HELP! Lost AMD HDMI audio after upgrade? SOLVED

[tld]

This makes me want to cry, as I recall it taking me forever to get this working:

Today when I tried to update from kernel linux-6.12.58-gentoo to linux-6.18.12-gentoo I started geting boot messages like "alsactl: set_control failed to obtain info for control #1", which are clearly because the kernel configuration there appears to have changed a lot and I don't have it correct.

HOWEVER: I'm not even going to get into that here as I have a bigger issue:

When I booted to the previous linux-6.12.58-gentoo I don't get any such boot messages, however I also don't get any sound. What floors me about that is that a) NONE of my alsa configuration has changed as far as I know, and b) That old kernel has NOT changed at all, and c) the update did NOT involve alsa in ANY way!!

Given the above, WHAT could have possibly changed!!?? This is all I've ever had in my ~/.asoundrc file which has always worked (ignore commented lines):

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cat ~/.asoundrc 
defaults.pcm.card 0
defaults.pcm.device 8
defaults.ctl.card 0
#defaults.pcm.card 1
#defaults.pcm.device 0
#defaults.ctl.card 1
#defaults.pcm.card 2
#defaults.pcm.device 0
#defaults.ctl.card 2

I when into alsamixer and the volume appears to be all the way up.

It acts as though it's playing but I get no sound at all. Again, I'm at a total loss as to what could possibly even be different. About ready to cry.

Thanks
Tom

[Anon-E-moose]

what does aplay -L and aplay -l return?

[tld]

Here's that:

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aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [LG HDR 4K]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALCS1200A Analog [ALCS1200A Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

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aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=1
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=2
    HDA ATI HDMI, LG HDR 4K
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=3
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=4
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 4
    HDMI Audio Output
default:CARD=Generic
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=Generic
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, ALCS1200A Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers

Those ALWAYS confused the hell out of me. This is actually the display port on the video card and not HDMI.

The one showing in "aplay -l" with "device 8" seems to be correct I think(?) assuming that's what "LG HDR 4K" means. But the DEV entries in "aplay -L" confuse the life out of me.

Thanks!
Tom

[tld]

OK. I think that "LG HDR 4K" is indicating the 32" LG monitor I have which, again, is connected to the disaplay port.

Tom

[flexibeast]

Have their been any apparent changes to the contents of /etc/alsa/conf.d/ or, if you're using OpenRC, to /etc/conf.d/alsasound?

[Anon-E-moose]

your asoundrc file is correct, is the sound muted on the monitor or set low? (you have to use the monitor menu)

[tld]

Have their been any apparent changes to the contents of /etc/alsa/conf.d/ or, if you're using OpenRC, to /etc/conf.d/alsasound?

I'm thrown by that first one as I've never had any /etc/alsa directory. As to the other that hasn't changed in a very long time:

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ll /etc/conf.d/alsasound 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 340 Jul  9  2025 /etc/conf.d/alsasound

This is all that's in the latter:

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cat /etc/conf.d/alsasound 
# RESTORE_ON_START:
# Do you want to restore your mixer settings?  If not, your cards will be
# muted.
# no - Do not restore state
# yes - Restore state

RESTORE_ON_START="yes"

# SAVE_ON_STOP:
# Do you want to save changes made to your mixer volumes when alsasound
# stops? 
# no - Do not save state
# yes - Save state

SAVE_ON_STOP="yes"

Tom

[tld]

GOT IT!!! Wow was that tough. I'm unclear as to what changed to cause this but here's what was going on:

Someone on the forum here suggested adding something like this to /etc/local.d to correct the fact that HDMI audio seems to always miss the first second or less of whatever you're playing, which is HORRIBLE for music:

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cat /etc/local.d/play_silence.start 
#!/bin/bash
aplay -c2 -r48000 -fS16_LE < /dev/zero &

That DID correct that. However just now when I tried using vlc to allow me to test each alsa device, that card 0 device 8 gave me a "device or resource busy" error! Everything else I'd tried did NOT do that but instead just got no sound. When I killed that aplay command running in the background I got my sound back!!

Odd that that changed however! Is there some setting that allows more than one process to use the save audio device??

Gla

[tld]

Wow. You know, I've never had any interest in anything like pulse audio, but holy crap with alsa anymore. Check this out:

I just restarted that background aplay command again and now it does NOT cause issues!!

You tell me how that's possible. Glad it's working but WTF is alsa up to here?

Tom

[flexibeast]

Yeah, i recently spent several hours trying to work out if there was some way of resetting ALSA without restarting the entire box - a program was unable to open plughw:0,0, and was failing to start as a result, but there didn't seem to be any PID associated with that device. i tried things like running `alsactl init`, but that didn't help. Comments i found suggested i'd have to manually unload my entire stack of audio modules and then reload them, but i was hoping there was a much more straightforward way, because:

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$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi    16384  1
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     36864  1 snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi
snd_hda_codec_alc269    94208  1
snd_hda_scodec_component    12288  1 snd_hda_codec_alc269
snd_hda_codec_realtek_lib    32768  1 snd_hda_codec_alc269
snd_hda_codec_generic    69632  2 snd_hda_codec_realtek_lib,snd_hda_codec_alc269
snd_hda_intel          40960  4
snd_soc_avs           176128  0
snd_soc_hda_codec      16384  1 snd_soc_avs
snd_hda_ext_core       24576  2 snd_soc_avs,snd_soc_hda_codec
snd_hda_codec         131072  8 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_soc_avs,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_soc_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_realtek_lib,snd_hda_codec_alc269,snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi
snd_ctl_led            20480  0
snd_hda_core           90112  10 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_soc_avs,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_soc_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_realtek_lib,snd_hda_codec_alc269,snd_hda_codec_intelhdmi
snd_intel_dspcfg       16384  2 snd_soc_avs,snd_hda_intel
snd_soc_core          249856  2 snd_soc_avs,snd_soc_hda_codec
snd_compress           20480  2 snd_soc_avs,snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_dmaengine      16384  1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm               122880  10 snd_soc_avs,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_hda_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
snd_seq_midi           12288  0
snd_seq_midi_event     12288  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                81920  12 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_rawmidi            40960  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device         12288  3 snd_seq,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi
snd_timer              36864  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd                    98304  24 snd_ctl_led,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_hda_codec_realtek_lib,snd_compress,snd_hda_codec_alc269,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi
soundcore              12288  2 snd_ctl_led,snd

[Hu]

Your forced aplay was likely an attempt to emulate the kernel feature CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL_HDMI_SILENT_STREAM. Affected HDMI devices are known to have a misfeature that, left idle, the device enters a state from which it takes 1-2 seconds between when it begins receiving input and when it can produce sound. By providing a continuous "sound" of silence, the device is forced to remain powered up, and therefore is responsive when real audio begins playing.

ALSA has some ability to multiplex sound producers, but it requires the processes to cooperate. Running sound from different PID namespaces tends to inhibit that. Running as different users might or might not work. It seems to usually work, but I cannot list the exact requirements for it to work. You seem to have hit a case where cooperation did not occur, and so vlc got an error trying to use the device.

[tld]

Your forced aplay was likely an attempt to emulate the kernel feature CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL_HDMI_SILENT_STREAM.

Interestingly however, I just checked and in the 6.12 kernel I'm running that CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL_HDMI_SILENT_STREAM actually IS enabled, but without that aplay process I very much DO loose those couple seconds. Not sure what to make of that.

I'll probably start a separate topic as to trying to move to the linux-6.18.12-gentoo kernel with my Radeon RX 5500 XT GPU's HDMI audio to work. So far I just keep getting nosuch device errors.

EDIT: Cool. I actually got this working in the newer kernel. I was just missing the SND_HDA_CODEC_HDMI_INTEL config.

Thanks!
Tom