Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Jack]

Glad it's solved, but you missed one point of picking it up a bit 
earlier.  Notes below:

On 3/25/22 05:31, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I went. I
> got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to the end if
> you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.
>
> On Thursday, 24 March 2022 16:40:05 GMT Jack wrote:
>> On 2022.03.24 05:55, Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>> On Thursday, 24 March 2022 09:43:49 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>>> I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested.
>>> No dice. All that does is to allow me to set where I want each sound
>>> source to be sent, plus a few details. I still hear nothing, and pavumeter
>>> shows nothing being output.
>>>
>>> I still can't escape the conclusion that something in my home
>>> directory is interfering with sound output.
>> Just to confirm -
> Ok, I'm looking at pavucontrol now.
>
>> pavucontrol shows the sound device as properly enabled on the Configuration
>> tab,
> Yes. The USB device, Unitek Y-247A, is enabled and the other two devices are
> Off.
No problem here, but some devices show several possible outputs, such as 
speakers and/or mic in use, or just two channels or higher comibnations.
>
>> shows the correct output port for the device on the Output Devices tab,
> Yes: the output port is shown as Speakers.
>
> and shows the sound source being sent to the right device on the Playback
> tab (with volumes up)
> It shows System Sounds* at 100% volume, no matter what I select in the lower
> right corner. The options there are All Streams, Applications and Virtual
> Streams. I don't see an output device on this tab.
If pavucontrol were not new to you, you would have noticed that there 
was no section there for Firefox.  That tab shows a section for every 
application generating and sending sound to pulseaudio, along with which 
output device that sound is being sent to.  Not seeing Firefox here, I 
would have first restarted the Firefox output, then restarted Firefox 
itself, and then restarted pulseaudio.  In your case, I don't know if 
either of the first two would have helped or not.
>
>> but still no sound from the speakers?
> No sound at all.
>
>> Do any of the sound meters show any apparent activity?
> Pavumeter shows Front Left and Front Right, with no activity on either. It
> correctly shows Analog Stereo going to the Y-247A.
>
>> Can you see any difference between the pavucontrol
>> display as youurself and as the user for whom sound does work?
> *  The new user sees Firefox Stream as well as System Sounds on the Playback
> tab. When I logged back in as myself immediately after trying that, I got an
> anonymous error box - and heard its announcing beep! - saying Connection
> Failed: Connection Refused. (Screen shot attached. Does anyone know where
> errors like this are generated?)
That second icon in the upper left looks to me (squinting a bit) like it 
might be a life saver ring buoy, but that doesn't help me in guessing 
what generated it.  Did you find anything in dmesg or /var/log/messages?
>
>> I would guess that if it is something in your home directory, it is
>> most likely a configuration setting, probably under .local or .config.
>> I see several files under ~/.config/pulse.  You might try moving those
>> elsewhere and restarting pulse ("pulseaudio -k" then restart
>> pavucontrol)
> Lo! and behold! BBC Radio 3 bursts forth!
>
> --->8
>
> Huge relief, and similarly huge thanks to Jack and all others who've helped.
> Now I can go and watch those lectures from Gresham College that have bee
> queueing up.
>