[solved] no sound with multimedia apps using Pulseaudio Dummy drive

Question

It seems audio issues are kindof frequent atm, but I couldn't solve the strange issue using the informations provided in the threads nor the wiki
Issue:
One app plays audio just fine: Deadbeef Audio player, but no activity shows up in Pavucontrol while playing.
    Deadbeef uses default Alsa outpput (currently Pulse audio server)
The other multimedia that I use or tried (mplayer, VLC and paplay test.wav) play files with no sound to be heard. Pavucontrol just shows 'dummy output' activity
as for mplayer that is the case with default pulse and alsa audio drivers
Context:
1/ Recently switched from ALSA to PulseAudio
Have no  ~/.asoundrc
2/ First appeared when:
Installed software updates last week. I lazily hoped it will resolve itself with the next update which it didn't so far. None of the packets I updated had linux|pulse|alsa|sound|audio in its name.
Another issue appeared at the same time: no software is able to play any media from the DVD drive. The optical drive itself is well recognized whether by 'lsscsi' or /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info
3/ PulseAudio did not start today after booting the system
$ pulseaudio --start
    E: [pulseaudio] main.c: daemon startup failed
Started OK after commenting "/etc/pulse/default.pa" config line that remap microphone to mono for Skype (as per the Pulseaudio wiki)
System Audio info:
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7d00000 irq 46
$ lspci|grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
$ aplay -l
carte 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], périphérique 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
Sous-périphériques: 1/1
Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
carte 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], périphérique 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
Sous-périphériques: 1/1
Sous-périphérique #0: subdevice #0
# fuser -v /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: kozaki 20121 F.... pulseaudio
$ cat /proc/asound/modules;
0 snd_hda_intel
$ lsmod | grep ^snd;
snd_hda_codec_realtek 67127 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 63126 1 snd_hda_codec_realtek
snd_hda_intel 26327 3
snd_hda_controller 26727 1 snd_hda_intel
snd_hda_codec 108552 4 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_hwdep 17244 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 88487 3 snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_controller
snd_timer 26614 1 snd_pcm
snd 69340 13 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hwdep,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_intel
$ systool -vm relevant_snd_module
EDIT
$ systool -vm snd_hda_intel
Module = "snd_hda_intel"
Attributes:
coresize = "26327"
initsize = "0"
initstate = "live"
refcnt = "5"
taint = ""
uevent = <store method only>
Parameters:
align_buffer_size = "-1"
bdl_pos_adj = "1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"
beep_mode = "Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y"
enable_msi = "1"
enable = "Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y,Y"
id = "(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)"
index = "-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"
jackpoll_ms = "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
model = "(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)"
patch = "(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null),(null)"
position_fix = "-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"
power_save = "1"
power_save_controller= "Y"
probe_mask = "-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1,-1"
probe_only = "0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0"
single_cmd = "N"
snoop = "Y"
Sections:
.bss = "0xffffffffa0365a80"
.data = "0xffffffffa0365000"
.data.unlikely = "0xffffffffa03657d0"
.exit.text = "0xffffffffa0362930"
.gnu.linkonce.this_module= "0xffffffffa0365800"
.init.text = "0xffffffffa0368000"
.note.gnu.build-id = "0xffffffffa0363000"
.rodata = "0xffffffffa0363040"
.rodata.str1.1 = "0xffffffffa0363f02"
.rodata.str1.8 = "0xffffffffa03642e0"
.smp_locks = "0xffffffffa0364618"
.strtab = "0xffffffffa036b508"
.symtab = "0xffffffffa0369000"
.text = "0xffffffffa0360000"
__mcount_loc = "0xffffffffa0364848"
__param = "0xffffffffa0364628"
__verbose = "0xffffffffa0365640"
I guess it might be a rather basic configuration step that I missed and am blind to see. If so, sorry for wasting your time :-/ Hint appreciated.
Last edited by kozaki (2014-09-01 19:43:16)

Answer 1

Read how to post correctly to get English output.
kozaki wrote:$ systool -vm relevant_snd_module;
Really? What do you think relevant_snd_module is? When you copy something from another thread, maybe it would be wise to read through it first. I tried to explain that there is no relevant_snd_module, it is a hint to the user, yes you, to use the module that is relevant in users case, which often is snd_hda_intel, which again is also mentioned in the other thread. Read it and correct your post accordingly please.
As for the issue at hand, is module-suspend-on-idle loaded? If so, disable and unload it. Start PA with '-vvvv' switch and post the log here. You might want to try defaulting the configuration for PA, meaning delete your ~/.config/pulse. Does your GPU have a hdmi sound card?
Check if you can get sound output with PA killed through speaker-test:
speaker-test -c 8 -t wav -D plug:"dmix:{CARD PCH DEV 0}"
speaker-test -c 2 -t wav -D plug:"dmix:{CARD PCH DEV 0}"
Both should work launched in that order at the same time.