Re: [gentoo-user] no sound with pulseaudio

[Canek Peláez Valdés]

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 8:26 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@××××××××××.com> wrote:
> Am 29.09.2011 01:27, schrieb Canek Peláez Valdés:
>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:08 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>>> Am 29.09.2011 00:03, schrieb Canek Peláez Valdés:
>>>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 5:49 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>>>>> Am 28.09.2011 23:28, schrieb Canek Peláez Valdés:
>>>>>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 5:24 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@××××××××××.com> wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi!
>>>>>>> I have configured pulseaudio according
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/PulseAudio
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> but I simply have no sound.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The pulseaudio playback volume meter shows me signal, and that the bars
>>>>>>> are jumping if I playback a music track.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> alsa-plugins (with pulseaudio USE flag)
>>>>>>> gst-plugins-pulse
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> are installed. But I don't know what is being blocked, that I have no
>>>>>>> sound output at my headphones.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> PS: the headphones are ok.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Any suggestions?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What music player are you using? Did you set or modify ~/.asoundrc?
>>>>>
>>>>> ~/.asoundrc doesn't exist.
>>>>>
>>>>> I have /etc/asound.conf with these entries:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> pcm.pulse {
>>>>>    type pulse
>>>>> }
>>>>>
>>>>> ctl.pulse {
>>>>>    type pulse
>>>>> }
>>>>>
>>>>> for all alsa applications to be redirected to pulse!
>>>>
>>>> Mmmh. It's not exactly like that: If you use pcm.pulse and ctl.pulse,
>>>> then you need to specify pulse as the virtual ALSA device. If you want
>>>> "all alsa applications to be redirected to pulse", you need:
>>>>
>>>> pcm.!default {
>>>>     type pulse
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> ctl.!default {
>>>>     type pulse
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>>> The players Rhythmbox, xine all with pulseaudio default output plugins.
>>>>
>>>> That should work. Did you check in sound settings that pulse is indeed
>>>> the desired output
>>>>
>>>>>> What Desktop do you use?
>>>>>
>>>>> Gnome, latest 2.x version
>>>>>
>>>>>  Is the pulseaudio daemon running?
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes!
>>>>>
>>>>> tamer@office ~ $ pstree -pu | grep puls
>>>>>
>>>>> |-pulseaudio(22833,tamer)-+-gconf-helper(22840)---{gconf-helper}(22841)
>>>>>        |                         |-{pulseaudio}(22839)
>>>>>        |                         `-{pulseaudio}(22842)
>>>>
>>>> Looks OK.
>>>>
>>>>> I have added all config files in "/etc/pulse/"
>>>>
>>>> I wouldn't touch the files on /etc/pulse. I recommend first trying to
>>>> make it work with the files included with pulseaudio (backup
>>>> /etc/pulse, move the dir out of /etc and emerge again pulseaudio)
>>>> before trying anything else. Supposedly, pulseaudio should "just
>>>> works". Since the first time I installed it I have never touched the
>>>> files in /etc/pulse, except to change the log-level of the daemon.
>>>>
>>> As requested, I moved the pulse folder somewhere else and remerged
>>> pulseaudio as well moved /etc/asound.conf somewhere else as well.
>>>
>>> No sound!
>>
>> Weird.
>>
>>>> I'm on GNOME 3, so things are a little different, and I don't remember
>>>> exactly the dialogs, but instead of the Gentoo wiki page, I would
>>>> follow this:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup
>>>>
>>>> And more specifically:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup#GNOME
>>>>
>>>> and
>>>>
>>>> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup#GStreamerApplications
>>>>
>>>> Also, in really weird cases, the ALSA device gets its volume muted:
>>>> You can try to remove (back up first) /etc/asound.conf, and run (as
>>>> root)
>>>>
>>>> alsamixer -V all
>>>
>>> I did, and fired all the bars up. nothing! really nothing!
>>
>> Really weird.
>>
>>>> and trying to unmute and turn up the volume on everything. When you
>>>> hear something with any player, return the asound.conf to /etc and try
>>>> again.
>>>>
>>>> Regards.
>>>
>>> I have the dumb feeling that one process is blocking the output, I hear
>>> in my headphones the white noise of my system, which wouldn't be there
>>> if the soundcard hadn't been initialised.
>>
>> It's more simple than that: if you see the bars movind in the mixer
>> application, some sound should be made.
>>
>>> Is there a way to find out which applications might make use of the
>>> soundcard right now?!
>>
>> Probably with strace or a similar tool; however, let me see first if
>> I'm understanding the problem. This is a laptop?
>
> A usual tower machine! Core2 DUO, nothing's special!
>
>  If so, the sound
>> works without headphones? The internal speakers work?
>
> with the headphones all the time....
>
> There are no internal speakers (not a notebook)
>>
>> Also, can you please post the output of "pactl list"?
> Yes of course, here it is:
>
> http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=wDgy3x64

OK, I'm back on my laptop. I would have told you yesterday the
commands, but using my phone keyboard make it slightly impossible.

The problem (I think) is that your sound card has digital and analog
outputs. At some point in the future, the kernel drivers would be able
to auto-detect which output has a cable connected to it, but right now
(AFAIK) is not working, and for some reason in your machine pulse is
sending the output through the digital output: that's the meaning of:

Aktive Profile: output:iec958-stereo

the last line of your "pactl list". The profile you want is
"output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo", because (if I'm not
mistaken), that's the output that sends the sound to your speakers. To
select that profile, simply do (as your normal user, not as root):

pacmd set-card-profile 0 "output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo"

The 0 is the index of your card (you know is this for the line "Karte
#0" in the output of pactl list), and the profile is the analog one,
both for output and input.

Please reboot your machine with the default config files in
/etc/pulse, and with your /etc/asound.conf, to make sure no other
setting is getting in the way, and try the pacmd command. Then try
again to play music with rhythmbox.

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México