KDE only detects sound card when run from CLI

Poetics · 01-17-2013, 02:30 PM

Good morning LQ!

I have a very strange issue affecting a new desktop for which I couldn't find any solution using Google.

I have just installed a new Slackware64-current machine, including KDE 4.8.5. When I load into runlevel 4 I receive the warning that my snd_hda_intel device does not work and that KDE was falling back to default, which produces no sound. alsamixer detects the card just fine and I have plenty of relevant kernel modules loaded (still using the stock 3.2.29-huge).

What is interesting to me however is that the sound card works flawlessly if I boot into runlevel 3 and start KDE with 'startx.' It's as if the card isn't being initialized or properly except through the CLI boot or via startx.

My goal is to be able to boot into KDE and have my sound working each time. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Relevant excerpts from lsmod and lspci are pasted below.

Code:

~# lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_intel          23267  6 
snd_seq_dummy           1455  0 
snd_seq_oss            29048  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      5620  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                51265  5 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_dummy
snd_seq_device          5228  3 snd_seq,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_dummy
snd_pcm_oss            39183  0 
snd_mixer_oss          15404  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     24057  1 
snd_hda_codec_analog    78230  1 
snd_hda_codec          81925  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_hda_codec_hdmi
snd_hwdep               6324  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                72864  4 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc          7081  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              18798  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd                    57796  24 snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_analog,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm_oss,snd_seq_device,snd_seq,snd_seq_oss
soundcore               5474  1 snd

Code:

~# lspci | grep Audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
02:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Cypress HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5800 Series]

(I'm not using my video card's HDMI-out for audio)

jlinkels · 01-18-2013, 11:41 AM

This is a wild shot, but if you have pulseaudio installed, remove it. See if it makes any difference. I am saying this because pulse is to be known to break a good working audio system, in any incomprehensible or irreproducible way.

<-- other insulting comments on KDE4 removed by author -->

jlinkels

Poetics · 01-20-2013, 12:45 AM

Thanks jlinkels -- I actually haven't installed pulseaudio yet.

I'll keep playing around and see if I can get this resolved; I wonder if it's some conflict where runlevel 4 tries to initialize my HDMI port and ignores the onboard, while runlevel 3 doesn't care about my video card and chugs right through.

If I find a solution I'll reply and mark this [Solved], thanks.