alsa audio went inop, antix 21/22, 64 bit, Dell e5430

[Member DaveW]

The audio was working well. But after trying various settings on alsa-mixer (headset level, external mic levels, capture and playback levels), it is completely silent (playback or inputs).

It is likely that I had more than one alsa-mixer incident open at the time.

There is only one sound card, which is recognized in Control-Centre and also in alsa-mixer. Inxi shows sound card connected to alsa.

I tried re-installing apulse, alsa-utils, alsamixer-equalizer-antix, libsound2, libsound2-data.
Rebooted. Still silent.

Your thoughts will be appreciated.

[Member DaveW]

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A little more on my problem:
alsactl init – produces error: failed to find to level config file /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf
(I confirmed, this file does not exist… and there is no /ucm/ or /ucm2/ directory.)

alsactl restore – produces above error, and also: cannot open /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. Lock error. File exists.
(The asound.state file does exist. I see no reason for the lock error. I copied asound.state file from a live USB of this system, but the same errors remain.)

[Moderator BobC]

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This won’t hurt, but won’t solve the exact problem you have. It might provide clues as to what is causing the problem. Use the sound test app in control centre first to test and diagnose.

Try adding a new user to your system, don’t do anything else, just reboot and sign on as the new user. See if it works. If it works there is something in your home directory like configuration or program being run causing it. If it worked, you could try your startup changes for the new user and test again.

Next, try it from a freshly created bootable USB? See if it works.

Then update/upgrade the USB. See if it works…

Then add software that you added. I see you added apulse. Not sure what else. Test again…

[Member Robin]

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Hello Dave,

DaveW wrote:

alsactl init – produces error: failed to find to level config file /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf

I also don’t have this file resident at the very folder, and also not the alsa-ucm-utils package:

$ ls /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf
ls: Zugriff auf '/usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf' nicht möglich: Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden

$ apt-cache policy alsa-ucm-conf
alsa-ucm-conf:
  Installiert:           (keine)
  Installationskandidat: 1.2.8-1
  Versionstabelle:
     1.2.8-1 500
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian bookworm/main i386 Packages

Nevertheless alsa works fine, without the ucm file and stuff.
So I wonder why your alsa decided to use Use Case Manager configuration style (UCM) all of a sudden.

– Have you tried the -U and or -P flag with alsasctl commands?
– Have you checked the content of your ~/.asoundrc file if present?
– Maybe there is set a wrong default somewhere. Try to access the alsa devices directly instead of using the alsadevice named “default”, by addressing them separately with something like:

$ speaker-test -D "hw:0,0" -c2 -twav`

Instead of “hw:0,0” check also all valid hardware devices your aplay -l command shows you, one by one (first digit represents card number, second digit is the device on the very card).
Then check the alsa named devices the aplay -L command shows you, also one by one.

– check whether all sound drivers are loaded properly:
$ lsmod | grep snd
(There is a slight chance your sound card driver needs a specific configuration or firmware loaded to let the chip assign the channels internally to the proper output plugs, but if it has worked before, this is most unlikely.)

– try restarting alsa using directly by

$  sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop
$  sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils start

instead of the service method, which draws in some additional sequences.

But in the end:

BobC wrote:

Next, try it from a freshly created bootable USB? See if it works.

This is what I would also suggest to check first.

Many greetings
Robin

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member wildstar84]

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This won’t fix your orig. pbm., but here’s what I did to eliminate the “error: failed to find to level config file /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf” warning:

BACK UP, then edit /etc/init/alsa-utils, change every occurance of “alsactl -E ” to “alsactl -U -E ” under the section “restore_levels()”. Unfortunately, I failed to note in my system changelog where I found this solution or exactly what it does. If it fails to fix this or causes any other regression, simply restore your backup!

Regards,

Jim

[Member RJP]

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Have you tried alsa-tools-gui program to detect the correct outputs?

sudo apt install alsa-tools-gui && hdajackretask

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by RJP.

[Member DaveW]

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BobC

• I created a new user. No audio with new user.
• Live USB system backup (a few months old), audio works.
  (If all else fails, I’ll restore from this USB, and bring thins up to date.

Robin

• alsactl kill quit (to shut alsa down)
• alsactl init -U
• alsactl init -D (Neither makes it work.)
• speaker-test -D “hw:0,0” -c2 -twav (0,0 is correct. But does not work.)

$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_seq_dummy 16384 0
snd_seq 90112 1 snd_seq_dummy
snd_seq_device 16384 1 snd_seq
snd_hda_codec_hdmi 69632 1
snd_hda_codec_idt 61440 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 90112 1 snd_hda_codec_idt
ledtrig_audio 16384 2 snd_hda_codec_generic,dell_laptop
snd_hda_intel 49152 4
snd_intel_dspcfg 20480 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec 143360 4 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_idt
snd_hda_core 90112 5 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_idt
snd_hwdep 16384 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 126976 5 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core
snd_timer 40960 3 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd 94208 16 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_idt
soundcore 16384 1 snd

wildstar84

• I don’t find /etc/init/alsa-utils on my system.
• /etc/init.d/alsa-utils does not contain any instance of alsactl -E

RJP –
I installed alsa-tools-gui and ran hdajackretask from root terminal.
Everything appears to be connected properly. None of the connections allowed selection of other options. But I tried “Set Model=auto” anyway.
The terminal shows 12 lines of hex addresses, and a thirteenth line containing “1”. A message box on the hdajackretask gui popped up, saying:

tee:/sys/class/sound/hwC0D0/reconfig:Device or resource busy.

The same results occur whether alsa is running or not (turned off with $ /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop …and…
turned on with $ /etc/init.d/alsa-utils start )

I truly appreciate the suggestions offered by each of you. I’ve given them all a good try. So, at this point, it looks like I may save time by restoring from my live USB. (Unless the fix suddenly appears in a suggestion yet to be received.) Sadly, I had been planning to back the system up before doing a system upgrade (“tomorrow”).

Thank you all, DaveW

[Moderator caprea]

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Hi DaveW, whats the output of
aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

Sounds strange but for me it was once after stubborn refusal to play sound the solution one time to plug in headphones.
The error messages you report do not seem critical to me.

[Member DaveW]

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caprea – With the aplay command, there is no output via speaker or via headphones. In alsamixer, neither are muted, and volume control is set at normal settings. When the command is sent, the system reports it is working, but there is no sound.

$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono

The same result occurs with

$ aplay –device=hw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
Playing WAVE ‘/usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav’ : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 48000 Hz, Mono
aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count non available

However, for unknown reasons, the speaker test is now working (speaker and phones).
$ speaker-test -D “hw:0,0” -l 2 -c2 -twav # (the “-l 2” option limits the “front right, front left” session to two cycles)
But there is no sound from other sources (eg., youtube video).

• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by DaveW. Reason: add more information
• This reply was modified 1 month, 1 week ago by DaveW. Reason: corrected wrong character

[Member RJP]

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DaveW wrote:

$ speaker-test -D “hw:0,0” -l 2 -c2 -twav # (the “-l 2” option limits the “front right, front left” session to two cycles)
But there is no sound from other sources (eg., youtube video).

Re-start pulseaudio by removing its config files.

rm -r ~/.config/pulse/*

[Member Robin]

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Good morning Dave,

some more ideas.

– Try to mute SPDIF/IEC958 if you use analog audio output. Some cards can’t handle both the same time and mute analog audio without notice automatically as soon digital audio out is unmuted. Alsamixer switch states don’t reflect this automatic muting.

– Some program or tool may use already the hardware device (without actually playing anything), preventing all other programs including speaker-test and aplay from sending test sound to the audio device. Please check the output of:
$ fuser -v /dev/snd/*

As long nothing is playing, the output is expected to be empty. If some program blocks the sound output, close, stop or kill the application or service and retry.

– Try letting recreate the main config file.

sudo mv /etc/asound.conf /etc/asound.conf.save

Check whether sound works again. Possibly reboot is needed.

– Another suggestion: Please try remove your alsa state file completely. It may contain wrong settings, and these are restored on each reboot, the current (wrong state) will get saved to a new state file automatically on shutdown, so the error stays forever. It’s a bit tricky to get rid of the current wrong alsa state, if it happened once to fail. See section 6.3 at archlinux wiki for details about the proper procedure:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Advanced_Linux_Sound_Architecture/Troubleshooting#Removing_old_ALSA_state_file_(asound.state)
After it was completely removed this way it will be recreated with (hopefully functioning) fresh default values.

– And then: Make sure you are still member of the group “audio” (shouldn’t have got lost, but who knows…) and you have sufficient permissions for the /dev/snd/… files and folders.

– Check the output of:

aplay -D "hw:0,0" --dump-hw-params /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front-Center.wav
aplay -D "plughw:0,0" --dump-hw-params /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front-Center.wav

arecord -D hw:0 --dump-hw-params

When running speaker-test make sure the audio sample rates (e.g. 48000), channel number (e.g. 2) and format (e.g. S32_LE) of the files you do use for the testing, match exactly one of the supported values when playing directly to the hw:x,y device . Otherwise you won’t hear nothing.
Redo the testing using the “plughw:0,0” device (which resamples and matches the channel number automatically and loops it through the software mixers before sending it to the hardware actually)

– Finally, check the state of the sliders in
alsamixer -D equalizer
in case the default device loops through the equaliserplugin.

These are the very basic tests.

And then: Maybe it sounds stupid, but have you checked: there are right of the edge of the alsamixer some more sliders, which come in sight only when either resizing the window width, or pressing repeatedly the right arrow key. There should be a slider “pre-amp”. Make sure it is not set to low. Disable “Auto-mute”.

Many greetings
Robin

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member Robin]

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Just noticed you have some more results meanwhile I hadn’t seen before writing my answer above. So you have sound now basically. Great.

DaveW wrote:

aplay: set_params:1349: Channels count non available

This is what I was referring to with the lines about checking the capabilities of your hardware:

Robin wrote:

When running speaker-test make sure the audio sample rates (e.g. 48000), channel number (e.g. 2) and format (e.g. S32_LE) of the files you do use for the testing, match exactly one of the supported values when playing directly to the hw:x,y device . Otherwise you won’t hear nothing.

If sending sound to “default” (which should be connected to one of the “plughw:x,y” devices or looped additionally through the equaliser plugin instead of directly to the hardware (hw:x,y), you should be able to play from multiple audio sources the same time without blocking each other.

DaveW wrote:

But there is no sound from other sources (eg., youtube video).

Try reinstalling apulse. This is needed to play sound from firefox.

RJP wrote:

Re-start pulseaudio by removing its config files.

I wasn’t aware by now pulseaudio is involved. In this case I have no experience, just wait for comments from people using this.
If pulseaudio was installed once on a system, I have no idea how to make plain alsa work again completely, pulseaudio changes settings in that many places (including other programs, which refuse to send sound to alsa from this point of time, and keep this behaviour even after removing pulseaudio again).

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member DaveW]

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Sound is working again!
Unfortunately, I’m not exactly sure what made it work.

However, as one of you suggested, there may have been a conflict or misconfiguration with pulseaudio config files. Pulseaudio was installed and removed, some time back. But apparently, it was not “completely removed”. Although alsa audio had been working well, perhaps a conflict between applications called something from the pulse config files?

I tried almost everything that was suggested. So, it is possible that the true cure was not identified.

Actually, now I have two nearly identical installations of this OS on the same harddrive. (Between attempts to make the audio work on the first installation, I installed a second instance from a five month old liveUSB and brought it up to date.)

Thank you all, for taking valuable time to offer your assistance!!!!

[Member Robin]

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DaveW wrote:

Pulseaudio was installed and removed, some time back. But apparently, it was not “completely removed”

This is what I have always experienced from pulseaudio. You simply can’t get rid of all its changes and modifications completely, once it was installed on a system. You will never know whether where something of its changes still is hidden.

DaveW wrote:

I tried almost everything that was suggested. So, it is possible that the true cure was not identified.

Exactly this was what I also experienced after once having pulseaudio installed and removed again. It took me hours, and I ended up with reinstalling antiX after having made sound working halfways again.

Windows is like a submarine. Open a window and serious problems will start.

[Member wildstar84]

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Oops, I fatfingered the file-name, it’s “/etc/init.d/alsa-utils”, and you DO have that, b/c you referenced “turned off with $ /etc/init.d/alsa-utils stop …” in the same reply!

Regards,

Jim

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