Sound missing from some applications - still struggling with audio

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Yes, sorry for not mentioning that.

[raven9]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Don't know what it could be? It helped some other people and it helped me. The thing that is buging me is that you cannot test sound. That should work in any case.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Yeah. I have installed VLC as well and included a Pulseaudio plugin. But no sound when playing an MP3 there. Not using Pulseaudio and not using ALSA.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

I am now getting closer to the audio hell I have been in before...

Just had a full shutdown (instead of a reboot) and start again. After finishing booting, I went to settings to test audio. All I got was a bzzz in the speakers as if the speakers were blown (which they are not). There was only a couple of positive things - I got the same bzzz from the Pulsaudio as from ALSA, I assume it is ALSA. They are only is only labelled HDA Intel (STAC92xx Analog) and HDA Intel (STAC92xx Digital).

One more positive thing - I now have the same bzzz when there is a new twitter coming in on Twhirl.

But altogether, not very uplifting. It has gone from bad to worse.

[dibl]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

There's a sound troubleshooting link in my signature FAQs, I think it is #6.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

I will take a look at that. Thank you.

Of course, this morning when I booted my laptop, the sound was back. When testing, the analog part was ok, and Pulseaudio was dead silent again. As before, when I press the test button in the config, it seems Pulseaudio is playing it, but no sound comes out.

I am just wondering... isn't Pulseaudio I kind of higher layer that uses ALSA as an underlaying technology?So... what if Pulseaudio is pointing to the digital out?

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Have started to look through this page

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205449

Found the section about groups and checked what was in there on my laptop

audio:29ulse

So I added my user to this line.

Now I have sound playing on ALSA, and a crackling bzzz in when I try to test Pulseaudio.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Seems I am getting a little bit closer to figure out why things are not working with Skype, at least.

I thought it might not harm to add OSS for ALSA and then try to set Skype to use it.

When I ran alsa-oss skype I first had to crash out of Skype because it tried to open a Skype again. So if you try this, make sure the program you want to configure is not already running.

On the second try, it worked better, but I got this message in the terminal:

ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1569audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1569audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1569audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1569audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1569audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)
ALSA lib pcm_bluetooth.c:1569audioservice_expect) BT_GET_CAPABILITIES failed : Input/output error(5)

I know that bluetooth on this laptop has some high quality audio possibilities. Could it be that this is interferring with the rest of the audio setup and that somewhere some audio setting is pointing to bluetooth instead of the Intel HD audio?

[dibl]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

I'd try shutting down the Bluetooth magic until the basic audio functions are working correctly. You might need to use BIOS to shut Bluetooth down.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Ok. I will try that.

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

No change.

In the meantime I found this command that can be typed in a terminal window to "communicate" with PA

pacmd

I tried listing the cards in my laptop and got this:
[code]
>>> list -cards
Memory blocks currently allocated: 10, size: 73.0 KiB.
Memory blocks allocated during the whole lifetime: 10123, size: 9.8 MiB.
Memory blocks imported from other processes: 9, size: 9.0 KiB.
Memory blocks exported to other processes: 0, size: 0 B.
Total sample cache size: 0 B.
Default sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Default sink name: alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_playba ck_0
Default source name: alsa_input.usb_device_46d_8c6_48996D91_if2_sound_c ard_0_alsa_capture_0
Memory blocks of type POOL: 1 allocated/4541 accumulated.
Memory blocks of type POOL_EXTERNAL: 0 allocated/0 accumulated.
Memory blocks of type APPENDED: 0 allocated/0 accumulated.
Memory blocks of type USER: 0 allocated/0 accumulated.
Memory blocks of type FIXED: 0 allocated/4171 accumulated.
Memory blocks of type IMPORTED: 9 allocated/1411 accumulated.
15 module(s) loaded.
index: 0
name: <module-suspend-on-idle>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 1
name: <module-device-restore>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 2
name: <module-stream-restore>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 3
name: <module-alsa-source>
argument: <device_id=1 source_name=alsa_input.usb_device_46d_8c6_48996D91 _if2_sound_card_0_alsa_capture_0 tsched=0>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 4
name: <module-alsa-sink>
argument: <device_id=0 sink_name=alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_a lsa_playback_0 tsched=0>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 5
name: <module-alsa-source>
argument: <device_id=0 source_name=alsa_input.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_ alsa_capture_0 tsched=0>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 6
name: <module-hal-detect>
argument: <tsched=0>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 7
name: <module-esound-protocol-unix>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 8
name: <module-native-protocol-unix>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 9
name: <module-default-device-restore>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 10
name: <module-rescue-streams>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 11
name: <module-always-sink>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 12
name: <module-console-kit>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 13
name: <module-position-event-sounds>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
index: 14
name: <module-cli-protocol-unix>
argument: <>
used: -1
auto unload: no
1 sink(s) available.
* index: 0
name: <alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_playb ack_0>
driver: <modules/module-alsa-sink.c>
flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
state: SUSPENDED
volume: 0: 56% 1: 56%
muted: no
current latency: 0.00 ms
configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 81.27 .. 81.27 ms
max request: 14 KiB
max rewind: 0 KiB
monitor source: 1
sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
channel map: front-left,front-right
used by: 1
linked by: 1
module: 4
properties:
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "STAC92xx Analog"
alsa.id = "STAC92xx Analog"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xefffc000 irq 21"
device.description = "HDA Intel - STAC92xx Analog"
device.string = "front:0"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "14336"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "1792"
device.access_mode = "mmap"
3 source(s) available.
* index: 0
name: <alsa_input.usb_device_46d_8c6_48996D91_if2_sound_ card_0_alsa_capture_0>
driver: <modules/module-alsa-source.c>
flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL LATENCY
state: SUSPENDED
volume: 0: 0%
muted: no
current latency: 0.00 ms
configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 80.00 .. 80.00 ms
max rewind: 0 KiB
sample spec: s16le 1ch 16000Hz
channel map: mono
used by: 0
linked by: 0
module: 3
properties:
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "USB Audio"
alsa.id = "USB Audio"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "1"
alsa.card_name = "USB Device 0x46d:0x8c6"
alsa.long_card_name = "USB Device 0x46d:0x8c6 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-5, high speed"
device.description = "USB Device 0x46d:0x8c6 - USB Audio"
device.string = "hw:1"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "2560"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "320"
device.access_mode = "mmap"
index: 1
name: <alsa_output.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_playb ack_0.monitor>
driver: <modules/module-alsa-sink.c>
flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
state: SUSPENDED
volume: 0: 100% 1: 100%
muted: no
current latency: 0.00 ms
configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 81.27 .. 81.27 ms
max rewind: 0 KiB
sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
channel map: front-left,front-right
used by: 0
linked by: 0
monitor_of: 0
module: 4
properties:
device.description = "Monitor of HDA Intel - STAC92xx Analog"
device.class = "monitor"
index: 2
name: <alsa_input.pci_8086_27d8_sound_card_0_alsa_captur e_0>
driver: <modules/module-alsa-source.c>
flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
state: SUSPENDED
volume: 0: 89% 1: 89%
muted: yes
current latency: 0.00 ms
configured latency: 0.00 ms; range is 81.27 .. 81.27 ms
max rewind: 0 KiB
sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
channel map: front-left,front-right
used by: 0 &n

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Just checked. I also miss sound from flash when playing something in Firefox.

There HAS to be a solution. I read a lot around the internet now about different sound systems, and it it very obvious that the diversion here is a major problem.

The fact that so many different systems exist is actually working against Linux when it comes to hardware manufacturers. In this case, the hardware manufacturers can not be blamed for not making drivers available. As long as the community can not agree on what system to get drivers from, hardware manufacturers will be reluctant to jump on. And all the application programmers out there are confused about what to go for.

Maybe time for a talk between all the biggest distros on a top level and make a decision on what to go for and leave everything else for the specialist distros? This would at least ensure that something worked... There is a lot that can be said about freedom and that should not be limited. On the other hand - it is good to have something that actually work across the board to fall back on when a smaller system do not work :-)

[yhotg]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

thanks for the pulseaudio solution!

now i am listening radio on vlc without the computer getting frozen.
an improvement since this morning when i didn't have sound on vlc and the system was most time frozen.


thanks again

[Oceanwatcher]

Re: Sound missing from some applications

Well, I still have not figured things out on my laptop.

ALSA is working, but when I click the test for pulseaudio in the Multimedia settings, I just get the digital bzz in the speakers.

Hovering over the different options in the Multimedia settings shows what devices they will use. Pulesaudio do not show any devices. I just say it is the Xine audio output plugin using pulseaudio server.

So can it still be that I actually do not have pulseaudio properly installed?

Should I just install everything I can find in KpackageKit that has anything to do with pulseaudio except for all the debugging packages, maybe? Can it break anything?

[Nate]

Re: Sound missing from some applications - still struggling with audio

What does pulseaudio provide that you don't have now? I don't have pulseaudio installed, as far as I can tell, and I don't think I'm missing anything. I use xine as my backend.