[SOLVED] Audio output keeps switching to video card

[tkzv]

I've got 3 sound devices: in the video card, in the processor and on the motherboard:

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$ lspci -k | grep -i -A 4 audio 
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation Device 22e8 (rev a1)
        Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0000
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
02:00.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] 600 Series Chipset PCIe Switch Upstream Port (rev 01)
--
0e:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Radeon High Definition Audio Controller [Rembrandt/Strix]
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 7e56
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel
0e:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 19h PSP/CCP
--
0e:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h/1ah HD Audio Controller
        DeviceName: Realtek ALC1220
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 9e56
        Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
        Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

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$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [S32D850]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: Generic Analog [Generic Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 1: Generic Digital [Generic Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PipeWire Media Server)
pipewire
    PipeWire Sound Server
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, S32D850
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=1
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 1
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=2
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 2
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=3
    HD-Audio Generic, HDMI 3
    HDMI Audio Output
sysdefault:CARD=Generic
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    Front output / input
surround21:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=Generic,DEV=0
    HD-Audio Generic, Generic Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

Motherboard has its own audio connectors, video card outputs sound through the monitor, and it is disabled when the monitor is off. But when I select the motherboard device, after some time playback somehow switches to Nvidia.

How do I disable this switching? Permanently disabling videocard audio is acceptable.

emerge --info: https://pastebin.com/yrKwc8UD
lspci: https://pastebin.com/Cj4xHvZN
pa-info: https://pastebin.com/XV6ysXTZ

I tried blacklisting snd_hda_codec_hdmi, snd_hda_codec_realtek, snd-hda-codec-hdmi, snd-hda-codec-realtek in /lib/modprobe.d/dist-blacklist.conf and /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, but snd_hda_codec_hdmi is loaded anyway.

Setting "options snd cards_limit=1" in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf did not help.

ANSWER: "options snd-hda-intel enable=0,0,1" in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf disabled sound through Nvidia and Radeon.

The question how to reset PipeWire configuration without reboot still remains.

[Ralphred]

Assuming your using pipewire* you can use the old pactl command

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pactl set-default-sink <name>

But you'll have to see how they are named using the output from

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pactl list sinks|grep "Name:\|Description:"

.
There is probably a way to make this permanent using a config file, but I don't use pipewire (yet) so one of the guys that does will probably post with the config snippet and file location.

*it's the default, if you were using something else you'd know and would have told us.

EDIT: Apparently I do use pipewire, on my laptop, so can offer a "permanent config" fix, but not without seeing the output of pactl list sinks first...

[tkzv]

Assuming your using pipewire* you can use the old pactl command

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pactl set-default-sink <name>

But you'll have to see how they are named using the output from

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pactl list sinks|grep "Name:\|Description:"

.
There is probably a way to make this permanent using a config file, but I don't use pipewire (yet) so one of the guys that does will probably post with the config snippet and file location.

*it's the default, if you were using something else you'd know and would have told us.

EDIT: Apparently I do use pipewire, on my laptop, so can offer a "permanent config" fix, but not without seeing the output of pactl list sinks first...

"pactl list sinks" output: https://pastebin.com/UcU2yTZh

The name I need is "alsa_output.pci-0000_0e_00.6.iec958-stereo".

I tried "pactl set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_0e_00.6.iec958-stereo", and it switched to the correct device in KDE System Settings. But I do not hear anything from the speakers.

I do know one way to switch to that device — stop all programs that use sound, kill pipewire, unload all snd kernel modules, modprobe the desired module, start userspace programs again. Is there any simpler way to do that?

And the question I asked was: how to prevent the system from switching to Nvidia again?

[grknight]

If you want to only ever output to the iec958 and not any HDMI, then make SND_HDA_INTEL a module if not already, then:

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options snd-hda-intel enable=0,0,1

If you want to only disable Nvidia HDMI and keep the other HDMI:

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options snd-hda-intel enable=0,1,1

[tkzv]

If you want to only ever output to the iec958 and not any HDMI, then make SND_HDA_INTEL a module if not already, then:

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options snd-hda-intel enable=0,0,1

Thanks. But how do I know, which number stands for which device? Can the order change after a reboot?

And how do I apply those changes without reboot? kill pipewire, modprobe -r every module with "snd", then what?

I tried "modprobe snd-hda-intel" as root, then "/usr/bin/gentoo-pipewire-launcher restart &" as non-root. KDE System Settings window now displays 3 recording and 3 playback devices "Family 17h/16h/1ah ...", 1 "HDA Nvidia..." and 2 "Rembrand Radeon". When I press "Test", I see an error "Error trying to play a test sound. The system said: "Invalid state" ", and there's no sound.
[Note: forgot to restart alsasound. This might've helped.]

lsmod displays the module snd_hda_intel, but dmesg has errors:

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snd_hda_intel 0000:01:00.1: probe with driver snd_hda_intel failed with error -2
snd_hda_intel 0000:0e:00.1: probe with driver snd_hda_intel failed with error -2

P.S. I ended up rebooting the machine. Nvidia and Radeon did not appear. Works fine, so far.

[grknight]

Thanks. But how do I know, which number stands for which device? Can the order change after a reboot?

The order is the card list, by card number, in aplay -l so long as you haven't applied any index or enable options to snd-hda-intel.
The order will more than likely remain the same between reboots so long as there are no hardware changes to the system.

The dmesg "errors" are just drivers complaining about being disabled