangely I have to set now for a rear mic which I do not have.

This is not the first time settings in pavucontrol were altered on its own.
I have the feeling this pulse-audio is not really stable yet.

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 20. Apr 2016, 03:23
by cavit8
Sorry for the delay in responding. I thought I'd posted a response but see now it's not there.

Jack audio is not really the central issue as I don't believe it's required by aplay etc. I was just trying to see, using Audacity, if my sound card may be misbehaving.

I don't have pulse-audio installed.

I've similarly tried to find odd programs where the sound is muted. For example ncmpcpp or looking in MPDroid to see if I somehow shut something off with no luck.

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speaker-test -c2 -t wav
generates no audible output and

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amixer -c0 scontents
doesn't seem to indicate anything is muted

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Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 17 [55%] [-21.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 25 [81%] [3.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 25 [81%] [3.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 0 [0%]
  Front Right: 0 [0%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [off]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 19 [61%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 19 [61%] [12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 0 [0%] [-16.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
Trying Steve Litt's sh files, they seem to hang up http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/so ... ooting.htm

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lspci -v
finds my audio controller

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00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
Subsystem: ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. Device a140
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
Memory at fed94000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
Capabilities: [130] Root Complex Link
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

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lsmod | grep snd
shows snd-hda-intel kernel module has been loaded

As per the Salix wiki entry , I have snd-hda-intel.conf in modprobe.d with the auto setting and that hasn't changed since before the problem started, although I could try playing with the card setting. I don't have an .asound.rc file.

I'm at a bit of a loss. Worst case, I suppose is I could try a re-install or maybe a live CD to see if I can get the sound working. Live CD's are a pain on my machine though because the CD/DVD drive is USB and sometimes doesn't play nicely with live cds.

Any other thoughts or avenues to try would be welcome.

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 21. Apr 2016, 02:55
by Atip
Live CD's are a pain on my machine though because the CD/DVD drive is USB and sometimes doesn't play nicely with live cds.
How about installing on a USB stick and use that instead?

Re: Sudden loss of sound

Posted: 14. May 2016, 15:34
by cavit8
Looks like it might be hardware after all

Using a USB sound output device and changing the default card in .asoundrc I get sound, but using .asoundrc to direct to the onboard audio on card 0 gives me no joy.

I tried using live cds of Ubuntu and Slacko and wasn't able to get sound, albeit I didn't drill down to far.

Unfortunately the sound out through usb is crap or I could just live with that :-/ I'll see if I can get the HDMI output from my zbox running and going to a jack.
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