Can't find sound devices in Debian 10

Sarcutus · 05-03-2020, 10:20 PM

So I installed Debian 10 on the secondary SSD I installed on my Acer Aspire E15 E5-575-33BM recently. And until today, the sound worked fine. I've no clue what changed today, but today my sound was kaputt, and I can't even get a sound device to show up in Settings.

Yes, that's right. PulseAudio has disappeared. ALSA has disappeared. When I try to start up Pulse Audio Volume Control, it gives an endless "Attempting to connect to PulseAudio, please wait ..." message.

I don't know what to make of this. I'm hoping someone here can help.

IlyaK · 05-04-2020, 01:47 AM

I'd start with checking if soundcard detected by kernel. Check your ``dmesg`` or ``lspci``. Do you see your soundcard there?
You can also check /sys

Code:

$ sudo dmesg   | grep '\(snd\|ound\)
$ lspci -v | grep -A 5 -B 5 '\(snd\|ound\)'
$ ls -l /sys/class/sound

Then, check pulseaudio is running and is aware of your sound card

Code:

$ ps a | grep pulseaudio
$ pactl list short

Sarcutus · 05-04-2020, 11:04 AM

With sudo dmesg | grep '\(snd\|ound\), the result was a never-ending non-response arrow symbol.

With lspci -v | grep -A 5 -B 5 '\(snd\|ound\)' :

Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 32, IRQ 131
Memory at b1320000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Memory at b1310000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel, snd_soc_skl

ls -l /sys/class/sound :

total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 card0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 card1 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/sound/card1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 controlC0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/controlC0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 controlC1 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/sound/card1/controlC1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 hwC0D0 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/hwC0D0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 hwC0D2 -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/hwC0D2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D0c -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D0c
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D0p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D0p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D10p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D10p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D3p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D3p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D7p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D7p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D8p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D8p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC0D9p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/pcmC0D9p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC1D0c -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/sound/card1/pcmC1D0c
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 pcmC1D0p -> ../../devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.3/1-1.3:1.0/sound/card1/pcmC1D0p
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 May 4 11:39 timer -> ../../devices/virtual/sound/timer

ps a | grep pulseaudio :

3199 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep pulseaudio

And now the interesting one:

pactl list short :

Connection failure: Connection refused
pa_context_connect() failed: Connection refused

Connection refused? PulseAudio is telling me to go screw myself? Huh?

Interesting, to say the least.

IlyaK · 05-05-2020, 10:37 AM

Your hardware is ok, but I can't see pulseaudio daemon.

Code:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure pulseaudio
$ systemctl --user start pulseaudio
$ systemctl --user status pulseaudio
$ systemctl --user status pulseaudio.socket

and show us output

Sarcutus · 05-05-2020, 12:44 PM

Ummmm ...

I have to admit to failure. I kind of gave up, and just completely reinstalled Debian. And ever since I installed some Qualcomm Atheros firmware, my Bluetooth has been acting a little weird, but I can at least get sound.

I'm not sure what to do from here. I could close this question, but then the same problem might pop up.

But currently, PulseAudio is chugging along ...

● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; disabled; vendor pr
Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-05-05 06:41:39 EDT; 6h ago
Main PID: 2592 (pulseaudio)
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/pulseaudio.service
└─2592 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no

For now, at least.

I'm not sure what to make about that bit about /usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service being "disabled," but I have sound.

Thanks for your help.

IlyaK · 05-05-2020, 12:52 PM

pulseaudio is connected to ``pulseaudio.socket`` and started automatically (on demand) once used.

Code:

$ systemctl --user status pulseaudio
● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2020-05-05 20:48:51 MSK; 37s ago
  Process: 673 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

# Disabled and dead, but see
$ pactl list > /dev/null

$ systemctl --user status pulseaudio
● pulseaudio.service - Sound Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pulseaudio.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-05-05 20:49:40 MSK; 3s ago
 Main PID: 708 (pulseaudio)
   CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/pulseaudio.service
           └─708 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no

# Still disabled, but running.

# Even if you disable it, it says:
$ systemctl --user stop pulseaudio
Warning: Stopping pulseaudio.service, but it can still be activated by:
  pulseaudio.socket

Systemd magic)

I believe you had some troubles with ``pulseaudio.socket``.

Sarcutus · 05-05-2020, 12:55 PM

Well ... I must admit to being clueless about this, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if you were right.

pulseaudio.socket ... I'll keep an eye on that.