My awesome WM(desktop environment) with sound problem!

Question

I'm a newer to awesome .there's only one window manager awesome in my linux without any desktop environment(KDE GNOME...) or  display manager(gdm kdm...etc) ,but I encountered a problem :  there's no sound when playing music  in the awesome environment ,but it sounds  when switch to  anoter tty  on which the user of awesome DE has logined.
It's really strange.... beg for help .
Here's my rc.lua  about  volume:
vicious = require("vicious")
volumewidget = widget({ type = "textbox"})
volumewidget:buttons(awful.util.table.join(
--    awful.button({ }, 1, function () awful.util.spawn("amixer -q set Master toggle", false) end),
    awful.button({ }, 2, function () awful.util.spawn("xterm -e alsamixer", true)      end)
--    awful.button({ }, 4, function () awful.util.spawn("amixer -q set Master 2dB+", false) end),
--    awful.button({ }, 5, function () awful.util.spawn("amixer -q set Master 2dB-", false) end)
vicious.register(volumewidget, vicious.widgets.volume," $1% ", 2, "Capture")
supplement :   I entered awesoem DE by   typing in : /bin/su will -l -c "/bin/bash --login -c xinit" (issue "startx" makes no difference) in tty1,  then  awesome startup  on another tty (tty2 ,tty7 e.g.).   
Here's the  processes after login in awesome:
[will@will-laptop ~]$ pstree
systemd─┬─NetworkManager─┬─dhclient
        │                └─3*[{NetworkManager}]
        ├─4*[agetty]
        ├─atd
        ├─auditd─┬─audispd─┬─sedispatch
        │        │         └─{audispd}
        │        └─{auditd}
        ├─chrome─┬─chrome
        │        ├─chrome-sandbox───chrome─┬─chrome─┬─10*[chrome───3*[{chrome}]]
        │        │                         │        └─chrome───12*[{chrome}]
        │        │                         └─nacl_helper_boo
        │        └─25*[{chrome}]
        ├─chronyd
        ├─crond
        ├─2*[dbus-daemon]
        ├─dbus-launch
        ├─login───bash───su───xinit─┬─X
        │                           └─awesome
        ├─login───bash
        ├─mcelog
        ├─modem-manager
        ├─polkitd───{polkitd}
        ├─pulseaudio───2*[{pulseaudio}]
        ├─roxterm─┬─bash───sudo───vi
        │         ├─bash───pstree
        │         ├─gnome-pty-helpe
        │         └─{roxterm}
        ├─rsyslogd───3*[{rsyslogd}]
        ├─rtkit-daemon───2*[{rtkit-daemon}]
        ├─system-setup-ke
        ├─systemd-journal
        ├─systemd-logind
        ├─udevd───2*[udevd]
        └─wpa_supplicant

Answer 1

Well, if you don't necessarily need pulseaudio, I'd just uninstall it. I've never had any problems with alsa and awesome wm. However, if you need pulseaudio, like I did, then some applications are going to throw errors. Is the sound muted for any sound or just when you use a specific application? If its all applications, try just using alsa and see if the problem persists. If its a specific application, you might not be able to do anything about it depending on the application. Either way, install pavucontrol, which is a great gui for pulseaudio. You might notice that the channel is muted or something else through pavucontrol. Check that dbus is started in the daemons in /etc/rc.conf. Check the troubleshooting section here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pu … figuration.