Sound disappeared after minor update & Bluetooth dongle

wikapuki · 10-24-2009, 04:52 PM

uname -a
Linux jilldando 2.6.30-2-486 #1 Sat Sep 26 00:03:46 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

I do Updates daily as they come out, as of 23/10/2009 my sound stopped working, in my /etc/modprobe.d/als-base.con file I added the following to enure sound worked:

alias snd-card-2 snd-intel8x0m
options snd-intel8x0m index=0

alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio
options snd-usb-audio index=1

I always do the following to check whether things have changed and then edit the above if necessary:
1) In case of USB sound stuff being plugged in:

Code:

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:08b2 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 4000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

2a) Find out my proper sound card:

Code:

lspci | grep audio
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

2b)

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Controlle      ]: USB-Audio - USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle
                      Syntek Semiconductor USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle at usb-0000:00:1d.7-4, hig
 1 [U0x46d0x8b2    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x8b2
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x8b2 at usb-0000:00:1d.1-1, full speed
 2 [I82801DBICH4   ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
                      Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with ALC650E at irq 17

I plugged in a new USB device (Bluetooth dongle), Box frooze, so rebooted, still had sound on reboot.

Code:

lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:08b2 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 4000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Did an update and a reboot for another reason and no sound, ah must be some dam audio on that bluetooth dongle, but as can be seen its not appearing in any hardware audio checks.

These are the updates, can't see what would effect the sound:

Code:

2009-10-23 15:59:19 upgrade libselinux1 2.0.85-4 2.0.87-3
2009-10-23 15:59:29 upgrade libgdbm3 1.8.3-6+b1 1.8.3-7
2009-10-23 15:59:30 upgrade di 4.13.dfsg.1-1 4.16.dfsg.1-1
2009-10-23 15:59:30 upgrade gdb 6.8.50.20090628-3 7.0-1
2009-10-23 15:59:31 upgrade libbit-vector-perl 7.0-1 7.1-1
2009-10-23 15:59:32 upgrade libxml-libxslt-perl 1.68-2 1.68-3

Was wandering if the alias is now not specific enough?

Have tried without bluetooth dongle plugged in, made no difference.

egrep · 10-25-2009, 02:24 PM

Are there default settings in the mixer that designate which audio device is the default? I use other distros, but I remember one software vendor mention that once you rip audio using usb in, you have to switch back to your soundcard manually.

Granted, this was a specific package, but it sounds like maybe the install of the bluetooth update set the bluetooth driver as the default sound device.

I would look into what the mixers say. Sorry I am lacking the debian experience, but this is from the old "if an update might have broken something, remove it to see if it fixes anything" school.

wikapuki · 10-30-2009, 11:12 AM

Had a mare of a week, due to removing Rear USB cable for testing etc a whole chain of events occurred resultng in the Zero Insertion Force CPU clips coming undone and had to wait for person to come and refit (I have a disablity which makes my arms weak.. weaker than ZIF apparently!!)

Decided to remove ALL USB devices and rebooted, WE GOT SOUND!

Code:

lsusb ; lspci | grep audio ; cat /proc/asound/cards

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:08b2 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 4000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

 0 [I82801DBICH4   ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
                      Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with ALC650E at irq 17
 1 [U0x46d0x8b2    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x8b2
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x8b2 at usb-0000:00:1d.1-2, full speed

Strangely after putting the USB devices back in we still have sound, the contents of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf have not been altered by myself but seems to have no effect or is being ignored??

Code:

# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq ; }
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-emu10k1-synth ; : ; }


alias snd-card-2 snd-intel8x0m
options snd-intel8x0m index=0


# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2

alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio
options snd-usb-audio index=1

So a solution might be, unplug ALL USB devices, reboot, if you got sound shutdown. Plug in USB devices and restart.

wikapuki · 11-10-2009, 05:04 PM

Had another sound problem when plugging in the 2nd USB audio hardware, but after more reading and rebooting I think I now understand what and how the alsa-base.conf can fix the problem.

Code:

lsusb ; lspci | grep audio ; cat /proc/asound/cards

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 046d:08b2 Logitech, Inc. QuickCam Pro 4000
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 05e1:0408 Syntek Semiconductor Co., Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

 0 [I82801DBICH4   ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
                      Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with ALC650E at irq 17
 1 [Controlle      ]: USB-Audio - USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle
                      Syntek Semiconductor USB 2.0 Video Capture Controlle at usb-0000:00:1d.7-3, hig
 2 [U0x46d0x8b2    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x8b2
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x8b2 at usb-0000:00:1d.1-2, full speed

What I mis-understood was that I thought alias was swapping sound cards, when it is in fact assigning them.

It actually means that snd-card-0 is to be snd-intel8x0m and the 2 remaining USB audio cards (devices) are to BOTH be snd-usb-audio.

Code:

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0m
alias snd-card-1 snd-usb-audio
alias snd-card-2 snd-usb-audio

Now we set the options for what sound devices are to be used 1st, the 1st sound device 0 being the default sound device that gets used by us mortals, also tell the system that 1 & 2 sound devices are the snd-usb-audio aliases.

Code:

options snd-intel8x0m index=0
options snd-usb-audio index=1,2

I have no idea what you would do to get a specific snd-usb-audio for a specfic index. It all got un-understanderstable for me at that point.

Here is the full als-base.conf file, it maybe important the order the mods I did go in the file.

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

Code:

# autoloader aliases
install sound-slot-0 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-0
install sound-slot-1 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-1
install sound-slot-2 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-2
install sound-slot-3 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-3
install sound-slot-4 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-4
install sound-slot-5 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-5
install sound-slot-6 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-6
install sound-slot-7 /sbin/modprobe snd-card-7
# Cause optional modules to be loaded above generic modules
install snd /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-ioctl32 ; /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq ; }
install snd-rawmidi /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-rawmidi && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-seq-midi ; : ; }
install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && { /sbin/modprobe --quiet snd-emu10k1-synth ; : ; }


alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0m
alias snd-card-1 snd-usb-audio
alias snd-card-2 snd-usb-audio
#
options snd-intel8x0m index=0
options snd-usb-audio index=1,2


# Prevent abnormal drivers from grabbing index 0
options bt87x index=-2
options cx88_alsa index=-2
options snd-atiixp-modem index=-2
options snd-intel8x0m index=-2
options snd-via82xx-modem index=-2
# Keep snd-pcsp from beeing loaded as first soundcard
options snd-pcsp index=-2