Ramblings about Debian GNU/Linux

Trouble shooting ALSA on Debian

Posted 07-17-2010 at 09:02 PM by craigevil
Updated 08-10-2010 at 05:59 AM by craigevil

First go through the ALSA checklist:
1) add yourself to the 'audio' group (log out and log in again) , as root add username audio, where username is your user's name
2) use alsamixer and unmute channels and raise levels (also try muting some channels & toggle jack sense)

--$ alsamixer <Enter> {You will be able to control the volumes and balance through the keyboard.}

For KDE
Press: Alt+F2
Then type: /usr/bin/kmix {Click 'Run'.}

For Xfce 4:
Press: Alt+F2
then type: /usr/bin/xfce4-mixer {Click 'Run'}

3) arts or esound stopped?
4) OSS modules unloaded?
5) speakers on?
6) As root

Code:

modprobe snd-pcm-oss

7) Test your sound with aplay and a wav so codec issues don't confuse the situation. does this work for root:

Code:

aplay  /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav

8) Check what soundcards are detected by your system

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards

9) List the sound module in use

Code:

cat /proc/asound/modules

10) List the sound playback devices on your system

Code:

aplay -l

11) One way to check what ALSA driver you have is

Code:

cat /proc/asound/version

12) Do you have alsa-utils installed? One way to check is to see if you have /etc/init.d/alsa-utils If not found install it by doing

Code:

apt-get update && apt-get install alsa-utils

This script will give a detailed output of the current alsa setup on your system.
Download this script alsa-info.sh save it as alsa-info.sh
To run and create the info file

Code:

bash ./alsa-info.sh --no-upload <-- without this option it will upload to alsa-project.org

To view the created file

Code:

 less /tmp/alsa-info.txt

Or to paste it to pastebin.ca

Code:

bash ./alsa-info.sh --pastebin

You can also use the HDA Analyzer
The HDA analyzer tool provides a graphical interface to access the raw HD-audio control, based on pyGTK2 binding. The program gives you an easy-to-use GUI stuff for showing the widget information and adjusting the amp values, as well as the proc-compatible output.

This tool can parse also proc files (/proc/asound/card#/codec*) and output from alsa-info.sh script and monitor mode (check --help option).

If none of that works then you need to find the specific audio chipset to add to your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file.

Each combination of audio codec, audio mixer and audio device name requires a very specific configuration in the alsa-base.conf file.

The following string needs to be added to the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file

options snd-hda-intel model=YOUR_MODEL

You can find your codec chip name using this command

Code:

cat /proc/asound/card*/codec* | grep Codec

Then look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Gutsy_Intel_HD_Audio_Controller
find your codecs and model and add the appropriiate line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Valid model names (that replace YOUR_MODEL) depending on the codec chip, can be found here and here.

Also check to see if there is more than one alsactl executable in your path and remove the wrong/oldest one.

Code:

sudo which alsactl

or su if you do not have sudo setup. It should return something like this:

Code:

# which alsactl
/usr/sbin/alsactl

Having more than one alsactl can cause your sound settings to be muted during every boot.

For more info see:
Alsa-sound-mini-HOWTO
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Alsa-sound.html#toc7
http://wiki.debian.org/ALSA
LinuxPlanet - Tutorials - Using ALSA to Control Linux Audio - ALSA User Tools
http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplan...orials/7134/1/
SoundTroubleshooting - - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting
http://alsa.opensrc.org/index.php/.asoundrc
ALSA Multi-channel Audio mini-HOWTO http://www.cse.ohio-state.edu/~bondhugu/alsamch.shtml

If none of these steps work, either take your computer back to where you bought it or get used to not having sound. Sound is overrated anyway.

Trouble shooting ALSA on Debian

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