Sound troubleshooting

[CJ_Hudson]

Bug reported here as regressed in 11.10 also affects me.
If I disable pulse audio will I lose any other sound functionality too? I like to switch between speakers and USB headset.
I heard elsewhere this bug might be fixed in 12.04, perhaps I should just waitfor the rollout. Comments please?

[mörgæs]

I heard elsewhere this bug might be fixed in 12.04, perhaps I should just waitfor the rollout. Comments please?

You don't need to wait. You can test now in a live boot.

[Normand]

I just upgraded yesterday from 11.04 via 11.10 to 12.04
And now have no sound.

Did the relevant stuff in the 'guide' - no result
Now with the SoundTroubleshootingProcedure:

System recognises the sound carda and all is on in Alsa.

Result below from one of the tests shows the Driver version different from the Library and Utility version which might be the problem.

How can I get the right version

Thanks in advance.

norman@norman-desktop:~$ bash alsa-info.sh --stdout
upload=true&script=true&cardinfo=
!!################################
!!ALSA Information Script v 0.4.60
!!################################

!!Script ran on: Sun Apr 22 09:57:09 UTC 2012


!!Linux Distribution
!!------------------

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS \n \l DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04 LTS"


!!DMI Information
!!---------------

Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Product Name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Product Version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.


!!Kernel Information
!!------------------

Kernel release: 3.2.0-23-generic
Operating System: GNU/Linux
Architecture: x86_64
Processor: x86_64
SMP Enabled: Yes


!!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version: 1.0.24
Library version: 1.0.25
Utilities version: 1.0.25


!!Loaded ALSA modules
!!-------------------

snd_hda_intel


!!Sound Servers on this system
!!----------------------------

Pulseaudio:
Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/pulseaudio)
Running - Yes

ESound Daemon:
Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/esd)
Running - No

Jack:
Installed - Yes (/usr/bin/jackd)
Running - No


!!Soundcards recognised by ALSA
!!-----------------------------

0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
HDA Intel at 0xfde38000 irq 41

[strask]

Hello. I'm having trouble following the instructions in the sound troubleshooting guide under procedure Ae: Make NVIDIA HDMI audio work.

I've got the NVIDIA proprietary drivers installed, and 'aplay -l' output looks correct, but the next step in the guide says to do this

grep "eld_valid *1" /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*

and that produced no output for me. So I tried this

trask@reptoid:~$ grep eld_valid /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#0.0:eld_valid        0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#1.0:eld_valid        0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#2.0:eld_valid        0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#3.0:eld_valid        0
trask@reptoid:~$

The rest of the procedure in the guide assumes that one of those lines should have a 1, rather than a 0, so I don't know how to proceed.

As a side note, I had some display problems after installing the NVIDIA drivers until I discovered the NVIDIA X Server config tool (see http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1963767) so whoever maintains the troubleshooting guide might want to add a clue about that.


EDIT: Solved! Upgraded to 12.04 and problem went away, now have full use of HDMI audio.

[Normand]

As described Previously: I got alsamixer and found my sound card, but without having sound.

Now my situation has got worse:
- I have retried the steps in both the 'guide' and the 'procedure' many times, before and then after ...
- instalation of the DKMS

Now in the terminal:
- alsamixer is not recognised
- aplay -l says no sound cards found
There seems to bre no Alsa driver installed

I'm really stuck ... help !

[GuiGuy]

None of the advice offered here helped. I have installed mythbuntu 12.04.

Sound works fine in mythtv live, mythvideo and mythmusic.

Sound works in VLC as you'd expect.

SOund does not work in

• External audio players (banshee etc)
• external video players, other than VLC
• mythweb
• firefox, chrome etc browsers

Any helpful advice gratefully acknowledged...

NB: Sound is over HDMI (SPDIF). I suspect that those players not working are using the analogue card rather than HDMI.


Thanks

[waxcan]

Arrive in silence
Read
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Leave blastin metal!
I LOVE the forums!!!!

[Normand]

Thanks Waxcan for the reminder.

I did the Upgrade Alsa scripts on http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1681577 (Thanks Temüjin)

Now:
- The driver, libraries and utilities versions of alsa are all 1.0.25
- Running alsamixer only brings up the master slider column, nothing else
- Running aplay ... it just hangs there and does nothing
- aplay -l shows the sound card is being recognised
- I still have no sound

[SPARTAN-118]

Really odd stuff going around here...
Fresh install of 12.04. Sound seemed to work perfectly the first time I booted, though I wasn't really paying attention.

Here are my issues:

• 5.1 setup, front left/right speakers dead, all sound directed through the centre speaker.
• Random, frequent, loud popping/crackling noises coming from speakers when music is playing in Rhythmbox.
• Tried the very first Terminal command in the first guide linked,

  speaker-test

  but when it started the front left test, the static came out of the centre speaker.

I will edit this post if more issues come up (from doing the tests in the guides).

EDIT: Okay, sometime during the second guide I noticed that my front speakers were working again. Playing some music, I didn't notice any more popping. That may change, but the important thing is, my speakers work again. And the sound isn't getting shoved to the centre speaker.

Why is it that, when posting here, I almost invariably find the answer on my own?

EDIT 1: Crackling/popping still occurs while playing music. It was fine after a reboot, but after watching a few episodes of a TV show on VLC (which, I might add, went rather smoothly) I played some songs in Rhythmbox... and it's back.

Anybody know a solution? Besides giving up on Linux, because it lacks proper support from manufacturers?

[Normand]

To close my bits for now:

I have done a clean install yesterday of 12.04 with all updates and going through these guides again

Alsamixer works ... soundcard recognised in aplay -l

BUT !!ALSA Version
!!------------

Driver version: 1.0.24
Library version: 1.0.25
Utilities version: 1.0.25

No sound on front jack but I have it on the back panel.

I can live happily with this. Thanks to all working on these things.