1

Ubuntu 12.04.2 LTS

Toshiba Satellite M115-S1061

realtek alc861-vd

AlsaMixer shows my card/chip HDA ATI SB and RealTek ALC861-VD

However when I open Rhythmbox or look at sound settings no device appears under Output - Play Sound through.

If I plug in headphones and turn all volume settings in Alsamixer up I can hear sound very, very, very faintly (did I say it was faint).

The very weird thing is that when I run a very old Live CD for SLAX (Linux 2.6.27.27) the sound comes on right away at full normal volume, once the image boots. In examining that environment, it says the audio is coming under OSS and not ALSA.

UPDATES (Additional Details):

The sound card is a RealTek High Defintion Audio Bus on the Motherboard. Based upon what Ubuntu shows in AlsaMixer and Windows 2008 shows me all I know is the Audio Codec is ALC861.

pulseaudio --check

- No Results returned, command prompt is simply returned.

pulseaudio --dump-conf

### Read from configuration file: /etc/pulse/daemon.conf ###
daemonize = no
fail = yes
high-priority = yes
nice-level = -11
realtime-scheduling = yes
realtime-priority = 5
allow-module-loading = yes
allow-exit = yes
use-pid-file = yes
system-instance = no
local-server-type = user
cpu-limit = no
enable-shm = yes
flat-volumes = no
lock-memory = no
exit-idle-time = 20
scache-idle-time = 20
dl-search-path = /usr/lib/pulse-1.1/modules
default-script-file = /etc/pulse/default.pa
load-default-script-file = yes
log-target = auto
log-level = notice
resample-method = speex-float-1
enable-remixing = yes
enable-lfe-remixing = no
default-sample-format = s16le
default-sample-rate = 44100
default-sample-channels = 2
default-channel-map = front-left,front-right
default-fragments = 8
default-fragment-size-msec = 10
enable-deferred-volume = yes
deferred-volume-safety-margin-usec = 1
deferred-volume-extra-delay-usec = 0
shm-size-bytes = 0
log-meta = no
log-time = no
log-backtrace = 0
rlimit-fsize = -1
rlimit-data = -1
rlimit-stack = -1
rlimit-core = -1
rlimit-rss = -1
rlimit-as = -1
rlimit-nproc = -1
rlimit-nofile = 256
rlimit-memlock = -1
rlimit-locks = -1
rlimit-sigpending = -1
rlimit-msgqueue = -1
rlimit-nice = 31
rlimit-rtprio = 9
rlimit-rttime = 1000000

amixer -c 0

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 64
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 64 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
  Front Right: 3 [100%] [30.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [12.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 17 [55%] [12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 17 [55%] [12.00dB] [on]

pacmd dump

Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information.
Configuration dump generated at Fri Aug 23 23:15:34 2013
load-module module-device-restore
load-module module-stream-restore
load-module module-card-restore
load-module module-augment-properties
load-module module-alsa-card device_id="0" name="pci-0000_00_14.2" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_14.2" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
load-module module-udev-detect
load-module module-bluetooth-discover
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-position-event-sounds
load-module module-filter-heuristics
load-module module-filter-apply
load-module module-switch-on-port-available
load-module module-x11-publish display=:0
load-module module-x11-bell display=:0 sample=bell.ogg
load-module module-x11-cork-request display=:0
load-module module-x11-xsmp display=:0 session_manager=local/familylaptop:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/1289,unix/familylaptop:/tmp/.ICE-unix/1289
load-module module-cli-protocol-unix
set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo 0x10000
set-sink-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo no
suspend-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo yes
set-source-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo.monitor 0x10000
set-source-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo.monitor no
suspend-source alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo.monitor yes
set-source-volume alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo 0x725a
set-source-mute alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo no
suspend-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo yes
set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_14.2 output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo
set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo
EOF

pactl

No valid command specified.
0

1 Answer 1

0

I managed to break my audio trying to reproduce your configuration, but I figured out why, this is my pacmd dump:

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-card device_id="0" name="pci-0000_00_1b.0" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
load-module module-udev-detect
load-module module-native-protocol-unix
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
load-module module-dbus-protocol
load-module module-x11-publish display=:0
load-module module-x11-cork-request display=:0
load-module module-x11-xsmp display=:0 session_manager=local/bt:@/tmp/.ICE-unix/3333,unix/bt:/tmp/.ICE-unix/3333
load-module module-cli-protocol-unix

set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51 0x10000
set-sink-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51 no
suspend-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51 no

set-source-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51.monitor 0x000
set-source-mute alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51.monitor no
suspend-source alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51.monitor no
set-source-volume alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo 0x10000
set-source-mute alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo no
suspend-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo yes

set-card-profile alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0 output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-stereo

set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51
set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

I was comparing my configuration against yours, then I noticed that the suspend keys in mine were set to no and in yours where set to yes. Then looking at the manual I found that:

suspend-sink|suspend-source index|name boolean Suspend (i.e. disconnect from the underlying hardware) a sink (resp. source).

This means that pulseaudio actually don't send any signal to the alsa drive, so how I did managed to get my audio back? Running:

pacmd suspend-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-surround-51 no

And I was able to get my sound back. As a side note, after doing this pacmd dump still shows the yes value for some reason. If you still have issues, move the ~/.pulse directory and restart the session to force pulseaudio to reload the defaults.

mv ~/.pulse ~/pulse.bk
5
  • I would also check pacmd dump-volumes that has all values in 100%.
    – Braiam
    Aug 24, 2013 at 18:46
  • I think we are on the right track but still no sound. First thing when I try to run “pacmd dump-volumes“ it says that is not a valid command. I think we are on the right track but still no sound. First thing when I try to run “pacmd dump-volumes“ it says that is not a valid command. I update the command you said you issued to restore your sound to reflect my card nothing changes on the system (no device in Sound/Output) and list SINKS still shows “Suspended”. pacmd suspend-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo no
    – Novadar
    Aug 24, 2013 at 21:55
  • list-sinks Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information. >>> 1 sink(s) available. * index: 0 name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo> driver: <module-alsa-card.c> flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY state: SUSPENDED suspend cause: IDLE
    – Novadar
    Aug 24, 2013 at 21:57
  • did you move the ~/.pulse directory? also, you should edit your question to provide the results. If the system complains about character limit, you can use paste.ubuntu.com to paste the output.
    – Braiam
    Aug 25, 2013 at 2:20
  • I moved it. I decided to trash 12.04 and go with Xubuntu. The car does appear in hear and when I try speaker-test it is trying to produce a sound in Output Devices it shows "audio" and the white noise changes on my headphones but no "sounds". If I set suspend-sink = yes, there is no white noise. If I set it no then white noise and visual "sound" bar. Please keep in mind sound is find in Windows and on that old Slax Live CD.
    – Novadar
    Aug 25, 2013 at 4:33

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