No audio after recent upgrade

[Russ Cook]

I am running Sid, 64bit.  My motherboard is an ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe, with
Nvidia chipset.  During a recent upgrade (not dist-upgrade) using Synaptic,
I lost video and mouse control in the X-system.  I rebooted the system
and found
that the kernel had upgraded from 2.6.29-2-amd64 to 2.6.30-1-amd64.  I
use the
Nvidia graphics driver, which broke during the upgrade.  Temporarily
using the NV
driver, I ran Synaptic again (because I couldn't be sure it had
completed before
the X crash), then updated the Nvidia driver modules, restoring my X system.

I have since found that I have no audio.  After a recent reinstall of Debian
(a different story) my system was running Pulseaudio ( I am not familiar
with
this, as I always relied on Alsa in the past).

I have attached the output of lsmod, showing which modules are currently
loaded.  I am at a loss as to how to troubleshoot this audio problem, and
would greatly appreciate any suggestions and pointers.

Thanks much.

Module                  Size  Used by
binfmt_misc             9244  1
nvidia              10258216  26
ppdev                   7800  0
parport_pc             27064  0
lp                     10612  0
parport                38224  3 ppdev,parport_pc,lp
sco                    10996  2
bridge                 48112  0
stp                     2868  1 bridge
bnep                   13744  2
rfcomm                 35888  0
l2cap                  21136  6 bnep,rfcomm
bluetooth              54900  6 sco,bnep,rfcomm,l2cap
powernow_k8            14052  1
cpufreq_stats           4660  0
cpufreq_powersave       1792  0
cpufreq_conservative     7928  0
cpufreq_userspace       3620  0
firewire_sbp2          15360  0
loop                   15948  0
psmouse                42140  0
serio_raw               5844  0
pcspkr                  2800  0
evdev                  10448  9
i2c_nforce2             7864  0
i2c_core               25424  2 nvidia,i2c_nforce2
ns558                   5248  0
gameport               12592  2 ns558
snd_mpu401              7896  0
snd_intel8x0           32968  2
snd_ac97_codec        113960  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_mpu401_uart         7552  1 snd_mpu401
ac97_bus                2080  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_seq_midi            6976  0
snd_seq_midi_event      7696  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_pcm                78440  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec
snd_rawmidi            22992  2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                51248  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          7476  3 snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
k8temp                  5152  0
snd_timer              21824  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_page_alloc          9936  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
asus_atk0110            7744  0
snd                    63848  13 snd_mpu401,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_timer
processor              40080  1 powernow_k8
button                  6512  0
soundcore               7984  1 snd
ext3                  122560  5
jbd                    47976  1 ext3
mbcache                 8804  1 ext3
sd_mod                 33656  2
crc_t10dif              2096  1 sd_mod
ide_cd_mod             29000  0
cdrom                  34360  1 ide_cd_mod
usb_storage            61456  0
ide_gd_mod             23384  6
firewire_ohci          22372  0
firewire_core          44852  2 firewire_sbp2,firewire_ohci
ata_generic             5924  0
ide_pci_generic         4964  0
ohci_hcd               22700  0
sata_nv                24856  1
crc_itu_t               2720  1 firewire_core
sata_sil24             14484  0
amd74xx                 6872  5
ide_core              104864  4 ide_cd_mod,ide_gd_mod,ide_pci_generic,amd74xx
ehci_hcd               33580  0
forcedeth              52652  0
libata                174892  3 ata_generic,sata_nv,sata_sil24
sky2                   46548  0
scsi_mod              158352  4 firewire_sbp2,sd_mod,usb_storage,libata
floppy                 55384  0
thermal                15952  0
fan                     5224  0
thermal_sys            16496  3 processor,thermal,fan
dm_mirror              14504  0
dm_region_hash         12688  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                  9924  2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
dm_mod                 59096  2 dm_mirror,dm_log

[Andrei Popescu-3]

On Wed,08.Jul.09, 08:03:45, Russ Cook wrote:

[snip upgrade from 2.6.29 to 2.6.30]

> I have since found that I have no audio.  After a recent reinstall of
> Debian
> (a different story) my system was running Pulseaudio ( I am not
> familiar with
> this, as I always relied on Alsa in the past).

It's not clear to me, are you running pulseaudio *now* or not?

> I have attached the output of lsmod, showing which modules are currently
> loaded.  I am at a loss as to how to troubleshoot this audio problem, and
> would greatly appreciate any suggestions and pointers.

You lsmod looks good, assuming snd_intel8x0 is the correct module (you
haven't said anything about your audio chip).

What do you get if you try

speaker-test -c2 -t wav -l1

?

Please also post the output of

cat /proc/asound/cards
lspci | grep -i audio

Regards,
Andrei
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)

[Russ Cook]

Andrei Popescu wrote:
> On Wed,08.Jul.09, 08:03:45, Russ Cook wrote:
>
> [snip upgrade from 2.6.29 to 2.6.30]
>
>  
> It's not clear to me, are you running pulseaudio *now* or not?
>
>  
Pulseaudio IS installed now.

>> I have attached the output of lsmod, showing which modules are currently
>> loaded.  I am at a loss as to how to troubleshoot this audio problem, and
>> would greatly appreciate any suggestions and pointers.
>>    
>
> You lsmod looks good, assuming snd_intel8x0 is the correct module (you
> haven't said anything about your audio chip).
>
> What do you get if you try
>
> speaker-test -c2 -t wav -l1
>
> ?
>  

No discernible audio.
Text output is
speaker-test 1.0.20

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
Period size range from 1024 to 1024
Using max buffer size 16384
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 1024
was set buffer_size = 16384
 0 - Front Left
 1 - Front Right
Time per period = 2.685331
> Please also post the output of
>
> cat /proc/asound/cards
>  
 0 [CK804          ]: NFORCE - NVidia CK804
                      NVidia CK804 with ALC850 at irq 22
 1 [UART           ]: MPU-401 UART - MPU-401 UART
                      MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 5
> lspci | grep -i audio
>  
00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97
Audio Controller (rev a2)
> Regards,
> Andrei
>  
Thanks for any help!


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[Andrei Popescu-3]

On Wed,08.Jul.09, 17:15:45, Russ Cook wrote:

> >
> >What do you get if you try
> >
> >speaker-test -c2 -t wav -l1
> >
> >?
> No discernible audio.
> Text output is
> speaker-test 1.0.20
>
> Playback device is default
> Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
> WAV file(s)
> Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
> Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
> Period size range from 1024 to 1024
> Using max buffer size 16384
> Periods = 4
> was set period_size = 1024
> was set buffer_size = 16384
> 0 - Front Left
> 1 - Front Right
> Time per period = 2.685331
> >Please also post the output of
> >
> >cat /proc/asound/cards
> 0 [CK804          ]: NFORCE - NVidia CK804
>                      NVidia CK804 with ALC850 at irq 22
> 1 [UART           ]: MPU-401 UART - MPU-401 UART
>                      MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 5
> >lspci | grep -i audio
> 00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97
> Audio Controller (rev a2)

This *looks* good, but you need sound ;) Try stopping pulseaudio

killall pulseaudio

(if you don't know how pulseaudio is started run it as root)

and then try the 'speaker-test' again.

Regards,
Andrei
P.S. No need to CC me, I am subscribed ;)
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)

[Eike Lantzsch]

Some parts of this message have been removed. Learn more about Nabble's security policy.

On Wednesday 08 July 2009, Russ Cook wrote:
> Andrei Popescu wrote:
> > On Wed,08.Jul.09, 08:03:45, Russ Cook wrote:
> >
> > [snip upgrade from 2.6.29 to 2.6.30]
> >
> >
> > It's not clear to me, are you running pulseaudio *now* or not?
>
> Pulseaudio IS installed now.
>
> >> I have attached the output of lsmod, showing which modules are currently
> >> loaded. I am at a loss as to how to troubleshoot this audio problem,
> >> and would greatly appreciate any suggestions and pointers.
> >
> > You lsmod looks good, assuming snd_intel8x0 is the correct module (you
> > haven't said anything about your audio chip).
> >
> > What do you get if you try
> >
> > speaker-test -c2 -t wav -l1
> >
> > ?
>
> No discernible audio.
> Text output is
> speaker-test 1.0.20
>
> Playback device is default
> Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
> WAV file(s)
> Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
> Buffer size range from 2048 to 16384
> Period size range from 1024 to 1024
> Using max buffer size 16384
> Periods = 4
> was set period_size = 1024
> was set buffer_size = 16384
> 0 - Front Left
> 1 - Front Right
> Time per period = 2.685331
>
> > Please also post the output of
> >
> > cat /proc/asound/cards
>
> 0 [CK804 ]: NFORCE - NVidia CK804
> NVidia CK804 with ALC850 at irq 22
> 1 [UART ]: MPU-401 UART - MPU-401 UART
> MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 5
>
> > lspci | grep -i audio
>
> 00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation CK804 AC'97
> Audio Controller (rev a2)
>
> > Regards,
> > Andrei
>
> Thanks for any help!

It doesn't help but I got the same problem with debian testing
and a VIA chipset and an AMD cpu while the same installation of debian testing got working audio on an Intel ICH5 chipset. (Both ASUS boards).
I'm at a loss too. I can't even figure out which update might have caused the problem. I just realized that audio wasn't working anymore and then realized that pulseaudio was installed, which is new to me.

Anyway: Cheers, Eike

speaker-test 1.0.20

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 2 channels
WAV file(s)
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 17 to 17832
Period size range from 8 to 8917
Using max buffer size 17832
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 4458
was set buffer_size = 17832
0 - Front Left
1 - Front Right
Time per period = 2.737839

[no sound, no friendly female voice ...]

lsmod:

Module Size Used by
via 34240 2
drm 65192 3 via
ppdev 6500 0
lp 8164 0
battery 10180 0
cpufreq_stats 3776 0
cpufreq_powersave 1856 0
cpufreq_ondemand 6476 0
cpufreq_userspace 3172 0
freq_table 4224 2 cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
cpufreq_conservative 5960 0
nls_utf8 1760 6
cifs 208724 6
nls_base 6820 2 nls_utf8,cifs
ipv6 235364 20
reiserfs 189888 3
ext2 54504 1
fuse 42908 1
loop 12748 0
snd_mpu401 6152 0
snd_cs4232 11380 0
snd_opl3_lib 9344 1 snd_cs4232
snd_via82xx 20664 5
snd_ac97_codec 88484 1 snd_via82xx
snd_hwdep 6212 1 snd_opl3_lib
snd_cs4231_lib 20512 1 snd_cs4232
ac97_bus 1728 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss 32832 0
snd_mixer_oss 12320 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 62596 5 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_cs4231_lib,snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc 7816 3 snd_via82xx,snd_cs4231_lib,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 6368 3 snd_mpu401,snd_cs4232,snd_via82xx
snd_seq_dummy 2660 0
snd_seq_oss 24992 0
snd_seq_midi 5728 0
snd_rawmidi 18528 2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 6432 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 41456 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
i2c_viapro 6836 0
snd_timer 17800 5 snd_opl3_lib,snd_cs4231_lib,snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 6380 6 snd_opl3_lib,snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
ns558 3712 0
i2c_core 19828 1 i2c_viapro
snd 45604 24 snd_mpu401,snd_cs4232,snd_opl3_lib,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_cs4231_lib,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
psmouse 32336 0
gameport 10700 3 snd_via82xx,ns558
via_ircc 15764 0
parport_pc 22500 1
parport 30988 3 ppdev,lp,parport_pc
pcspkr 2432 0
soundcore 6368 1 snd
serio_raw 4740 0
irda 95512 1 via_ircc
crc_ccitt 2080 1 irda
shpchp 25528 0
pci_hotplug 23460 1 shpchp
button 6096 0
evdev 8000 4
ext3 105512 2
jbd 39444 1 ext3
mbcache 7108 2 ext2,ext3
ide_cd_mod 27652 0
cdrom 30176 1 ide_cd_mod
ide_disk 10496 8
ata_generic 4676 0
libata 140416 1 ata_generic
dock 8304 1 libata
ide_pci_generic 3908 0 [permanent]
uhci_hcd 18672 0
osst 43388 0
st 30748 0
via_rhine 18664 0
mii 4896 1 via_rhine
via82cxxx 6948 0 [permanent]
ide_core 96136 4 ide_cd_mod,ide_disk,ide_pci_generic,via82cxxx
ehci_hcd 28396 0
usbcore 118224 3 uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd
aic7xxx 117592 0
scsi_transport_spi 19840 1 aic7xxx
scsi_mod 129324 5 libata,osst,st,aic7xxx,scsi_transport_spi
via_agp 7744 1
agpgart 28776 2 drm,via_agp
thermal 15228 0
processor 32544 2 thermal
fan 4164 0
thermal_sys 10856 3 thermal,processor,fan
dm_mirror 15104 0
dm_log 8484 1 dm_mirror
dm_mod 46184 2 dm_mirror,dm_log

lspci:

00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)

cat /proc/asound/cards:

0 [V8235 ]: VIA8233 - VIA 8235
VIA 8235 with AD1980 at 0xe400, irq 22
1 [UART ]: MPU-401 UART - MPU-401 UART
MPU-401 UART at 0x330, irq 10

--
Eike Lantzsch ZP6CGE
Casilla de Correo 1519
1209 Asuncion / Paraguay
Phone: [phone] FAX: [phone]
Cell-Phone: [phone]

[lee-25]

On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 08:03:45AM -0500, Russ Cook wrote:

> I have since found that I have no audio.

Did you turn up the volume settings (for various things like "Master"
and "PCM" and whatever is needed) with alsamixer or alsamixergui?


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[Kent West]

lee wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 08, 2009 at 08:03:45AM -0500, Russ Cook wrote:
>
>  
>> I have since found that I have no audio.
>>    
>
> Did you turn up the volume settings (for various things like "Master"
> and "PCM" and whatever is needed) with alsamixer or alsamixergui?
>
>
>  

I haven't paid much attention to this thread, but I get the idea that
you may be seeing what I saw recently.

I had a perfectly functioning system, then I tried upgrading to KDE4.
Sound broke; nothing I did could resurrect it.

I finally broke down and wiped/reinstalled the system (shades of
Windows!), which restored audio functionality. I held off on installing
KDE for about a week, to make sure everything was still working. Then I
installed KDE4 (this is on Sid, btw), and sound worked for about half a
day, and then quit, and I haven't heard a thing since.

It's a third machine of mine, so I haven't worried about it; I've got
other things to worry about. But thought I'd mention it, just for the
record.

--
Kent West     <*)))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com
Praise Yah! \o/



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[Andrei Popescu-3]

On Thu,09.Jul.09, 14:31:13, Kent West wrote:
>
> It's a third machine of mine, so I haven't worried about it; I've got
> other things to worry about. But thought I'd mention it, just for the
> record.

This might be a different issue. Make sure you have phonon-backend-xine
installed and phonon-backend-gstreamer NOT. See if that fixes is for
you.

Regards,
Andrei
--
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
(Albert Einstein)

[Kent West]

Andrei Popescu wrote:

> On Thu,09.Jul.09, 14:31:13, Kent West wrote:
>  
>> It's a third machine of mine, so I haven't worried about it; I've got
>> other things to worry about. But thought I'd mention it, just for the
>> record.
>>    
>
> This might be a different issue. Make sure you have phonon-backend-xine
> installed and phonon-backend-gstreamer NOT. See if that fixes is for
> you.
>
> Regards,
> Andrei
>  

Nope; made no difference. (..gstreamer was installed; when i purged it,
it offered to install ..xine which I allowed.)


Thanks anyway.

--
Kent West        <")))><
http://kentwest.blogspot.com



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[Eike Lantzsch]

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On Friday 10 July 2009, Kent West wrote:
> Andrei Popescu wrote:
> > On Thu,09.Jul.09, 14:31:13, Kent West wrote:
> >> It's a third machine of mine, so I haven't worried about it; I've got
> >> other things to worry about. But thought I'd mention it, just for the
> >> record.
> >
> > This might be a different issue. Make sure you have phonon-backend-xine
> > installed and phonon-backend-gstreamer NOT. See if that fixes is for
> > you.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Andrei
>
> Nope; made no difference. (..gstreamer was installed; when i purged it,
> it offered to install ..xine which I allowed.)
>
>
> Thanks anyway.
>
> --
> Kent West <")))><
> http://kentwest.blogspot.com

Does "cat anykind-of-wav-file > /dev/audio" or
"cat anykind-of-wav-file > /dev/dsp"
give any output? That will usually output just noise.

If there is nothing, not even noise, the device seems to be configured all right. Just the volume is turned completely down. The weird thing is that even if alsamixer has everything unmuted and the volume turned up there is still no output.

If you move your mouse do you hear noise on the audio output or is it completely quiet?
If noise, then the devices are not configured.
If complete silence then it is a volume problem.
Unfortunately I don't know of any solution for the latter problem.

Stay tuned ;-)
Eike

[Eike Lantzsch]

Some parts of this message have been removed. Learn more about Nabble's security policy.

On Friday 10 July 2009, Kent West wrote:
> Andrei Popescu wrote:
> > On Thu,09.Jul.09, 14:31:13, Kent West wrote:
> >> It's a third machine of mine, so I haven't worried about it; I've got
> >> other things to worry about. But thought I'd mention it, just for the
> >> record.
> >
> > This might be a different issue. Make sure you have phonon-backend-xine
> > installed and phonon-backend-gstreamer NOT. See if that fixes is for
> > you.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Andrei
>
> Nope; made no difference. (..gstreamer was installed; when i purged it,
> it offered to install ..xine which I allowed.)
>
>
> Thanks anyway.
>
> --
> Kent West <")))><
> http://kentwest.blogspot.com

Hi:

I couldn't make the onboard VIA sound work, so I installed a Creative PCI soundcard additionally (Ensoniq AudioPCI ENS1371). The card appeared in systemsettings -> Multimedia. I shifted it up in the Output Device Preferences and it works like a charm. The VIA chipset sound still doesn't work.

I don't think that this has very much to do with KDE 4.2.2 - I'm suspecting one or the other the 2.6.26-2 kernel module. When I got time I'll install another, earlier kernel or maybe I'll compile my own.

The weird thing is that my last kernel is from June 21 and this problem only appeared in the beginning of July. Maybe that's what's called a software timebomb ;-)

Cheers, Eike