[SOLVED] KDE permenently remove sound device

Dinithion · 09-10-2014, 02:55 PM

Ok, so for the last 6 years or so KDE has been popping up this box that I've got unused sound devices. I've always pressed yes, but sure enough, every time it comes back.

So I got careless. Turns out, they fixed that. They actually removed it. System wide. For all useres. Including root. I didn't realize you had such powers as part of the audio-group. I assumed KDE would ignore these devices for this particular user... Now, that was a dumb assumption.

Anyway, now I can't get my audio to work. I've deleted (moved)
~/.kde/share/config/phonondevicesrc
and
/var/tmp/kdecache-username/libphonon/

But why should it work. After a fresh reboot to console (telinit 3) alsactl restore gives

alsactl: load_state:1729: No soundcards found...

Any clue how I can get my audio back?

ferrari · 09-10-2014, 06:55 PM

Slackware and KDE veriosn? Have you tried re detecting your sound hardware with 'alasconf'?

http://linuxcritic.wordpress.com/200...-in-slackware/

Ztcoracat · 09-10-2014, 06:59 PM

Hi:

I have an idea of what may work.
Open the alsamixer in the terminal and raise up the columns all the way. Than ensure that the columns are not muted.
[oo] means un- muted and [mm] means muted.
To unmute use the arrow keys to highlight the column and press m one time.

ALSAMIXER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuEEEHcHxEE

I kept getting the same issue as you but when I switched to the XFCE DE that window with the message regarding all the devices went away.

When you get a chance you may want to list which sound card you have:-

Code:

lspci | grep -i audio

That way other members will know which snd card you have and look it up if necessary.

-:-Also, check to see if you belong to the audio group-:-
Open the terminal and run groups to see what it returns.
If not use the usermod -G cmd to add yourself to the audio group.

Dinithion · 09-11-2014, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

Slackware and KDE veriosn? Have you tried re detecting your sound hardware with 'alasconf'?

http://linuxcritic.wordpress.com/200...-in-slackware/

Unfortunently there is no such thing as alsaconf anymore.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

Hi:

I have an idea of what may work.
Open the alsamixer in the terminal and raise up the columns all the way. Than ensure that the columns are not muted.

When you get a chance you may want to list which sound card you have:-

Code:

lspci | grep -i audio

That way other members will know which snd card you have and look it up if necessary.

-:-Also, check to see if you belong to the audio group-:-
Open the terminal and run groups to see what it returns.
If not use the usermod -G cmd to add yourself to the audio group.

The thing is, I don't have a mixer anymore. All the channels in alsamixer are missing.
For what it's worth, my audiodevices are:

Code:

00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell HD Audio Controller (rev 06)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 8ca0
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

Since the only way a user is allowed to completely remove a sound device is through udev and/or polkit (I haven't got the full overview of them yet), I'm suspecting it is related to that. I've just got to figure out how to undo the action I took.

ferrari · 09-11-2014, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Unfortunently there is no such thing as alsaconf anymore.

Okay, I wasn't aware of the situation with slackware. (It is still part of 'alsa-utils' with openSUSE for example.)

As you mention udev should detect your sound hardware at boot anyway, and the following should return any settings to the default state

Code:

alsactl init

It might also be worth deleting /var/lib/alsa/asound.state, then reboot (or restart ALSA). You mentioned that channels are missing in alsamixer - Can you select the sound card via F6 'Select Sound Card' there? If so, does that result in displaying the expected channels?

ferrari · 09-11-2014, 03:29 AM

As you've mentioned multiple sound devices, it might be useful to report

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards

and

Code:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf

Maybe the sound card order is at play here.

Dinithion · 09-11-2014, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

Okay, I wasn't aware of the situation with slackware. (It is still part of 'alsa-utils' with openSUSE for example.)

As you mention udev should detect your sound hardware at boot anyway, and the following should return any settings to the default state

Code:

alsactl init

It might also be worth deleting /var/lib/alsa/asound.state, then reboot (or restart ALSA). You mentioned that channels are missing in alsamixer - Can you select the sound card via F6 'Select Sound Card' there? If so, does that result in displaying the expected channels?

Ops, my bad. kmix is missing all the channels, alsamixer won't even start.

Code:

# alsamixer 
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

Code:

# alsactl init
alsactl: init:1758: No soundcards found...

Removing that file unfortunently didn't help either. :/

Quote:

Originally Posted by ferrari

As you've mentioned multiple sound devices, it might be useful to report

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards

and

Code:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf

Maybe the sound card order is at play here.

Code:

# cat /proc/asound/cards 
--- no soundcards ---

/etc/modprobe.d/ seems fine. This is the only file, that I added to fix a bug where the soundcard produce cracking noises.

Code:

# cat /etc/modprobe.d/fix-sound-intel97.conf 
options snd-hda-intel vid=8086 pid=8ca0 snoop=0

This is a really really strange problem.

Dinithion · 09-11-2014, 04:04 PM

DOH!

I figured I didn't have any more time to try to fix this so I decided to spend one hour and reinstall instead of 4hours more of debugging. Well, I booted up and sure enough, there was no soundcard. Turns out it was
options snd-hda-intel vid=8086 pid=8ca0 snoop=0

That massed everything up. I added that line after last reboot but hadn't tested it yet. So the good news is, I've got my sound back. The bad news is that I've got to find a new hack to get the cracking noises to go away.

Thank you all for your help, and sorry for wasting your time. :/

ferrari · 09-11-2014, 09:11 PM

No worries. Thanks for giving us an update.