A new laptop sound problem - Page 6

Eino · posted: 2014-04-18 14:15

for a complete re-install of ALSA

dpkg --purge alsa

then

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 rm /usr/lib/libasound.*

(will remove any remaining sound libraries )
next

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cat /lib/modules|gawk '/^snd-/{print $1}'|xargs -i rmmod {}

(will remove any remaining sound modules)
reboot with your usb sound plugged in
then

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apt-get install alsa

modprobe snd-cm6501

modprobe snd-usb-audio ; modprobe snd-pcm-oss ; modprobe snd-mixer-oss ; modprobe snd-seq-oss

Reboot

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-20 13:09

Eino, here's what's in /proc/asound/card0/ (no codecs folder):

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dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0
$ ls -l
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 id
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 oss_mixer
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 pcm0c
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 pcm0p
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 stream0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 usbbus
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 usbid
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 usbmixer
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0
$ cd pcm0c
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0c
$ ls -l
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 info
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 oss
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Apr 20 09:04 sub0
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0c
$ cd sub0
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/sub0
$ ls -l
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 hw_params
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 info
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 status
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 sw_params
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0c/sub0
$ cd ../..
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0
$ cd pcm0p
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p
$ ls -l
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 info
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 oss
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 sub0
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p
$ cd sub0
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0
$ ls -l
total 0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 hw_params
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 info
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 status
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 20 09:05 sw_params
dqualls@Little-Luddite:/proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0

Does this imply that I need to reinstall alsa? The last time we tried this, uninstalling took out other dependent packages (though I see you using dpkg and rm instead of apt-get purge this time). I can recreate this sound failure with all the kernels I have installed; I could reboot to 3.10.7 and rerun the dump above if that would help.

Eino · posted: 2014-04-20 16:11

You can also try newer drivers for your USB sound.
this method will rebuild alsa with newer drivers.
make sure that's you usb sound is on and plugged in while doing this.

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apt-get install module-assistant alsa-source
m-a prepare
m-a build alsa
m-a install alsa

The methods below leave dependent packages alone.
Reason for the other removal of sound related files afterwards.
But i would try the less invasive re-install of alsa-base first.

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-20 16:44

Eino wrote:You can also try newer drivers for your USB sound.
this method will rebuild alsa with newer drivers.
make sure that's you usb sound is on and plugged in while doing this.
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apt-get install module-assistant alsa-source
m-a prepare
m-a build alsa
m-a install alsa
The methods below leave dependent packages alone.
Reason for the other removal of sound related files afterwards.
But i would try the less invasive re-install of alsa-base first.

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root@Little-Luddite:/home/dqualls# apt-get install module-assistant alsa-source
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package alsa-source
root@Little-Luddite:/home/dqualls#

Apparently alsa-source isn't in the repos I have enabled. I'll try the"minimum reinstall" first and post back.

Eino · posted: 2014-04-20 16:52

Silent Observer wrote: I'll try the"minimum reinstall" first and post back.

Do this afterwards

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modprobe snd-cm6501

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-20 17:08

Eino wrote:
Silent Observer wrote: I'll try the"minimum reinstall" first and post back.
Do this afterwards
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modprobe snd-cm6501

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modprobe: FATAL: Module snd-cm6501 not found.

This was after going through the minimum alsa reinstall, also reinstalling volumeicon-alsa (removed along with alsa-base) and installing the suggested package alsa-oss. I had, however, also tried a sound test and had to kill volumeicon before trying the modprobe (that shouldn't affect whether the module is present, though).

Eino · posted: 2014-04-20 17:16

Silent Observer wrote:
Eino wrote:
Silent Observer wrote: I'll try the"minimum reinstall" first and post back.
Do this afterwards
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modprobe snd-cm6501
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modprobe: FATAL: Module snd-cm6501 not found.
.

Your needed driver module is not in alsa, reason for the missing codecs directory.

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-20 23:01

So, where did it go? This worked for a good while, including after my four day power failure, then quit without any apparent system changes while the system was still running. I did the same thing as before to get sound working after reinstalling the OS -- except this time it didn't work. If I'll have to rebuild alsa-base, where can I get the alsa-source needed to do that?

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-20 23:36

I was trying the"complete" alsa reinstall. I presumed that you meant alsa-base where you typed alsa; I had to remove volumeicon-alsa with apt-get before I could use dpkg to remove alsa-base; but there were no libraries named libasound.*. When I came to the step with the complicated looking program-on-a-line, I got this:

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root@Little-Luddite:/usr/lib# cat /lib/modules|gawk '/^snd-/{print $1}'|xargs -i rmmod {}
cat: /lib/modules: Is a directory
root@Little-Luddite:/usr/lib#

I'm leaving this with alsa-base and volumeicon-alsa removed, waiting for a correction...

Dave · posted: 2014-04-21 11:59

I know you say that oss-compat is needed on your installation, however last time I had it installed on my laptop the sound would sometimes work, then randomly quit and not come back for a random amount of time (seemingly never coming back) so per anticapitalista's suggestion to me I removed oss-compat and the sound would work 100% of the time. Based that your thread is getting long, I have to ask are you 100% certain oss-compat is needed?

Reading through an older thread of yours, I see

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: Okay, here's the information I've (quickly) been able to figure out how to get; this is from the laptop, with the USB sound unit plugged in:

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user@Little-Luddite:~
$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 1: Device [USB PnP Sound Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
user@Little-Luddite:~
$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_usb_audio          73509  0 
snd_usbmidi_lib        12785  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_hwdep               4064  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_seq_midi            3473  0 
snd_seq_midi_event      3645  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_rawmidi            12723  2 snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_midi
snd_pcm                50454  1 snd_usb_audio
snd_page_alloc          5015  1 snd_pcm
snd_seq                34663  2 snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_device          3890  3 snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_midi
snd_timer              12034  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd                    36700  9 snd_usb_audio,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi,snd_usbmidi_lib,snd_seq_device,snd_seq_midi
soundcore               3447  1 snd
user@Little-Luddite:~
$

Which I don't see oss in, and then a later post saying usb primary devices was disabled in alsaconfig and needed to be enabled

I'm thinking that you have posted an inxi of when it was working so maybe I can find it and we can see what driver you were using at the time

Eino · posted: 2014-04-21 12:55

Silent Observer wrote:
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root@Little-Luddite:/usr/lib# cat /lib/modules|gawk '/^snd-/{print $1}'|xargs -i rmmod {}
cat: /lib/modules: Is a directory
root@Little-Luddite:/usr/lib# 
I'm leaving this with alsa-base and volumeicon-alsa removed, waiting for a correction...

I'm finding what has worked for me in the past with Debian, dose not apply to antiX
At this point I'm trying to recreate want worked in the past, when the on-board sound was getting loaded with the wrong drivers, and the usb sound worked. (hence the missing codec directory)
If you have your on-board sound disabled in the bios re-enable it.
Going to the next step.This will fix any broken dependence, and re-install missing packages.

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apt-get -f install alsa

reboot
then show the results of

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cat /dev/sndstat

also

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grep 'audio'  etc/group

add a / in front of etc. .
you should see something like this. Your user name should be in the audio group.

Eino@antiX1:~
$ grep 'audio' etc/group
audio29:Eino

Eino · posted: 2014-04-21 13:07

Dave wrote:I know you say that oss-compat is needed on your installation, however last time I had it installed on my laptop the sound would sometimes work, then randomly quit and not come back for a random amount of time (seemingly never coming back) so per anticapitalista's suggestion to me I removed oss-compat and the sound would work 100% of the time. Based that your thread is getting long, I have to ask are you 100% certain oss-compat is needed?

The oss-compat is need for generic USB audio to work.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Module-usb-audio"
linktext was:"http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index. ... -usb-audio"
====================================

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-22 00:44

I once again presumed you meant alsa-base when you typed alsa. I went ahead and reinstalled volumeicon-alsa as well. Last couple cycles through uninstalling and reinstalling, volumeicon doesn't load successfully; when I start it from a terminal I get:

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$ volumeicon &
[1] 4672
dqualls@Little-Luddite:~
$ volumeicon: alsa_backend.c:86: asound_get_volume: Assertion `m_elem != ((void *)0)' failed.

[1]+  Aborted                 volumeicon

Eino wrote:reboot
then show the results of
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cat /dev/sndstat

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$ cat /dev/sndstat
Sound Driver:3.8.1a-980706 (ALSA emulation code)
Kernel: Linux Little-Luddite 3.12.3-antix.2-486-smp #2 SMP Sun Dec 8 21:23:31 EET 2013 i686
Config options: 0

Installed drivers: 
Type 10: ALSA emulation

Card config: 
C-Media Electronics Inc. USB PnP Sound Device at usb-0000:00:07.2-2, full speed

Audio devices:
1: USB Audio (DUPLEX)

Synth devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Midi devices: NOT ENABLED IN CONFIG

Timers:
31: system timer

Mixers:
1: USB Mixer

also
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grep 'audio'  etc/group
add a / in front of etc. .
you should see something like this. Your user name should be in the audio group.
Eino@antiX1:~
$ grep 'audio' etc/group
audio29:Eino

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$ grep 'audio'  etc/group
audio:x:29:dqualls

Yep, there it is...

Eino · posted: 2014-04-22 10:17

Do a

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modprobe snd-usb-audio

then reboot
and look at the results of this after the reboot

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cat /dev/sndstat

This time it's one step a a time looking at the results.

The volume icon will not appear till you have, what appears to have alsa working sound, or a driver loaded.

Next if you get the same results
do

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apt-get update && apt-get -f install oss-compat

then

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modprobe snd-pcm-oss ; modprobe snd-mixer-oss ; modprobe snd-seq-oss

reboot, or restart alsa

Silent Observer · posted: 2014-04-23 00:09

Okay, did all that, no change; still getting this:

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$ volumeicon &
[1] 10360
dqualls@Little-Luddite:~
$ volumeicon: alsa_backend.c:86: asound_get_volume: Assertion `m_elem != ((void *)0)' failed.

[1]+  Aborted                 volumeicon

The cat of /dev/sndsat was the same as the last one I posted. The oss-compat package was already installed, so that install did (apparently) nothing.