[SOLVED] No Sound in Debian 8.1 Pulse Audio and Alsa Competing

Ztcoracat · 07-10-2015, 08:40 PM

Hi:

I did a fresh installation of Debian 8.1 Jessie on the 4th of July.
Runs great, I just don't have sound.

I think I have 2 sound cards and that's one of the problems.

Code:

bash-4.2$ cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [SB             ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
                      HDA ATI SB at 0xfe8f4000 irq 16
 1 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfe99c000 irq 44

bash-4.2# lspci | grep Audio
00:14.2 Audio device: AMD/ATI [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA)
01:00.1 Audio device: AMD/ATI [Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.] Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7700/7800 Series]

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Pulse Audio is running-

Code:

ii  pulseaudio     5.0-13       amd64        PulseAudio sound server
cora@debian:~$ pulseaudio
E: [pulseaudio] pid.c: Daemon already running.
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.

All of the columns in alsamixer are unmuted and raised up all the way.
AFAIK in alsa it's set to default as the first choice when utilizing F6 than the next choice of snd crds is the
HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB in the list. When I choose that card I still don't have sound.

I've thought about editing the /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf file and changing the default snd crd from a 1 to a 0 but I'm having trouble figuring out which is the default.

I didn't have a /etc/asound.conf file so I created one.
I installed pavucontrol and that didn't help.

I also edited the /etc/openal/alsoft.conf file scrolled down to the drivers section and added 'drivers=alsa'

I'm thinking that pulse audio and alsa are competing but I'm not a sound expert, and at this point I'm really not sure how to fix this.

Any thoughts or ideas?

HMW · 07-11-2015, 03:33 AM

Hi!

I don't know what desktop environment (if any) you have. But I (and others) have also experienced problems with audio. Perhaps this can be of assistance:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...3/#post5380642

Best regards,
HMW

Head_on_a_Stick · 07-11-2015, 05:21 AM

Try booting with this kernel parameter:

Code:

snd_hda_intel.index=1

If that works, create the necessary configuration file:

Code:

# echo "options snd_hda_intel index=1" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

I know that this will work with your hardware in a pure ALSA system but I don't use PA so I'm not sure if that will confuse things.

If you don't need the extra features offered by Pulseaudio, you could try removing it (and any asoundrc/asound.conf files) and switch to pure ALSA with the above configuration file.

273 · 07-11-2015, 05:28 AM

Before doing anything did you open the PulseAudio Volume Control and ensure that all devices were unmuted? Apologies if that's obvious but many a time I will boot up to find no sound and have to either select the correct output device and ensure it is unmuted in PulseAudio Volume Control.

TobiSGD · 07-11-2015, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

Before doing anything did you open the PulseAudio Volume Control and ensure that all devices were unmuted?

Also, make sure that your device that is used for sound output is the default device for Pulseaudio.

273 · 07-11-2015, 05:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

Also, make sure that your device that is used for sound output is the default device for Pulseaudio.

How is that done? I have been trying for a long time to do this and all I have found are tutorials for editing or creating this and that PulseAudio config file which appear to have no effect.

TobiSGD · 07-11-2015, 06:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

How is that done? I have been trying for a long time to do this and all I have found are tutorials for editing or creating this and that PulseAudio config file which appear to have no effect.

You can either set the default sink using pacmd or use the default.pa configuration file as described here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...dio#default.pa

273 · 07-11-2015, 06:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

You can either set the default sink using pacmd or use the default.pa configuration file as described here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...dio#default.pa

Thanks. I think, perhaps, that things like automatically switching to other outputs when they're plugged in must interfere with hat on my system.

Ztcoracat · 07-11-2015, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

Before doing anything did you open the PulseAudio Volume Control and ensure that all devices were unmuted? Apologies if that's obvious but many a time I will boot up to find no sound and have to either select the correct output device and ensure it is unmuted in PulseAudio Volume Control.

I haven't tried anything yet.

When I run PulseAudio in the terminal all I get is that "the daemon is running"
How do I access the PA GUI?

I'm running XFCE-

Ztcoracat · 07-11-2015, 10:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

Also, make sure that your device that is used for sound output is the default device for Pulseaudio.

That's the problem TobiSGD....I don't know with certainty which is the default crd:-

273 · 07-11-2015, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ztcoracat

I haven't tried anything yet.

When I run PulseAudio in the terminal all I get is that "the daemon is running"
How do I access the PA GUI?

Pulse Audio Volume Control could be an entry under Multimedia in your menu (I can never recall whether it is installed by default) otherwise you'll need to install pavucontrol for it to appear. This gives you choices of input and output devices and volume sliders.

Ztcoracat · 07-11-2015, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 273

Pulse Audio Volume Control could be an entry under Multimedia in your menu (I can never recall whether it is installed by default) otherwise you'll need to install pavucontrol for it to appear. This gives you choices of input and output devices and volume sliders.

I have already installed pavucontrol-
I'll bring it up via terminal and let you know what I have.

Ztcoracat · 07-11-2015, 11:32 AM

Ok under Output Devices the only card in Pause Audio Volume Control is the Cape Verde/Pitcarin HDMI Audio Radeon HD 7700 so that's clear now that that crd is the default.
The prot says: HDMI/Display Port (unplugged) and I can't change that.

Under Configuration the profile is set to the same crd as mentioned above.
The Built in Audio profile choices are:

Code:

-Analog Stereo Duplex (unplugged)
-Analog Stereo Output (unplugged)
-Digital Stero (IEC958) Output + Analog Stereo Input
-Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output
-Analog Surround 5.1 - 7.1 Output is all (unplugged)

Which one do you recommend I select?

Ztcoracat · 07-11-2015, 12:14 PM

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132948.../shares/pNWPA1

273 · 07-11-2015, 12:32 PM

It doesn't look like you have any output devices, speakers or headphones, plugged into that machine? On the Configuration page of pavucontrol you should select the output device you are using from the drop-down box -- or just try them all. In addition, for now at least, unmute all output devices on the Output Devices tab. If you are using regular speakers or headphones it should be analogue stereo duplex or just analogue stereo you want (duplex meaning the microphone is allowed to work). You might also want to start a media file playing and see what, if anything, shows up on the playback tab -- you're looking for something other than system sounds.
Just have a look around pavucontrol generally and see what you can see as I may have missed something. This also may not help at all but it's worth having a look as PulseAudio does annoying things like mute outputs it thinks don't ahve anything plugged in even if they do, etc..