[gentoo-user] sound stopped working [media-sound/pulseaudio-7.1]

[Alexander Kapshuk]

Recently, sound has stopped working on one of my Gentoo systems. I have
checked the kernel, package and pulseaudio set-ups across all of my systems
in an attempt to pin down the problem, but so far to no avail. The sound
works fine on the other systems I have.

Hopefully, someone on the list will shed some light on what might be the
problem, or how to further troubleshoot it.

Here is some details.

% grep '^[^#.]' /etc/pulse/default.pa
load-module module-device-restore
load-module module-stream-restore
load-module module-card-restore
load-module module-augment-properties
load-module module-switch-on-port-available
load-module module-alsa-sink
load-module module-udev-detect
load-module module-detect
load-module module-jackdbus-detect channels=2
load-module module-bluetooth-policy
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
load-module module-esound-protocol-unix
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
load-module module-gconf
load-module module-default-device-restore
load-module module-rescue-streams
load-module module-always-sink
load-module module-intended-roles
load-module module-suspend-on-idle
load-module module-console-kit
load-module module-systemd-login
load-module module-position-event-sounds
load-module module-role-cork
load-module module-filter-heuristics
load-module module-filter-apply

With 'load-module module-alsa-sink' enabled, pulseaudio will not start.
% ps uxwww | grep  -c '[p]ulse'
0

Having 'alsa-sink' enabled, generates the following output in
'/var/log/messages'.
# grep 'Jan 19.*pulseaudio' /var/log/messages
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3686]: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to
load module "module-alsa-sink" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3686]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Module load
failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3686]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to
initialize daemon.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3638]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Daemon startup
failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3706]: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to
load module "module-alsa-sink" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3706]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Module load
failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3706]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to
initialize daemon.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3703]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Daemon startup
failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3719]: [pulseaudio] module.c: Failed to
load module "module-alsa-sink" (argument: ""): initialization failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3719]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Module load
failed.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3719]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to
initialize daemon.
Jan 19 17:58:23 box1 pulseaudio[3716]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Daemon startup
failed.

My sound card details are.
lspci -k
...
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio
Controller
    Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
...

The kernel config options enabled for HDA are.
% grep '^[^#].*HDA' /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_SND_HDA=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_HWDEP=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_REALTEK=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_ANALOG=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_SIGMATEL=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_VIA=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_HDMI=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CIRRUS=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CONEXANT=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0110=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CA0132=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_CMEDIA=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_SI3054=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_GENERIC=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_POWER_SAVE_DEFAULT=0
CONFIG_SND_HDA_CORE=y
CONFIG_SND_HDA_PREALLOC_SIZE=2048

% equery -q u media-sound/pulseaudio-7.1 | grep +
+X
+alsa
+alsa-plugin
+asyncns
+bluetooth
+caps
+dbus
+gdbm
+glib
+gtk
+ipv6
+orc
+ssl
+tcpd
+udev
+webrtc-aec


With the set-up above, I still have sound when playing video content in my
web browser, via Adobe Flash Player.

Playing videos using VLC, or Mplayer does not work.

With 'load-module module-alsa-sink' commented out, pulseaudio is able to
start.

% ps uxwww | grep  '[p]ulse'
sasha     3694  0.1  0.2 182496 10164 ?        Sl   18:15   0:00
/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
sasha     3713  0.0  0.2 166112  9988 ?        Ssl  18:15   0:00
xfce4-volumed-pulse

But still no sound, when playing videos using a media player, or in the web
browser using Adobe Flash Player.


Thanks.