Arch64 sometimes "forgets" sound card in ALSA [solved]

Question

Hi all,
in order to some other issues with my firstly installed SB Live soundcard (disturbing sounds when nothing is played back) I played around with two other soundcards. One was a Soundblaster USB MP3+ and the other one a C-Media card based on the CM8738 chip.
Since I am using ALSA I was using the wiki guide to set up the cards:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alsa
Loading and storing the mixer level works normally fine but sometimes after a reboot arch seems to forget the default soundcard used at this time. The ALSA mixer within gnome simply shows my ATI R600 HDMI as "soundcard".
Similar to this is the output of aplay -l
**** Liste der Hardware-Geräte (PLAYBACK) ****
Karte 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], Gerät 3: ATI HDMI [ATI HDMI]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
If I try verify that udev autodetected all my sound cards properly according to the wiki, then everything looks find to me:
[hb@hb-arch64 ~]$ ls -l /sys/module/snd/holders
insgesamt 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_cmipci -> ../../snd_cmipci
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_hda_codec -> ../../snd_hda_codec
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_hda_intel -> ../../snd_hda_intel
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_hwdep -> ../../snd_hwdep
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_mixer_oss -> ../../snd_mixer_oss
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_mpu401_uart -> ../../snd_mpu401_uart
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_opl3_lib -> ../../snd_opl3_lib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_pcm -> ../../snd_pcm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_pcm_oss -> ../../snd_pcm_oss
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_rawmidi -> ../../snd_rawmidi
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_seq -> ../../snd_seq
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_seq_device -> ../../snd_seq_device
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_seq_oss -> ../../snd_seq_oss
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 24. Aug 21:31 snd_timer -> ../../snd_timer
snd_hda_codec is the driver used for my ATI HDA audio codec integrated on the mainboard. snd_cmipci is the driver for the C-media card.
But somehow the module isn't even correctly loaded although I added it to the modules inside the rc.conf (soundcard driver before oss module).
In dmesg I see no problems indicated and lspci lists my card fine. The strange thing is that I experienced this for all three soundcards I used in the last two days which are in order
1) Soundblaster Live 5.1 (emu10k1 chip)
2) Soundblaster USB MP3+
3) CMedia card
I modified the rc.conf and modprobe.conf after changing the "default" card each time.
Has anyone of you experienced similar problems ?
TIA,
D$
Last edited by Darksoul71 (2010-08-25 21:09:37)

Answer 1

Hm, I solved this now myself although I am unshure what the problem was.
According to the output of ls -l /sys/module/snd/holders all my sound cards were properly detected and the corresponding modules were load correctly.
But if this was true then why didn't the soundcards didn't show up in the alsa or gnome mixer as selectable devices ?
1st I removed every reference to a soundcard driver in /etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf
2nd I changed my rc.conf like this:
MODULES=(snd_cmipci radeon snd-pcm-oss !snd_hda_codec !snd_hda_intel)
I explicitely blacklisted my onboard soundcard and the sound module of the ATI HDMI output. Et voilà:
My CMedia card shows up correctly in the mixer.
If I have some time at weekend I will crosscheck back with my Soundblaster USB MP3+.
Last edited by Darksoul71 (2010-08-25 21:14:40)