[SOLVED] 14.1 Sound doesn't work

imarriedyoung · 07-09-2014, 03:07 AM

Hello!

So here's the situation; on Slackware 14.1, 3.10.17 generic, I can't seem to get any audio to work and I'm wondering if it's because my hardware isn't getting bound correctly to ALSA.

I have:

Tried turning everything up max, as root and regular user, in alsamixer
Tried playing audio via XMMS, Chrome, aplay, mpg123, the last two as both root and regular user.
Have added myself to the audio group
Tried playing audio in both the 'raw' console and within X
Have tried with different audio files to see if that might be the cause.
Have tested the audio in another OS (Windows 7) which works fine.
Have tested audio in other Linux distributions (Crunchbang, Ubuntu, Debian vanilla, Arch...) where they all work after fresh-installs
Tried installing OSS but reverted back to ALSA when that proved uneffective
Added the recommended (via the Slackware wiki's) "options snd-hda-intel model=auto" trick inside of a conf file named "snd-hda-intel.conf" under /etc/modprobe.d

output of "lsmod | grep snd"

Code:

snd_hda_codec_hdmi     29622  1 
snd_hda_codec_realtek    34792  1 
snd_usb_audio         115981  0 
snd_hda_intel          34861  0 
snd_usbmidi_lib        18764  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_rawmidi            18645  1 snd_usbmidi_lib
snd_seq_device          5108  1 snd_rawmidi
snd_hda_codec         143196  3 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel
snd_pcsp                8238  0 
snd_hwdep               6388  2 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm                76009  5 snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_pcsp
snd_page_alloc          7098  2 snd_pcm,snd_hda_intel
snd_timer              18614  1 snd_pcm
snd                    58630  12 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_device,snd_pcsp
soundcore               5354  1 snd

output of "lspci -k | grep -i -A 7 audio"

Code:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Lynx Point High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 857f
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point PCI Express Root Port #1 (rev d5)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Lynx Point PCI Express Root Port #4 (rev d5)
--
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GK104 HDMI Audio Controller (rev a1)
	Subsystem: eVga.com. Corp. Device 3774
	Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
	Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
03:00.0 SATA controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1062 Serial ATA Controller (rev 01)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 858d
	Kernel driver in use: ahci

The beguiling thing is that alsamixer will recognize the device as "Card: HDA Intel PCH Chip: Realtek ALC1150" and let me (supposedly) make changes to it that don't really do anything. My board is relatively new, an Asus Maximus VI Gene, so I wonder if compiling a newer version of the kernel might help alleviate this problem?

PS. Sorry for the terrible title. I thought I might have the chance to modify it after posting.

garpu · 07-09-2014, 07:07 AM

Are you talking just regular sound, or HDMI, or?
What's the output of aplay -l?
In alsamixer, what's the chipset? (F6 to select it.)

My pre-caffeinated guess is that alsamixer is set to the NVIDIA one, not the sound card you think you're using. (I've got that issue as well.) Editing your .asoundrc in your home directory to point to the correct device will fix that. Check http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Main_Page for specifics about your sound card.

imarriedyoung · 07-09-2014, 07:13 AM

Its near bedtime here where I'm so I'll have to check tomorrow but I'm hoping to get audio through the sound card; (to headphones) when i bring up alsamixer its default is to bring up the pc speaker but i didnt assume that was important (the order of what comes up first) The hdmi is totally blank and not possible to manipulate actually. F6 gives me the choice between my pc speaker, webcam, Realtek card and hdmi but pumping up the audio doesnt do anything. I forgot to mention that I installed the Realtek drivers from their site as an attempt to resolve the problem to no avail. I'll have the outputs when I get up.

garpu · 07-09-2014, 09:41 AM

Bit more caffeinated, but another thing to make sure is that the right kernel module is loaded. I can't count the number of times I've had trouble getting something working, tried a lot of things...and didn't bother to load the correct module.

A quick google search for that chip finds a bunch of problems: http://forums.opensuse.org/showthrea...driver-problem But since you've gotten it working under a few others, it sounds more like a configuration issue. (In my experience, 9 times out of 10 if something doesn't work under Slackware, it's a configuration issue.)

Dumb question, but you're in the audio group, yeah? (/etc/group)

imarriedyoung · 07-09-2014, 07:27 PM

output of "aplay -l"

Code:

sudo aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: pcsp [pcsp], device 0: pcspeaker [pcsp]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC1150 Analog [ALC1150 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC1150 Digital [ALC1150 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 3: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

output of "id"

Code:

[Thu Jul 10, 08:25 AM | ~]
>> id
uid=1000(_myUsername_) gid=100(users) groups=100(users),7(lp),11(floppy),17(audio),18(video),19(cdrom),93(scanner)

I'm going to try booting into a liveCD or liveUSB I know where the sound works and seeing what modules it's using. I also need to take a look at asound.conf / .asoundrc. I think you're right about configuration for 90% of problems, although that certainly wasn't the case for when I set up grub2 recently on slack.

imarriedyoung · 07-09-2014, 08:11 PM

Dude, Garpu, you were right. Stupid configuration. Check this out:

output of "cat /proc/asound/cards"

Code:

0 [pcsp           ]: PC-Speaker - pcsp
                      Internal PC-Speaker at port 0x61
 1 [Camera         ]: USB-Audio - Blue Eyeball USB Camera
                      Blue Microphne Blue Eyeball USB Camera at usb-0000:00:14.0-5, high speed
 2 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7230000 irq 46
 3 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xf7080000 irq 17

Both /etc/asound.conf and ~/.asoundrc were non-existent. I wanted this to be system-wide so I generated this content into /etc/asound.conf based on the template provided at the link you gave (for anyone else reading, Garpu provided the URL to ALSA's wiki and with some searching for 'asoundrc' I found this page: http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc)

Code:

pcm.!default {
	type hw
	card 0
}

ctl.!default {
	type hw           
	card 0
}

After which it made perfect sense to me because they say "The keyword default is defined in the ALSA lib API and will always access hw:0,0 — the default device on the default soundcard. Specifying the !default name supersedes the one defined in the ALSA lib API."

Ok; so let's change it to 2, where our sound card is sitting, based on our cat command above, and...voila! Let there be sound.

Perhaps newer kernels can better recognize this and / or other distros might supply an autoconf for asound.conf pointing to the 'supposedly' right card? Who knows. Who cares. What I like about Slackware is that changes like this are often easier than in other distros, just as an aside. Thanks again Garpu! Let me know where I can send some coffee...

garpu · 07-09-2014, 11:49 PM

Awesome! Glad you got it working.

I suspect the issue is partially that the HDA Nvidia module gets loaded before your sound card's module, so it "defaults'" to the video card. My setup's a bit more complicated, but so long as the asoundrc points to the right device, it should work. You should be able to blacklist the Nvidia sound module, so it doesn't load.

So if you reboot and don't have any sound, double check aplay -l for the correct device.

That having been said, every time I update/reinstall Slackware, I wind up forgetting to add myself to the audio group.

imarriedyoung · 07-10-2014, 12:00 AM

Why isn't it default? I guess the point of Slackware (of which I'm a newbie) is to focus on providing vanilla results and allow the user to provide the configurations themselves. I think blacklisting the HDMI module would be tricky as it's the same module the PCH card is using! Most of the sound is working across the board, but I haven't had time to check if a reboot will enable the sound in chrome (from youtube and the like...) I'm hoping it does. If I find an issue + resolution I'll post it here.

garpu · 07-10-2014, 09:08 AM

Yeah, in that case you may have to change your .asoundrc if you reboot. Not a big deal. I only need to reboot every month or so, and that's usually because the power went out.