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**dibl** · Sep 13, 2009, 07:40 AM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Originally posted by hypersk

Anyone has the same happened to you?

Yes, it has many times. Audacity has always been very picky about its access to the sound device -- it needs to be first. Even the browser running (since it can play sound) will sometimes make audacity object.

Try restarting the X server (logout/login) and then don't run anything except audacity, and see if it behaves better. Once audacity is working, you might be able to open the browser without disrupting audacity -- no guarantees.

**hypersk** · Sep 14, 2009, 05:30 AM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Well, my friend, I used to do that on Kubuntu Hardy Heron (KDE3), and it worked very very well.

But not now. Even if I shut down the computer, and after powering up Audacity is the first application opened, I still get the error message.

Can it be an issue with KDE4?

**dibl** · Sep 14, 2009, 06:30 AM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Probably not KDE, probably PulseAudio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PulseAudio

I have noticed recently, since the incorporation of PulseAudio, that sometimes the alsamixergui gives me better results than the KMixer. One would think it doesn't matter but .... make sure all the relevant ALSA packages are installed, and open alsamixergui, and make sure the needed channels are active and have the volume sliders up. Use alsaplayer (with a local sound/music file) to test and make sure that it is working. Then close alsaplayer and try audacity.

I have not used audacity lately, but will check it out tonight (on my 9.10 system).

EDIT: This may be relevant, even though it was posted in conjunction with Karmic development: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1265537

**GreyGeek** · Sep 14, 2009, 11:07 AM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

I am running Karmic 9.10 64bit on my 64bit dual core 2 Sony VAIO notebook. Audacity, including recording, and Flash work fine regardless of the order I start them.

**dibl** · Sep 14, 2009, 05:25 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

OK, I booted Kubuntu 9.10 and started Audacity before anything else. It came up and worked correctly, including rendering a 78-rpm recording of Fritz Kreisler playing Liebesfreud:

Hardware:

dibl@karmic:~$ lspci -vv

.
.
.

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
Subsystem: Intel Corporation Device 0419
Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
Region 0: Memory at e3200000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

dibl@karmic:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: STAC92xx Digital [STAC92xx Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Loaded modules:

dibl@karmic:~$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
vmnet 46940 13
vmblock 15408 1
vmci 56520 0
vmmon 76784 0
jfs 190128 4
dm_crypt 14888 0
coretemp 7072 0
lp 11908 0
snd_hda_codec_idt 72432 1
snd_hda_intel 31528 2
snd_hda_codec 79776 2 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss 44704 0
snd_mixer_oss 18976 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 93160 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy 3460 0
snd_seq_oss 33440 0
snd_seq_midi 8192 0
snd_rawmidi 27360 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 8448 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
i82975x_edac 5192 0
snd_seq 60608 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
snd_timer 26992 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 8308 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
psmouse 57124 0
ppdev 8232 0
joydev 13088 0
snd 77096 15 snd_hda_codec_idt,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_ pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawm idi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore 9088 1 snd
snd_page_alloc 10928 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
.
.
.

System Settings > Multimedia:

Hope this helps!

**Snowhog** · Sep 14, 2009, 05:33 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

So, then, based on user observation, one can say with (some degree of) certainty, that it's pur audacity to expect sound out of Audacity in all cases?

Talk about an aptly named program!

**dibl** · Sep 14, 2009, 05:35 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Audacity has a history of being a stinker, with regard to playback access to the sound device. But, the audacious Linux user persists until he wins the prize!

**Snowhog** · Sep 14, 2009, 05:38 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Oh the audacity of the stubborn dibl.

**hypersk** · Oct 02, 2009, 11:13 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Hello everyone, thanks for the answers, I'm sorry I haven't showed up around here, but I had a job trip and I could not take my laptop with me (I had yo travel with a company laptop which has Windows XP on it, ugh...), but here I am again...

Originally posted by dibl

I have noticed recently, since the incorporation of PulseAudio, that sometimes the alsamixergui gives me better results than the KMixer. One would think it doesn't matter but .... make sure all the relevant ALSA packages are installed, and open alsamixergui, and make sure the needed channels are active and have the volume sliders up. Use alsaplayer (with a local sound/music file) to test and make sure that it is working. Then close alsaplayer and try audacity.

Ok my friend, I've got Synaptics up and running (I've seen so many posts saying that kpackageit does not work...), which are the relevant packages I should get in order to install alsamixergui correctly?

**GreyGeek** · Oct 03, 2009, 06:53 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Quick way:
Open a konsole and enter

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install alsamixergui

Close the konsole when apt-get is done.

Long way: .... never mind.... use the quick way!

**hypersk** · Oct 03, 2009, 08:50 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Okay, I istalled alsamixergui and configured it (the active channel and the volume up).

Also, on System Settings -> Multimedia; I changed Pulse Audio to the top of the list.

Audacity still does not work.

How can I install alsaplayer for test purposes, is it just like the alsamixergui installation?

Thansk in advance.

**Snowhog** · Oct 03, 2009, 08:55 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Originally posted by hypersk

How can I install alsaplayer for test purposes, is it just like the alsamixergui installation?

Yes.

Code:

sudo apt-get install alasaplayer

**hypersk** · Oct 07, 2009, 11:23 PM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Nothing I do seems to matter.

I have alsamixergui installed, I downloaded alsaplayer to test it out (it works), on system settings I have Pulse Audio all the way up... I reboot and nothing, I keep getting the same error displayed over and over.

Annoying error:

Anyway, here are my configurations so you guys can tell me if I'm doing anything wrong...

Alsamixergui:

System Settings:

Alsaplayer playing the very same file:

I will also post the konsole outputs from the same commands that dibl used.

lspci -vv

Code:

hypersk@hypersk-kubuntu:~$ lspci -vv                      
.
.
.
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)                                    
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 011e             
    Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-                          
    Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-                          
    Latency: 0                               
    Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22                    
    Region 0: Memory at 98400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]   
    Capabilities: <access denied>                      
    Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel                     
    Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel                      

.
.
.

aplay -l

Code:

hypersk@hypersk-kubuntu:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
 Subdevices: 1/1
 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lsmod

Code:

hypersk@hypersk-kubuntu:~$ lsmod
Module         Size Used by
i915          67844 2   
drm          96424 3 i915 
ppdev         15620 0   
bridge         56212 0   
stp          10500 1 bridge
bnep          20224 2    
input_polldev     11912 0    
dm_crypt        20996 0    
joydev         18368 0    
sbp2          30476 0    
lp           17156 0    
parport        42220 2 ppdev,lp
btusb         19608 2     
arc4          9856 2     
ecb          10752 2     
snd_hda_intel     435252 6     
snd_pcm_oss      46336 0     
snd_mixer_oss     22656 3 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm        83076 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
iwl3945        97912 0             
uvcvideo        63368 0             
snd_seq_dummy     10756 0             
snd_seq_oss      37760 0             
snd_seq_midi      14336 0             
compat_ioctl32     9344 1 uvcvideo         
snd_rawmidi      29696 1 snd_seq_midi       
mac80211       217592 1 iwl3945         
psmouse        61972 0             
acer_wmi        24260 0
videodev        41600 1 uvcvideo
sdhci_pci       15232 0
iTCO_wdt        19108 0
snd_seq_midi_event   15104 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq        56880 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer       29704 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device     14988 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
video         25872 0
serio_raw       13444 0
pcspkr         10496 0
led_class       12036 2 iwl3945,acer_wmi
v4l1_compat      21764 2 uvcvideo,videodev
sdhci         23940 1 sdhci_pci
intel_agp       34108 1
agpgart        42696 3 drm,intel_agp
iTCO_vendor_support  11652 1 iTCO_wdt
cfg80211        38288 2 iwl3945,mac80211
output         11008 1 video
snd          62756 17 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore       15200 3 snd
snd_page_alloc     16904 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
usb_storage      99648 1
ohci1394        38576 0
ieee1394        94660 2 sbp2,ohci1394
tg3          131204 0
fbcon         46112 0
tileblit        10752 1 fbcon
font          16384 1 fbcon
bitblit        13824 1 fbcon
softcursor       9984 1 bitblit

I hope this information is useful to you.

**dibl** · Oct 09, 2009, 04:37 AM

Re: Audacity cannot play sound anymore

Several things to do:

First, I see no PCM channel -- this may be your problem. Open kmix > settings > configure channels. It should show a PCM channel -- put an "x" in that one. Then it should show up on the front view as an additional slider, and you need to slide it up. Then retest with alsaplayer.

If that does not work (i.e. you don't see a PCM channel to "x", or doing this doesn't produce any sound output) ...

Second, you have a laptop, and sometimes they need a special option:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...sound+database

If there is an option for your model on the list, in your /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base file, you will add a line that looks like this:

option snd-hda-intel model=asus-mode4

The red part is the option. See if you can find one for your laptop model, and follow the instructions on the page. If your model is close to a listed model, you can try experiments with the options -- it won't hurt anything to try one.

Third (and my last idea for now):

I just bought a Toshiba NB205 notebook and there is no working option for it in the ALSA driver for HDA Intel. I had to install and configure OSS. Here is my report -- you might need the OSS part of it, if there's no way to make ALSA work (but that is unusual):

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106837.0

Hope there's help in here for you.

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[SOLVED]Audacity cannot play sound anymore

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