LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] I have to run alsactl init after every reboot

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I have to run alsactl init after every reboot

I've had this problem with this laptop for a while now, but it's now a problem as I'm giving it away to someone else. It's a Panasonic Cf-C1 running 14.2. Every reboot needs to run alsactl init (as root) for the sound to work.

Here's aplay -l

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****

card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC269VB Analog [ALC269VB Analog]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]

  Subdevices: 1/1

  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

and lspci | grep Audio

Code:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)

When I run alsactl init, it outputs

Code:

Found hardware: "HDA-Intel" "Realtek ALC269VB" "HDA:10ec0269,10f70300,00100100 HDA:14f12c06,10f70000,00100000 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000" "0x10f7" "0x8338"

Hardware is initialized using a generic method

..and starts working.

Any ideas? I've tried a bunch of google results, like adding "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" to /etc/modeprobe.d/alsa.conf, running alsactl store after the init, setting the +x permission on rc.alsa, and some other stuff too that I've already forgotten, but nothing sticks.

Have you purposefully tried to remove/disable pulseaudio? Because 14.2 introduced pulseaudio, which handles all sound on the system. If you happened to tweak alsa files (like /etc/asound.conf), it could potentially disable pulseaudio and could cause you to need to run various tweaks like the one you mentioned.

If you just want it to run the command and be done with it without figuring out how to get pulseaudio working properly, you should be able to add that command into /etc/rc.d/rc.local and it will be one of the last things ran before the system finishes booting. However, if you want to get pulseaudio working, you'd probably want to first restore your various files back to default and we can start figuring things outs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassmadrigal (Post 5938777)

Pretty sure I didn't tweak anything. I remember when I did the initial install and discovered the sound didn't work. I made a thread about it here, actually. Immediately discovered that alsactl init fixed the problem and stopped thinking about it.

Does rc.local run as root, or do I have to setup the regular user to be able to sudo?

Maybe that's just that you don't have an audio equipment on the HDMI output, used by default.

There are several ways to do change that, to find out which one is better, please provide the output of this command, typed as root

Code:

lpsci -knn |grep -iA3 audio

Also, I don't have two sound cards to check, but I think that the preferred sound card can be set though pavucontrol.

And, if you made any change in a sound config fie, like /etc/asound.conf, ~/.asoundrc, /etc/pulse/default.pa, please attach this file with the txt extension or paste it in your next post.

EDIT I made a typo in the command, now fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier (Post 5938792)

Maybe that's just that you don't have an audio equipment on the HDMI output, used by default.

Huh, there isn't anything running soundwise through HDMI. This laptop doesn't even have an HDMI out. Weird!

Here's the result of your kindly supplied command:

Code:

00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04)

        Subsystem: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [10f7:8338]

        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1c10] (rev b4)

On my desktop, which works fine and has normal onboard intel audio and HDMI out through the video card, I can switch back and forth between those using pulseaudio mixer, under configuration. I am able to choose other configs on this laptop, but it does nothing.

asound.conf

Code:

# ALSA system-wide config file

# By default, redirect to PulseAudio:

pcm.default pulse

ctl.default pulse

~/.asoundrc is empty

Code:

#!/usr/bin/pulseaudio -nF

#

# This file is part of PulseAudio.

#

# PulseAudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

# under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by

# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or

# (at your option) any later version.

#

# PulseAudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but

# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of

# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU

# General Public License for more details.

#

# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License

# along with PulseAudio; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.



# This startup script is used only if PulseAudio is started per-user

# (i.e. not in system mode)



.fail



### Automatically restore the volume of streams and devices

load-module module-device-restore

load-module module-stream-restore

load-module module-card-restore



### Automatically augment property information from .desktop files

### stored in /usr/share/application

load-module module-augment-properties



### Should be after module-*-restore but before module-*-detect

load-module module-switch-on-port-available



### Load audio drivers statically

### (it's probably better to not load these drivers manually, but instead

### use module-udev-detect -- see below -- for doing this automatically)

#load-module module-alsa-sink

#load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:1,0

#load-module module-oss device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input

#load-module module-oss-mmap device="/dev/dsp" sink_name=output source_name=input

#load-module module-null-sink

#load-module module-pipe-sink



### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available

.ifexists module-udev-detect.so

load-module module-udev-detect

.else

### Use the static hardware detection module (for systems that lack udev support)

load-module module-detect

.endif



### Automatically connect sink and source if JACK server is present

.ifexists module-jackdbus-detect.so

.nofail

load-module module-jackdbus-detect channels=2

.fail

.endif



### Automatically load driver modules for Bluetooth hardware

.ifexists module-bluetooth-policy.so

load-module module-bluetooth-policy

.endif



.ifexists module-bluetooth-discover.so

load-module module-bluetooth-discover

.endif



### Load several protocols

.ifexists module-esound-protocol-unix.so

load-module module-esound-protocol-unix

.endif

load-module module-native-protocol-unix



### Network access (may be configured with paprefs, so leave this commented

### here if you plan to use paprefs)

#load-module module-esound-protocol-tcp

#load-module module-native-protocol-tcp



### Load the RTP receiver module (also configured via paprefs, see above)

#load-module module-rtp-recv



### Load the RTP sender module (also configured via paprefs, see above)

#load-module module-null-sink sink_name=rtp format=s16be channels=2 rate=44100 sink_properties="device.description='RTP Multicast Sink'"

#load-module module-rtp-send source=rtp.monitor



### Load additional modules from GConf settings. This can be configured with the paprefs tool.

### Please keep in mind that the modules configured by paprefs might conflict with manually

### loaded modules.

.ifexists module-gconf.so

.nofail

load-module module-gconf

.fail

.endif



### Automatically restore the default sink/source when changed by the user

### during runtime

### NOTE: This should be loaded as early as possible so that subsequent modules

### that look up the default sink/source get the right value

load-module module-default-device-restore



### Automatically move streams to the default sink if the sink they are

### connected to dies, similar for sources

load-module module-rescue-streams



### Make sure we always have a sink around, even if it is a null sink.

load-module module-always-sink



### Honour intended role device property

load-module module-intended-roles



### Automatically suspend sinks/sources that become idle for too long

load-module module-suspend-on-idle



### If autoexit on idle is enabled we want to make sure we only quit

### when no local session needs us anymore.

.ifexists module-console-kit.so

load-module module-console-kit

.endif

.ifexists module-systemd-login.so

load-module module-systemd-login

.endif



### Enable positioned event sounds

load-module module-position-event-sounds



### Cork music/video streams when a phone stream is active

load-module module-role-cork



### Modules to allow autoloading of filters (such as echo cancellation)

### on demand. module-filter-heuristics tries to determine what filters

### make sense, and module-filter-apply does the heavy-lifting of

### loading modules and rerouting streams.

load-module module-filter-heuristics

load-module module-filter-apply



### Make some devices default

#set-default-sink output

#set-default-source input

Hmm... So you are using this (nasty, at times) snd-hda-intel kernel module.

Let's try this:

write a file /etc/modprobe.d/snd.conf with this content:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel index=0 id=PCH

options snd-hda-intel index=1 id=HDMI

At next boot, hopefully you will have sound.

The name of the file doesn't matter, but it should end in .conf

PS Maybe this won't work as the dummy second output is also named PCH... Anyway let's try this first.

Also do alsamixer and pavucontrol "see" this dummy output?

Did you run

Code:

alsactl -store

after your initial config?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier (Post 5938859)

Hmm... So you are using this (nasty, at times) snd-hda-intel kernel module.

Let's try this:

write a file /etc/modprobe.d/snd.conf with this content:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel index=0 id=PCH

options snd-hda-intel index=1 id=HDMI

No luck. It changed my configuration in pavucontrol to "digital stereo (HDMI) output" though for some reason. So I tried it the other way around and it did the same thing.

I don't see a dummy output in either alsamixer or pavucontrol. If I select all outputs in pavucontrol, I see "speakers" and "headphones (unplugged)".

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pixxt (Post 5938880)

Did you run

Code:

alsactl -store

after your initial config?

Yep! No effect, though

From my reading, the ALC269 should be supported without needing to add additional parameters to the snd-hda-intel kernel module. (See /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sound/alsa/HD-Audio-Models.txt for the available options.) A web search for your hardware and snd-hda-intel did not produce much, suggesting that this is not a problem faced by others.

Does the file /var/lib/alsa/asound.state actually change after running 'alsactl -store'? Check with 'ls -l'. I would try deleting this file then running 'alsactl -store'.

It may be that you have a rogue entry in your /etc/modprobe.d/ directory. The output from 'grep -v "^#" /etc/modprobe.d/*' may be informative.

Quote:

Originally Posted by allend (Post 5939000)

alsactl store does change the modified date of the file, so it seems to be writing. [When I nano it though, it's empty. Is that normal?] Never mind I am an idiot. Here's asound.state post init:

Code:

state.PCH {

        control.1 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Headphone Playback Volume'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 87'

                        dbmin -6525

                        dbmax 0

                        dbvalue.0 -6525

                        dbvalue.1 -6525

                }

        }

        control.2 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Headphone Playback Switch'

                value.0 false

                value.1 false

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 2

                }

        }

        control.3 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Speaker Playback Volume'

                value.0 87

                value.1 87

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 87'

                        dbmin -6525

                        dbmax 0

                        dbvalue.0 0

                        dbvalue.1 0

                }

        }

        control.4 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Speaker Playback Switch'

                value.0 true

                value.1 true

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 2

                }

        }

        control.5 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Loopback Mixing'

                value Enabled

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type ENUMERATED

                        count 1

                        item.0 Disabled

                        item.1 Enabled

                }

        }

        control.6 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Mic Playback Volume'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 31'

                        dbmin -3450

                        dbmax 1200

                        dbvalue.0 -3450

                        dbvalue.1 -3450

                }

        }

        control.7 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Mic Playback Switch'

                value.0 false

                value.1 false

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 2

                }

        }

        control.8 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Auto-Mute Mode'

                value Enabled

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type ENUMERATED

                        count 1

                        item.0 Disabled

                        item.1 Enabled

                }

        }

        control.9 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Capture Volume'

                value.0 19

                value.1 19

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 31'

                        dbmin -1650

                        dbmax 3000

                        dbvalue.0 1200

                        dbvalue.1 1200

                }

        }

        control.10 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Capture Switch'

                value.0 true

                value.1 true

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 2

                }

        }

        control.11 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Mic Boost Volume'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 3'

                        dbmin 0

                        dbmax 3600

                        dbvalue.0 0

                        dbvalue.1 0

                }

        }

        control.12 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Internal Mic Boost Volume'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 3'

                        dbmin 0

                        dbmax 3600

                        dbvalue.0 0

                        dbvalue.1 0

                }

        }

        control.13 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Master Playback Volume'

                value 86

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 1

                        range '0 - 87'

                        dbmin -6525

                        dbmax 0

                        dbvalue.0 -75

                }

        }

        control.14 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'Master Playback Switch'

                value true

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.15 {

                iface CARD

                name 'Mic Jack'

                value false

                comment {

                        access read

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.16 {

                iface CARD

                name 'Internal Mic Phantom Jack'

                value true

                comment {

                        access read

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.17 {

                iface CARD

                name 'Front Headphone Jack'

                value false

                comment {

                        access read

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.18 {

                iface CARD

                name 'Speaker Phantom Jack'

                value true

                comment {

                        access read

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.19 {

                iface PCM

                name 'Playback Channel Map'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                comment {

                        access read

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 36'

                }

        }

        control.20 {

                iface PCM

                name 'Capture Channel Map'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                comment {

                        access read

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 36'

                }

        }

        control.21 {

                iface CARD

                name 'HDMI/DP,pcm=3 Jack'

                value false

                comment {

                        access read

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.22 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'IEC958 Playback Con Mask'

                value '0fff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'

                comment {

                        access read

                        type IEC958

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.23 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'

                value '0f00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'

                comment {

                        access read

                        type IEC958

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.24 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'IEC958 Playback Default'

                value '0400000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000'

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type IEC958

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.25 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'IEC958 Playback Switch'

                value false

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type BOOLEAN

                        count 1

                }

        }

        control.26 {

                iface PCM

                device 3

                name ELD

                value ''

                comment {

                        access 'read volatile'

                        type BYTES

                        count 0

                }

        }

        control.27 {

                iface PCM

                device 3

                name 'Playback Channel Map'

                value.0 0

                value.1 0

                value.2 0

                value.3 0

                value.4 0

                value.5 0

                value.6 0

                value.7 0

                comment {

                        access 'read write'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 8

                        range '0 - 36'

                }

        }

        control.28 {

                iface MIXER

                name 'PCM Playback Volume'

                value.0 255

                value.1 255

                comment {

                        access 'read write user'

                        type INTEGER

                        count 2

                        range '0 - 255'

                        tlv '0000000100000008ffffec1400000014'

                        dbmin -5100

                        dbmax 0

                        dbvalue.0 0

                        dbvalue.1 0

                }

        }

}

Only things in modprobe.d are the README and the blacklist, and the blacklist has no entries.

Incidentally, adding alsactl init to rc.local doesn't work. I can see it initialize the hardware on boot before XFCE loads, but there is no audio until I run it again within XFCE.

Re: running "alsactl store"

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Sego Sago Kid (Post 5938963)

Yep! No effect, though

as root? This may be silly since pulse apparently controls your system but it is one major difference between the two - Pulse is run as User and ALSA as root... that is for any persistence.

Just to make sure: /etc/rc.d/rc.local is executable, right?

@The Sego Sago Kid

In your first post you mentioned:

Quote:

I've tried a bunch of google results, like adding "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" to /etc/modeprobe.d/alsa.conf

Just to keep things clean, try using the file /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf for:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=auto

Looks like Slackware has a HowTo dedicated for snd-hda-intel:
https://docs.slackware.com/howtos:ha..._snd-hda-intel

If you have sound through the jack output but not through the internal laptop speaker, then you might want to try:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=headset-mic

in /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtop...?f=42&t=264417

Out of curiosity, before you try what I suggested above, and before you run alsactl init, can you please paste the output of:

Code:

# if pulseaudio is not running - start it:

/usr/bin/pulseaudio -D

# the actual command I need an output from

/usr/bin/pactl list short sinks

I'm wondering what pulseaudio recognizes by default.

@allend
As Didier mentioned, the snd-hda-intel can be a PITA, if you google after it, you'll learn that there are a lot of issues with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier (Post 5939493)

Just to make sure: /etc/rc.d/rc.local is executable, right?

Yep, I could see the output from alsactl init in the console before XFCE loaded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by enorbet (Post 5939491)

Re: running "alsactl store" as root? This may be silly since pulse apparently controls your system but it is one major difference between the two - Pulse is run as User and ALSA as root... that is for any persistence.

Correct, I am running it as root (using su root, not sudo).

Quote:

Originally Posted by abga (Post 5939601)

In your first post you mentioned:
Just to keep things clean, try using the file /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf for:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=auto

I removed all that stuff after I discovered it didn't work. But if I throw it back in there, I'll be sure to use that file.

Quote:

Originally Posted by abga (Post 5939601)

If you have sound through the jack output but not through the internal laptop speaker, then you might want to try:

Code:

options snd-hda-intel model=headset-mic

in /etc/modprobe.d/snd-hda-intel.conf
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtop...?f=42&t=264417

No dice :[

Quote:

Originally Posted by abga (Post 5939601)

Out of curiosity, before you try what I suggested above, and before you run alsactl init, can you please paste the output of:

Code:

/usr/bin/pactl list short sinks

I'm wondering what pulseaudio recognizes by default.

Here's the result pre init:

Code:

0      alsa_output.pci-0000_0_1b.0.analog-stereo      module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 44100Hz      SUSPENDED

...and post init:

Code:

0 alsa_output.pci-0000_0_1b.0.analog-stereo module-alsa-card.c s16le 2ch 44100Hz IDLE