nVidia HDMI Audio Doesn't Work
 

I've seen this problem on dozens of different forums but I haven't found anybody with my specific problem or a solution that has worked. I have an nVidia GeForce 8400GS which I just installed in my Debian box and I can't get the HDMI audio to work. Kernel version is 2.6.32-5-amd64, nvidia driver version is 260.19.36, alsa version is 1.0.21. Output of lsmod shows that nvidia module is loaded. Output of aplay -l:

Output of aplay -L:

As you can see, the nVidia audio output doesn't even appear in aplay -l or -L.

lspci -v shows:


I feel like I've looked everywhere on the internet for a solution to this and I just can't find one. It seems that everybody is able to see their nVidia audio device using aplay -l and then the solution goes from there. I have no idea why I can't see it and it's really starting to frustrate me. If anybody can push me in the right direction with this it would be much appreciated. Thanks!

firstly please study the links contained in the first link I post

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kern.../HD-Audio.html

now pretending you understand all that we look at
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...figuration.txt

which tells us that we need to look at
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...dio-Models.txt

and then we search for your codec

but you have not posted it and so I am guessing its vt as per

VIA VT17xx/VT18xx/VT20xx
========================
auto BIOS setup (default)

please post the output of below command

BTW I do not have your hardware so just starting you off

BTW pls capture a screenshot of the command

alsamixer

You need to install alsa-utls to get that command....I don't have your hardware but I do have hdmi but it won't show up as a switch

you can paste to free online such as (good for 14 days)
http://imagebin.org/index.php?page=add

or if you need to keep a permanent online try (which is free to join...just get a new email address in case of spam)
http://tinypic.com/

The codec seems to be VIA VT1708S as you predicted. Full output from cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0 below.

Output from alsamixer here: http://i.imgur.com/ap6Qr.png

okeydokey

1) can you get any sound?

2) Are you using pulseauido?

3) what happens in alsamixer when you go to Master Front and hold page up to increase vol to max as its already unmuted but set to 0 volume

4) you may need to play some test sounds but what exactly does the hdmi cable go to? a home stereo? a tv? etc

5) do you know what hp and smart5.1 settings do? (as I don't)

instead of edit in case you are reading last bit ...google suggests there may be a tweak we can do but first can you explicitly say what sound devices you normally have on boot

and I mean all

include
phones
usb sound mixers includes mp3 players and the like


this is because we may have to force an index=(number) into your modprobe conf file

this is because your other sound device may be grabbing index=0......generally the first detected device gets index=0

until you understand this try this as a way of seeing what alsa sees

alsamixer -c0
should return the same output as alsamixer

alsamixer -c1
may produce and image or report invalid card index: 1

we can see this easier with the output of following command for my hw

and I have deliberately not booted up with any other sound devices

and finally a thread talking a number of issues but your spdif already appears unmuted so we can look at the options for enabling msi maybe?

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=90350

ok

google Old thread suggests what i said early is part true

1) max out your unmuted outputs

2) unmute (if muted) your SPDIF devices

as per
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/406613

report your results please.....ignore index= values unless you find more than one device

1) I can get sound from the rear speaker-out jack

2) Yes.

3) Turns up the front headphone jack. Not very useful.

4) HDMI goes out to a TV

5) No idea

I'm not sure if you want me to list them somehow from the command line, but there's on-board audio and the HDMI on the graphics card (not on-board). No USB devices or anything like that. If there is something grabbing index=0 and this is a problem then I'm guessing the on-board audio is doing it.

Here's something interesting. alsamixer -c0 gives the same controls as alsamixer (like you said), but alsamixer -c1 shows:
It doesn't mean much but it's the first indication that something is actually seeing my hardware. Yay!

Output of aplay -l still doesn't show it though:
Looking at the links you gave in the last two posts now. Will report back in a few minutes.

Disabled the on-board audio. Now I get the output:

alsamixer -c0 show the NVidia card now, which means that it now knows it as card 0, but it still says that there are no controls available for this card. Still no sound.

Muchos progress! I built alsa from source as was suggested here:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic....768136#p768136

Instructions for building from source here:
http://alsa.opensrc.org/Quick_Install

Don't forget to remove all snd and sound modules before trying to load the new ones or you'll get errors.

How to load the new modules automatically in Debian can be found here:
http://kernel-handbook.alioth.debian...h-modules.html

Now I can finally see the device on an aplay -l:
And I can see the 4 SPDIF interfaces when I go into alsamixer. Problem now is.....still no sound. Even when I unmute them in alsamixer. But hey, lots of progress.

Still no progress on this. Going to bed and going to try again tomorrow. I'm trying to play a movie in VLC and still no audio. I'm not sure why. Everything is unmuted. Maybe Debian doesn't know to default to that device?

ok well if you are sure your first reported device is not what you what then you need to setup a blacklist entry in
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

we need to know the exact module for that pesky device but I am guessing its snd_hda_intel so with root powers add this line

blacklist snd_hda_intel

2) now reboot and see what the command

reports and post the results pls

3) I would like you to redo the cat /proc/asound/card0/codec#0

I am thinking....if you had 2 devices....the pesky device grabs index=0 and you need the second device to have that index value

so there are 2 main ways of doing it

disable the hardware so it can not be detected or
tweak the configs so the second device is forced to use index=0

so

4) the tweak could be in rc.local or in a modprobe file....typically on a debian system in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

eg (not knowing your module I call X)

options moduleX index=0

Once we set the correct device to always use index=0....any other device device can no longer use index=0 ok?

BTW it might be better to post the full output of

lspci -v

lsusb

and

cat /proc/asound/cards

I think I mentioned above that I already disabled the other audio source and that my HDMI sound is now at index 0 and visible through alsamixer. I will post the output of those commands when I get home to the computer tonight.

Just a question, because I can see it nowhere mentioned in this thread: Do you have connected your video-card with the S/PDIF-connector from your motherboard?

Got it working. Unmuted SPDIF in alsamixer and then it was just some settings in VLC. In preferences, turn on advanced settings, set the output device from Default to ALSA, refresh the list of ALSA devices and select nVidia device 0,7. There were a few nVidia devices, and 7 is the one that seemed to work for me.

Anyway, problem solved! Thanks for all the help!

Nope, no need for it.

Just to clarify, the SPDIF connection may be needed on other cards, however my video card doesn't even have a connector for it. It worked without it.

I really wonder about that, just because the 8400GS has no dedicated sound device.