No sound/Choppy sound

[clickwir]

Since upgrading to 10.10 from 10.04, I've had a lot of sound problems. So, I completely wiped and realoaded Kubuntu 10.10 64bit today. COMPLETELY reloaded from nothing.

Still have the problem.

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express DRAM Controller (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 02)
00:03.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 82Q35 Express MEI Controller (rev 02)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 02)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 02)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 92)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801IO (ICH9DO) LPC Interface Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IR/IO/IH (ICH9R/DO/DH) 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV770 LE [Radeon HD 4800 Series]
01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc HD48x0 audio
04:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6101 single-port PATA133 interface (rev b2)
07:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB X-Fi

Flash, for example, has no sound. Amarok does have sound, but it's very choppy. Like it's trying to decode as fast as possible and trying to play it at the same time. It's not an even sound at all. I don't have startup and shutdown sounds, ie. KDE events.

I did check KMIX and the default sound is the X-FI. I'm not using any special ATI drivers, just whatever Kubuntu decided to choose for me at install/boot.

Help!

[Snowhog]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Desktop PC? Do you have both, an on-board sound chip and a sound card?

01:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc HD48x0 audio
07:00.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB X-Fi

If 'yes', have you tried disabling the onboard device via the BIOS?

[clickwir]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

1, yes I do have an add-in board. X-Fi. Yes I do have onboard on my motherboard and yes that is disabled in the BIOS.

2, note that I also have an ATI card that has HDMI.

Kmix does see the ATI HDMI and the X-Fi.

I do not have anything other than one DVI LCD connected to my video card. No HDMI in use at all.

[clickwir]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

OH yea.... I also get a lot of these in /var/log/messages when sound is trying to play but very choppy.

Oct 24 19:40:38 ruger10-22 pulseaudio[1686]: ratelimit.c: 2 events suppressed
Oct 24 19:42:59 ruger10-22 pulseaudio[1686]: ratelimit.c: 19 events suppressed
Oct 24 19:43:10 ruger10-22 pulseaudio[1686]: ratelimit.c: 24 events suppressed
Oct 24 19:43:30 ruger10-22 pulseaudio[1686]: ratelimit.c: 3 events suppressed

[doctordruidphd]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

You may need to install padevchooser and pavucontrol.

Start pavucontrol, select the Configuration tab.

In the dropdown boxes, turn the sound devices you don't want to use to OFF. For the device you do want to use, be sure it is set to whatever is appropriate -- analog stereo duplex for most sound cards, but if you are using the digital lines, then you should select the option for that.

Now go to System Settings > Multimedia > Phonon

For the audio output selections, it should be set to whatever you chose in the last step setting up pavucontrol. You should hear sound if you highlight the device and press the test button.

If not, post back and we'll dig deeper.

[clickwir]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Do have pavucontrol installed. I've disabled all the others. And just have the X-Fi now. I've tried it on ANALOG STEREO OUTPUT and also ANALOG STEREO DUPLEX. However I don't see it change in System Settings. When I choose Phonon, all the options have only one selection and it says PulseAudio Sound Server.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Pavucontrol > Playback tab
Choose "all streams" from the Show dorpbox
Try making some sound with something - alsaplayer or whatever.
Do you see a entry appear here?
If so, make sure the mute button (speaker-x) is not checked.
Now open the Output Devices tab, and choose "All output devices" from the Show dropbox.
Do you see an audio stream for the sound you are using? You may need to choose the appropriate device from the Port dropbox.

Yeah, this is a pain...

[clickwir]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Ok... I used aplay. I do see the stream show up when I try to play a small .wav file. It's actually a second or two sound file. I hear nothing. I tried all the OUTPUT profiles in pavucontrol and while watching under the PLAYBACK tab, I can see aplay come up there.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but I noticed some OUTPUT profiles showed aplay taking longer and some shorter. The file is a small, short notification sound. But some of the OUTPUT profiles it was taking several seconds to play.

Nothing appears to be muted and all volumes are up all the way. I even turned off and back on my speakers and turned them up a bit just in case things were low.

edit: /var/log/messages is still littered with "pulseaudio[2365]: ratelimit.c: 40 events suppressed" messages.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Systemsettings > multimedia > Phonon

What happens when you select the pulseaudio server and hit the test button?

[doctordruidphd]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Also, please post the output of:

cat /proc/asound/modules

[clickwir]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

The TEST button shows that it's pressed down. The PLAYBACK tab of pavucontrol shows a bar pulsing across while the TEST button is showing pressed. Even thought I just clicked it and didn't hold it. Though, I hear nothing.

The TEST button and pavucontrol show activity for about 8-9 seconds. But I hear nothing. I tried some headphones too, just in case. Nothing.

cat /proc/asound/modules
0 snd_ctxfi

[doctordruidphd]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

Curioser and curioser.

If you haven't already done so, please install alsamixer.

Start alsamixer, F6, and choose the Creative X-fi (should be device 0)
Hit F5

Look for the PCM item, and make sure it is cranked up all the way.
Also make sure the volume controls for the output you are using on the card (front, or whichever you are plugged into) is cranked up, and also the master.

[linuxforall]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

The scourge of Linux that made me leave Ubuntu and switch to Kubuntu for good aka Pulse audio is finally here in Kubuntu as well, I tried out 10.10 as I was tempted for the lure of KDE 4.5.2 from backports ppa. Sadly all that nonsense of pulse is now in Kubuntu as well so I quickly switched back to Kubuntu 10.04 LTS, thankfully its LTS so I can use it for the next three years. Sound is as good as ever, no snap, crackle and pop as it is with Pulse.

[clickwir]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

yes, alsamixer is in. Everything is 100<>100 and nothing is MM. The S/PDIF-i and S/PDIF-o were MM as was Line-In. I made sure they were all 100/100. Tried with those mentioned MM and 00. No difference.

Tried aplay and vlc. Nothing.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: No sound/Choppy sound

OK, well this is starting to become a challenge...

Open vlc. Start playing a long file.
Tools > preferences > Audio

Does the ouuput module give you a choice for your xfi?
If not, choose the alsa option and save.

That should play directly through alsa to your soundcard. If you still don't get sound, then I suspect it's not a pulse problem, but something wrong with how the driver got configured.