Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

unixuser · 2024-12-23 11:20:47

Hi there,

I found out that sometime (with NO REASON, because before I never had this problem), the sound output works on the system and not on firefox/qutebrowser OR works on the browsers and no on the system... Thats harassing...
I do not use pulseaudio (never needed it). There is the error at boot time :

alsactl -E HOME=/run/alsa -E XRDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/alsa/runtime restore' failed with error 'alsa-lib parser.c:2783:(load top levelconfig) Unable to find top levelconfig file '/usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf'

Some infos :

[color]Audio:[/color]

[color]Device-1: AMD Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo[/color]

[color]driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16[/color]

[color]bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 1007:1740 class-ID: 0456[/color]

[color]Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo[/color]

[color]driver: snd_pci_acp6x v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16[/color]

[color]bus-ID: 07:00.9 chip-ID: 1032:15e2 class-ID: 0470[/color]

[color]Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel[/color]

[color]v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 02:00.9 chip-ID: 1033:15e3[/color]

[color]class-ID: 0404[/color]

[color]API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-28-amd64 status: kernel-api[/color]

In my .asoundrc, I use the "card 0"

Last edited by unixuser (2024-12-23 11:21:22)

greenjeans · 2024-12-23 16:00:55

Do you not have a /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/ucm.conf file?

unixuser · 2024-12-23 17:34:11

I do not :

>>>> ls -ial /usr/share/alsa/
total 60
17318076 drwxr-xr-x   8 root root  4096 Dec 21 23:53 .
17301512 drwxr-xr-x 217 root root 12288 Dec 22 00:21 ..
17318077 -rw-r--r--   1 root root 10117 Nov 29  2022 alsa.conf
17443577 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Dec 17 23:15 alsa.conf.d
17318078 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 15 15:44 cards
17318138 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 15 15:44 ctl
17435780 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Dec 21 23:41 init
17318140 drwxr-xr-x   2 root root  4096 Sep 15 15:44 pcm
17330314 drwxr-xr-x   6 root root  4096 Sep 15 15:44 topology
17314808 -rw-r--r--   1 root root  4704 Oct 30  2019 utils.sh

I installed alsa-ucm-conf package, and now I have no more error at boot and have the ucm and ucm2 folders. BUT it didn't solve the problem (at this boot, I don't have sounds on browsers, but have a good one on system with mpv..)

Last edited by unixuser (2024-12-23 22:12:13)

greenjeans · 2024-12-27 01:44:09

Posting now from a liveCD of Vuu-do mate-mini, that I installed firefox on in the live session, checked youtube and sound and video are working perfectly with nothing but pure ALSA. Literally, no pulse, apulse, or pipewire and everything works.

Please check on the ALSA packages you have installed, and i'll compare them to mine, and perhaps we'll find what you're missing.

unixuser · 2024-12-27 23:33:58

Hi there, thx for help, there are alsa related packages I have on the system :

root@tinpatrick:~# apt list --installed | grep alsa

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

alsa-topology-conf/stable,stable,now 1.2.5.1-2 all [installed,automatic]
alsa-ucm-conf/stable,stable,now 1.2.8-1 all [installed]
alsa-utils/stable,now 1.2.8-1 amd64 [installed]

PS : I think this is failing from some dependencies. The problem went even harder after an update of lib*. The weird thing is that alsamixer prints normaly and says the sound is on.

The chip is realtek ALC257, if that precision is needed. I don't know.

Last edited by unixuser (2024-12-27 23:41:16)

ralph.ronnquist · 2024-12-27 23:55:50

I don't think alsa's use case modelling comes into play, but rather, possibly, there's some residue effects dealing with 48000 Hz v.s. 44100 HZ sampling rates differently in different programs. The "modern" default is 48000 Hz while the "traditional" default is 44100 Hz. It may be possible that your soundcard gets confused by that; if different applications compete about the soundcard configuration.

If that's the case, the remedy should be to ensure that the "default" PCM playback path (here "default" is the name of the targeted PCM, which is used by applications by default) to end in "plughw" rather than "hw" since that includes software to manage sampling rate translations.

unixuser · 2024-12-28 10:28:12

Hi, thanks for the help, appreciated.
There is my modified asoundrc :

pcm.!default {
    type plughw
    card 0
 }
 
ctl.!default {
    type hw
    card 0
}

EDIT : installed alsa-firemware-loaders... still didn't resolve it. Wanna cry

Last edited by unixuser (2024-12-28 10:47:40)

greenjeans · 2024-12-28 16:41:46

So you just have one sound output? No HDMI too?

If not sure run aplay -l in terminal.

alsa-topology-conf
alsa-ucm-conf
alsa-utils
alsamixergui
bluez-alsa-utils
gstreamer1.0-alsa:amd64

Is what I have that's working, note that all depend on libasound2 as well. And I also have libasound2-plugins:amd64

And libasound2-plugin-equal:amd64 gets you the alsa equalizer as well, which is really nice to have.

Last edited by greenjeans (2024-12-28 16:52:03)

s1mple · 2024-12-28 22:50:55

You need dmix¹ to mix streams from multiple programs. dmix is fixed to only one stream format once in use, so plug² is needed for automatic conversion before the stream is sent to dmix.

The default ALSA setup usually have a dmix already for each card, so you can just use that as a slave unless you want a different configuration.

This is the list of default dmix PCMs on my system, where the device name for my speakers are Generic_1.

$ aplay -L | grep dmix
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=3
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=7
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=8
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=9
dmix:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=0
dmix:CARD=Set,DEV=0

I have a custom setup for audio settings, where I have multiple asoundrc files for symlinking, but this is the .asoundrc file for my speakers.

pcm.!default {
        type plug
        slave.pcm "dmix:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=0"
}

ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card Generic_1
}

1: https://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/a … ugins_plug
2: https://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/a … ugins_dmix

unixuser · 2024-12-30 21:27:20

Hi, thanks green and s1mple,

I do have HDMI output :

>>>> aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC257 Analog [ALC257 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I did modified my .asoundrc as :

pcm.!default {
	type plug
	slave.pcm "dmix:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=0"
}

ctl.!default {
	type hw           
	card Generic_1
}

But somehow it does not set the card :

>>>> aplay -L | grep dmix
dmix:CARD=Generic_1,DEV=0
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=3
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=7
dmix:CARD=Generic,DEV=8

greenjeans · 2024-12-31 01:16:33

Do you need the "plughw" in the first asoundrc you posted?

Maybe this instead, just hw on that first instruction:

pcm.!default {
        type hw
        card 0
 }

ctl.!default {
        type hw
        card 0
 }

unixuser · 2025-01-02 23:38:47

I tryed with this asoundrc, but with no success. I think it is a deeper problem, if anyone knows, I used the debug script, but it is too huge for my understanding :

https://github.com/444anothereality444/ … LeyHXgfTlc

fanderal · 2025-01-06 23:32:38

alsa-utils/stable,now 1.2.8-1 amd64 [installed]

Possibly related:

Starting with 1.2.5 alsactl tries to initialize UCM even if it is not supported #101
https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-utils/issues/101

zapper · 2025-01-07 02:49:48

apulse doesn't seem to work anymore last time I tried in making sound work on firefox other firefox web ext fork

Last edited by zapper (2025-01-07 02:50:08)

unixuser · 2025-01-07 21:49:57

alsa-utils/stable,now 1.2.8-1 amd64 [installed]

Possibly related:

Starting with 1.2.5 alsactl tries to initialize UCM even if it is not supported #101
https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-utils/issues/101

Thanks, maybe I will recompile alsa-utils on older version to test if it resolves something.

apulse doesn't seem to work anymore last time I tried in making sound work on firefox other firefox web ext fork

apulse or not, it barely works atm.

I get back some sounds by specifying the card index with modprob, qutebrowser got sounds, by not firefox, so it is almost solved...

greenjeans · 2025-01-07 22:54:24

So a couple simple questions here but this is perplexing:

Which version of Devuan? Desktop environment?

You mentioned a realtek chip, do you have the right firmware for it installed?

I have had a glitch before with sound, not having problems currently, but it was an intermittent issue with no sound in certain circumstances, mostly to do with sound in browsers. Even with the volume in the tray-icon all the way up, I would get no sound, until I activated the slider by clicking it and moving it up and down once, then sound would pop back on. Weird.

When you have a browser open running a video and it's not making sound, might just try fiddling with the volume control in the tray, and possibly in the alsa-mixer, something may be zeroing it out for some reason.

ralph.ronnquist · 2025-01-08 03:36:25

@unixuser, from memory (since I don't use firefox anymore) I needed a dmix pcm on the playback path for firefox; something with firefox spawning sub processes after having opened its playback sink and then in effect accidentally lock up itself (since the normal playback is exclusive) even though firefox has a single playback process. And for that same reason, it needs the similar setup with a dsnoop on the capture path, and therefore it needs the prior asym pcm to split playback and capture.
Afair I had it working with that, something like:

pcm.!default { type asym; playback.pcm multisink; capture.pcm multisource }
pcm.multisink { type dmix; ipc_key 29879; ipc_key_add_uid true; slave.pcm plughw }
pcm.multisource { type dsnoop; ipc_key 16234; ipc_key_add_uid false; slave.pcm hw }

unixuser · 2025-01-08 21:03:29

Here is my config :

Audio:
Device-1: AMD Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 04:00.1
Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_pci_acp6x v: kernel bus-ID: 04:00.5
Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel bus-ID: 04:00.6
API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-28-amd64 status: kernel-api

@green,

no there is nothing zeroing, it's a stream error as ralph suggested

@ralph,

I do not understand everything, but it seems like this does not work unfortunately

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#1 2024-12-23 11:20:47

Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#2 2024-12-23 16:00:55

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#3 2024-12-23 17:34:11

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#4 2024-12-27 01:44:09

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#5 2024-12-27 23:33:58

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#6 2024-12-27 23:55:50

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#7 2024-12-28 10:28:12

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#8 2024-12-28 16:41:46

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#9 2024-12-28 22:50:55

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#10 2024-12-30 21:27:20

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#11 2024-12-31 01:16:33

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#12 2025-01-02 23:38:47

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#13 2025-01-06 23:32:38

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#14 2025-01-07 02:49:48

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#15 2025-01-07 21:49:57

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#16 2025-01-07 22:54:24

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#17 2025-01-08 03:36:25

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

#18 2025-01-08 21:03:29

Re: Problems with ALSA and audio output ?

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