PulseAudio detects only 2 output devices out of 4

earthw0rmjim · 08-06-2019, 03:50 PM

My system is running Debian 10 stable and has the following audio devices:

Genius 2.1 PC speakers - recognized in pavucontrol as Family 17h (Models 00h-0fh) HD Audio Controller Analog Stereo
Monitor 1 on DisplayPort - recognized in pavucontrol as Ellesmere HDMI Audio Digital Stereo
Monitor 2 on DisplayPort (exact same type as the previous one) - not recognized
HDTV on HDMI - not recognized

(2, 3 and 4 are connected to the same Radeon RX 570 video card)

So i can play audio only on the Genius speakers and on one of the monitors.
The other monitor and the HDTV are not detected as output devices, they do not appear in pavucontrol at all.

Code:

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I'd really appreciate any advice on how to solve this problem.
I don't really know what other information i should post here, so whatever you need, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

frankbell · 08-06-2019, 08:07 PM

If you have not done so, install pavucontrol (the pulse mixer); it gives you much more granular control of Pulse.

It should be in the repos.

earthw0rmjim · 08-06-2019, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

If you have not done so, install pavucontrol (the pulse mixer); it gives you much more granular control of Pulse.

I already have pavucontrol installed, but out of my 4 audio-capable devices only 2 show up in there, that's my problem basically. See the attached screenshot.

ondoho · 08-07-2019, 02:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by earthw0rmjim

(2, 3 and 4 are connected to the same Radeon RX 570 video card)

So i can play audio only on the Genius speakers and on one of the monitors.
The other monitor and the HDTV are not detected as output devices, they do not appear in pavucontrol at all.

So of those connected to the video card, the sound is coming only from the first monitor's speaker?
Are you sure the video card has the ability to pass the sound on to all devices connected?

FWIW, pavucontrol does not recognize the first monitor, it recognizes the video card itself (and not the 3 devices connected to it).

In other words, this seems top be a problem with the video card and/or its driver, not pulseaudio. Maybe this can get you started with your research.

earthw0rmjim · 08-07-2019, 02:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

FWIW, pavucontrol does not recognize the first monitor, it recognizes the video card itself (and not the 3 devices connected to it).

In other words, this seems top be a problem with the video card and/or its driver, not pulseaudio.

You're right, i totally missed that.
I'll start looking into this issue, thank you.

nikgnomic · 08-13-2019, 03:55 PM

aplay -l shows only one HDMI audio device available for playback
so you only possible to switch between the 3 HDMI connections with

Code:

alsamixer --card 0

and/or

Code:

pavucontrol --tab 5

but no additional subdevices available for more than one at any time

Shadow_7 · 08-15-2019, 10:59 AM

$ cat /proc/asound/cards

Odds are that the video card shows up as ONE soundcard (with multiple outputs).

$ egrep -r -i hdmi /proc/asound/*

It's also possible that you're connected with a DVI adapter that lacks sound and otherwise hides the EDID information of the monitors. Those obviously wont show up, even if they have speakers / audio capabilites.

Otherwise pavucontrol might have your HDMI outputs, combined in the single drop down list of audio capabilities of the video card.

earthw0rmjim · 08-21-2019, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_7

$ cat /proc/asound/cards

Odds are that the video card shows up as ONE soundcard (with multiple outputs).

$ egrep -r -i hdmi /proc/asound/*

It's also possible that you're connected with a DVI adapter that lacks sound and otherwise hides the EDID information of the monitors. Those obviously wont show up, even if they have speakers / audio capabilites.

Otherwise pavucontrol might have your HDMI outputs, combined in the single drop down list of audio capabilities of the video card.

Code:

cat /proc/asound/cards

 0 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfcf60000 irq 68
 1 [Generic        ]: HDA-Intel - HD-Audio Generic
                      HD-Audio Generic at 0xfce00000 irq 70

Code:

egrep -r -i hdmi /proc/asound/*

/proc/asound/card0/id:HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/pcm3p/info:id: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/card0/pcm3p/info:name: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/card0/pcm3p/sub0/info:id: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/card0/pcm3p/sub0/info:name: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:Codec: ATI R6xx HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x185600f0: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/card0/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/cards: 0 [HDMI           ]: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI HDMI
/proc/asound/cards:                      HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfcf60000 irq 68
/proc/asound/HDMI/id:HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/pcm3p/info:id: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/HDMI/pcm3p/info:name: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/HDMI/pcm3p/sub0/info:id: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/HDMI/pcm3p/sub0/info:name: HDMI 0
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:Codec: ATI R6xx HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x185600f0: [Jack] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pincap 0x00000094: OUT Detect HDMI
/proc/asound/HDMI/codec#0:  Pin Default 0x585600f0: [N/A] Digital Out at Int HDMI
/proc/asound/oss/sndstat:HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfcf60000 irq 68
/proc/asound/pcm:00-03: HDMI 0 : HDMI 0 : playback 1

I can play audio on each device hooked up to the VGA if i unplug the others (for example unplugging one of the monitors and the HDTV results in audio coming from the 2nd monitor).
So the ports are seemingly working fine individually, i just can't make the system see them as separate output devices.

Shadow_7 · 08-21-2019, 08:28 PM

Looks like it actually only sees ONE HDMI output. Alsa name of hw:0,3.

FILE: $HOME/.asoundrc

Code:

defaults.ctl.card 0
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 3

A simple way to have it default via ALSA to that device. Since it's not the default of hw:0,0.

$ speaker-test -c 2 -l 1 -D hw:0,3

Normally a video card will break other "outputs" into other devices. hw:0,3 .. hw:0,5 .. hw:0,7 .. hw:0,8 .. hw:0,9 .. .. .. But yours doesn't do that. You might check /var/log/kern.log or dmesg for hints as to what is going on. Or try a couple other distros and see if the issue gets solved, or persists across them.

earthw0rmjim · 08-22-2019, 03:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shadow_7

Normally a video card will break other "outputs" into other devices. hw:0,3 .. hw:0,5 .. hw:0,7 .. hw:0,8 .. hw:0,9 .. .. .. But yours doesn't do that. You might check /var/log/kern.log or dmesg for hints as to what is going on. Or try a couple other distros and see if the issue gets solved, or persists across them.

I've tried live booting some distros (such as Ubuntu and Manjaro) with various kernel versions, the results are the same.
I'm starting to think it's a hardware (motherboard or VGA) problem. I'll try to borrow a different VGA and see what happens with that.
Thanks for you replies.