[Solved] Pulse Audio broke sound card

[rkfsm]

Well, my sound was working fine with a new install of Gentoo. I installed Firefox which drew in Pulse Audio and now my sound card won't work normally. Everything I have searched says I need to set my sound card as default, but it already is:

Code: Select all

~ $ cat /proc/asound/cards 
 0 [CMI8738        ]: CMI8738-MC6 - C-Media CMI8738
                      C-Media CMI8738 (model 55) at 0x9c00, irq 16
 1 [Lite           ]: USB-Audio - Rocketfish HD Webcam Lite
                      Rocketfish Rocketfish HD Webcam Lite at usb-0000:00:0b.1-1.7, high speed
 2 [NVidia         ]: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
                      HDA NVidia at 0xfcffc000 irq 16

~ $ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
sysdefault:CARD=CMI8738
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
    Front speakers
rear:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
    Rear speakers
surround21:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI 2nd DAC
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
iec958:CARD=CMI8738,DEV=0
    C-Media CMI8738, C-Media PCI DAC/ADC
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, ID b Digital
    HDMI Audio Output

If I use "speaker-test -t wav -c 2 -D front", I DO get test audio. How do I fix this?

RK

[yngwin]

Well, my sound was working fine with a new install of Gentoo. I installed Firefox which drew in Pulse Audio and now my sound card won't work normally.

So get rid of pulseaudio.

[VoidMage]

Well, my sound was working fine with a new install of Gentoo. I installed Firefox which drew in Pulse Audio and now my sound card won't work normally.

So get rid of pulseaudio.

Being helpful there... even less so than I tend to be.

@rkfsm: what's the output of 'aplay -v /dev/urandom' and 'paplay -v --raw /dev/urandom' ?

[rkfsm]

Well, my sound was working fine with a new install of Gentoo. I installed Firefox which drew in Pulse Audio and now my sound card won't work normally.

So get rid of pulseaudio.

Being helpful there... even less so than I tend to be.

@rkfsm: what's the output of 'aplay -v /dev/urandom' and 'paplay -v --raw /dev/urandom' ?

I have removed Pulse Audio just to see and it did not fix the issue. Here is the output you asked for. There was no sound from the speakers during this.

Code: Select all

~ $ aplay -v /dev/urandom
Playing raw data '/dev/urandom' : Unsigned 8 bit, Rate 8000 Hz, Mono
ALSA <-> PulseAudio PCM I/O Plugin
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : U8
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 1
  rate         : 8000
  exact rate   : 8000 (8000/1)
  msbits       : 8
  buffer_size  : 4000
  period_size  : 1000
  period_time  : 125000
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  period_step  : 1
  avail_min    : 1000
  period_event : 0
  start_threshold  : 4000
  stop_threshold   : 4000
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 2097152000
^CAborted by signal Interrupt...
aplay: pcm_write:1939: write error: Interrupted system call
~ $ paplay -v --raw /dev/urandom
Opening a playback stream with sample specification 's16le 2ch 44100Hz' and channel map 'front-left,front-right'.
Connection established.
Stream successfully created.
Buffer metrics: maxlength=4194304, tlength=352800, prebuf=349276, minreq=3528
Using sample spec 's16le 2ch 44100Hz', channel map 'front-left,front-right'.
Connected to device alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo (0, not suspended).
Stream started.
^CGot signal, exiting.cy: 2170705 usec.        

[VoidMage]

Well, not sure about aplay, as due to thrashing around, the list of devices might have changed, but as for paplay, 'Connected to device alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo' is your problem - it's picking up HDMI as the default output.

'pactl list sinks' will give you the list, 'pactl set-default-sink <foo>' sets it - IIRC it should be preserved across reboots/logouts.
Same for sources.

[rkfsm]

Well, not sure about aplay, as due to thrashing around, the list of devices might have changed, but as for paplay, 'Connected to device alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo' is your problem - it's picking up HDMI as the default output.

'pactl list sinks' will give you the list, 'pactl set-default-sink <foo>' sets it - IIRC it should be preserved across reboots/logouts.
Same for sources.

Awesome - that solved it. Thank you.

[kernelOfTruth]

Well, not sure about aplay, as due to thrashing around, the list of devices might have changed, but as for paplay, 'Connected to device alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo' is your problem - it's picking up HDMI as the default output.

'pactl list sinks' will give you the list, 'pactl set-default-sink <foo>' sets it - IIRC it should be preserved across reboots/logouts.
Same for sources.

This might solve a problem I've had with pulseaudio for some time

I'll give it a try next time I do larger system maintenance changes

Thanks !