I installed openSUSE 13.1 (i586) 'Bottle' over a year ago and audio worked out of the box except for some proprietary formats e.g. *.mp3 etc. However, I got the media players working fully using some recommended online repositories. Some three months or so ago I started noticing some strange 'behavior' from my audio. Sometimes the system would boot with sound on, other times no sound. Here is what I have tried:

• Re-Configure sound card using YAST
• Reset sound using command line instructions gathered online

No luck. KDEMixer just shows Dummy output......All other options are disabled (grey)... i.e. Built-in Analog Stereo and LADSPA Plugin Multiband EQ on Built-in Audio Analog Stereo are disabled. No configuration is possible using KDE Audio Controller!

YAST gives sound when testing during configuration but after saving the configuration, sound goes off again. Resetting the sound card options to default values in YAST yields same results!

(Note: I took snapshots but I can't paste images of KDEmixer and YAST in this post.... Maybe they could have helped!)

Here is another strange thing:

When KDE fails to "kick-in" during boot, I end up on the command-line.
I'm able to login and 'su' to root then 'startx' and Voila! I have audio! Unfortunately I don't know how to maintain this version permanently as I only get into it accidentally when something goes wrong with the boot sequence! I lose it when I re-boot the system.

If someone can help me boot into this version every time, I'll be glad to avoid audio auto updates in future! I suspect this is the main cause of my misery today!

My sound card model is: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller and the Driver is: snd-hda-intel

I'm running kernel-desktop Version #: 3.11.10-25.1 (Arch: i686) on a Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO desktop.

Otherwise I love Linux and have since left Windows for my children! Someone HELP!

NewbieChameleon

alsamixer on console can change the soundsettings.

@Keruskerfuerst,

Thanx for the response but can you elaborate? Am not so good on the command-line and any pointers to the commands required to normalize the sound settings would be greatly appreciated. What I'm trying to avoid is going back to scratch 'cos I've not done a system backup since I started! On the other hand I managed to "light" my LAMP and I'm messing around with web development, among other projects! Hence this appeal for help.

Thanx in advance..

Open a console.
Login as root.
start alsamixer.

@Keruskerfuerst,

Hi .......Thanx for your continued assistance. I tried your suggestion and got the alsamixer dashboard in the console. However all effort to play audio were futile as the dummy audio was still showing even though I had quit it. Please see the contents of sndstat below. How do I configure the devices (listed as not enabled in config) on the command-line? Or is the problem stemming from elsewhere?

Thanx once more.

PLEASE SEE results of 'cat' command below (in red):

linux-jm54:/proc/asound/oss # cat sndstat

Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA emulation code)
Kernel: Linux linux-jm54 3.11.10-25-default #1 SMP Wed Dec 17 17:57:03 UTC 2014 (8210f77) i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers:
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config:
HDA Intel at 0xf01a0000 irq 46

Audio devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
31: system timer

Mixers: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

@All ....

My Audio woes still continue. I have been checking my log files and below is the portion where I strongly suspect the sound card is being disabled. Anyone know how I can create the user_bus_socket file or directroy, especially the contents? If anyone can see other sources of trouble beyond this, please help out?

2015-07-06T22:43:43.730079+02:00 linux-jm54 systemd[4268]: Failed to open private bus connection: Failed to connect to socket /run/user/1000/dbus/user_bus_socket: No such file or directory
2015-07-06T22:43:43.817519+02:00 linux-jm54 systemd[4268]: Stopped target Printer.
2015-07-06T22:43:43.818628+02:00 linux-jm54 systemd[4268]: Stopped target Sound Card.
2015-07-06T22:43:43.819797+02:00 linux-jm54 systemd[4268]: Starting Default.
2015-07-06T22:43:43.822777+02:00 linux-jm54 systemd[4268]: Reached target Default.
2015-07-06T22:43:43.823727+02:00 linux-jm54 systemd[4268]: Startup finished in 92ms.

Additionally, can anyone help me with commands to boot straight into a named kernel version? From my log files (again), I have discovered that when the boot sequence fails to activate the KDE Graphical Interface, it defaults to the "3.11.10-25-desktop (console)" kernel. Now, when I start X "manually" from this console I have access to audio from KDE. So instead of always waiting for the unpredictable to happen before I can have sound, I thought it might be possible for me to configure my system in such a way that I can boot into this option whenever I feel like .....until this problem is permanently resolved! I use GRUB2 on a dual boot box (Windows 7 / Linux) .... Any chance I can make the above kernel another menu item under the Advanced Options in GRUB2? If yes, how do I proceed?

Thanx in advance ...