Sound works on LiveCD, but not after install (re-submission)

[bubba]

This is a re-submission of https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/442793.

Using the 10/09/09 daily build this is the procedure I used to reproduce the defect-

1) Boot LiveCD
2) Run 'alsamixer'
3) Raise volume to 100% for
 a) master
 b) front

* front, surround, center, lfe all 100% too *

4) scp .wav file from server
5) aplay .wav file works fine
6) scp alsa-info.sh from server
7) run alsa-info.sh
8) scp livecd_alsa_info.txt to server
9) install Mythbuntu
 * default settings, used whole HDD, selected IR remote,
    nvidia graphics driver *
10) reboot
11) exit mythtfrontend (started by default)
12) Run 'alsamixer'
13) Raised volume to 100% for
 a) master
 b) front
14) scp .wav file from server
15) aplay .wav file <---------------------------------- * ! * FAILS * ! *
16) scp alsa-info.sh from server
17) run alsa-info.sh
18) scp installed_alsa_info.txt results to server
19) filed defect

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

This is totally bizarre.

Okay, so lets try to rule out what any possible delta could be between the two.

Can you please try to stop mythbackend and try again in case a tuner is grabbing the default alsa device for some reason?
sudo /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend stop

[bubba (terp4life2001)]

I stopped the backend and then tried aplay again, but still no sound.

To debug further I tried the following on the installed system:

master, headphones, PCM, Front, Front Mi, Surround (m), Center (m) LFE (m)

1) unmute
 a) surround
 b) center
 c) LFE

2) aplay fails

3) re-mute
 a) surround
 b) center
 c) LFE

4) aplay fails

* noticed that there is no mixer application in the top pannel *

5) run 'Synaptic Package Manager'

6) pulseaudio is not installed

7) install pulseaudio

8) added mixer to panel

9) selected- "sounds card: HDA Intel (Alsa mixer)
10) selected controls: master, pcm, front (all 100%, non-muted)
11) aplay .wav fails

12) selected- "sound card: playback: internal audio analog stereo (PulseAudio Mixer)"
13) selected control: master (no other sliders available)
14) aplay .wav fails

 *with 'alsamixer' noticed that Surround, Center and LFE are all un-muted now. This must have happened with the pulseaudio install as I explicitly re-muted them just before the pulseaudio install.*

[bubba (terp4life2001)]

Here is some interesting data. I get the sound to work, until the NVIDIA 185 driver is installed. Now the sound is a hight pitched (very annoying) noise. Here are the exhaustive notes, but I really wanted to pin this down so I tried to be very precise.

1) boot livecd
2) scp alsa-info.sh from server
3) run alsa-info.sh; copy results to server
4) run installer and only select "forward"
5) installer won't let me select partition option
 * radio button is stuck on install side-by-side (default)
 * cannot select use entire disk radio button
 * moved installer window and installer appears to be hung
 * install application is no longer drawing to the window, it's hung
6) terminate installer application
7) attempt to reinstall and steps #4 through #6 are the same
8) reboot

• BTW: Graphics are a mess since NVIDIA driver is not in use. All apps are VERY large and hard to use. It is manageable. *

9) On boot, select to Install instead of boot from LiveCD first.
10) select forward on every selection page (i.e. timezone, etc..)
11) select to use the entire disk for partition/install
12) select name, user name, password, password confirmation and hostname. Then select forward, leaving automatic login selected
13) Leave default Backend w/ Frontend selected
14) leave default SSH service and Samba service, leave all others disabled
15) do not select IR devices
16) leave Video Driver at default "Open Source Driver"
17) install OS
18) finish without running backend setup
19) restart
20) screen went to crazy coloured boxes with random characters in some boxes. CD drive tray ejected. Remove CD and hit enter a few times hoping that display is just borked and that normal "take CD out and hit enter to reboot" was still active. Nothing happens. Hard power cycle the system.

21) System boots and auto-logs-in, mythfrontend starts
22) close mythfrontend
23) scp alsa-info.sh from server
24) run alsa-info.sh and copy data to server
25) scp .wav file from server
26) aplay .wav <--------------------------------- !!! SUCCESS !!!

 differences between previous failed attempts:
 a) This was a straight install and not a boot livecd and then install
 b) no NVIDIA driver installed
 c) no IR installed
 d) no time zone selected
 e) no mythtv config (maybe, I don't remember if I was doing this in previous failed installs)

27) sudo apt-get update
28) sudo apt-get upgrade
29) repeat #27 and #28 to ensure I got everything
29) reboot

30) system comes up, logs in and starts mythfrontend
31) exit mythfrontend
32) aplay .wav <------------------- SUCCESS
33) run alsamixer and raise master, PCM and front to 100% (PCM may have been at 100% already)
34) aplay .wav <------------------- SUCCESS
35) system claims there are 6 updates available
36) Install updates using "Update Manager application"
37) failure during install (attached failure message)
38) checked for update again and it said the updater was broken
39) reboot

40) system comes up, logs in and starts mythfrontend
41) exit mythfrontend
42) aplay .wave <------------------- SUCCESS
43) selected mythbuntu control center
44) selected graphics
45) selected hardware drivers
46) activate NVIDIA 185 driver
47) reboot

48) system comes ...

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Great diagnosis!

OK so this raises a point that might nail this on the head. Are you using
SPDIF or HDMI audio? Those are the only types that I would think to be
affected by changes with a graphics driver.

On Sat, Oct 10, 2009 at 16:30, bubba <email address hidden> wrote:

> Here is some interesting data. I get the sound to work, until the NVIDIA
> 185 driver is installed. Now the sound is a hight pitched (very
> annoying) noise. Here are the exhaustive notes, but I really wanted to
> pin this down so I tried to be very precise.
>
> 1) boot livecd
> 2) scp alsa-info.sh from server
> 3) run alsa-info.sh; copy results to server
> 4) run installer and only select "forward"
> 5) installer won't let me select partition option
> * radio button is stuck on install side-by-side (default)
> * cannot select use entire disk radio button
> * moved installer window and installer appears to be hung
> * install application is no longer drawing to the window, it's hung
> 6) terminate installer application
> 7) attempt to reinstall and steps #4 through #6 are the same
> 8) reboot
>
> • BTW: Graphics are a mess since NVIDIA driver is not in use. All apps
> are VERY large and hard to use. It is manageable. *
>
> 9) On boot, select to Install instead of boot from LiveCD first.
> 10) select forward on every selection page (i.e. timezone, etc..)
> 11) select to use the entire disk for partition/install
> 12) select name, user name, password, password confirmation and hostname.
> Then select forward, leaving automatic login selected
> 13) Leave default Backend w/ Frontend selected
> 14) leave default SSH service and Samba service, leave all others disabled
> 15) do not select IR devices
> 16) leave Video Driver at default "Open Source Driver"
> 17) install OS
> 18) finish without running backend setup
> 19) restart
> 20) screen went to crazy coloured boxes with random characters in some
> boxes. CD drive tray ejected. Remove CD and hit enter a few times hoping
> that display is just borked and that normal "take CD out and hit enter to
> reboot" was still active. Nothing happens. Hard power cycle the system.
>
> 21) System boots and auto-logs-in, mythfrontend starts
> 22) close mythfrontend
> 23) scp alsa-info.sh from server
> 24) run alsa-info.sh and copy data to server
> 25) scp .wav file from server
> 26) aplay .wav <--------------------------------- !!! SUCCESS !!!
>
> differences between previous failed attempts:
> a) This was a straight install and not a boot livecd and then
> install
> b) no NVIDIA driver installed
> c) no IR installed
> d) no time zone selected
> e) no mythtv config (maybe, I don't remember if I was doing this in
> previous failed installs)
>
> 27) sudo apt-get update
> 28) sudo apt-get upgrade
> 29) repeat #27 and #28 to ensure I got everything
> 29) reboot
>
> 30) system comes up, logs in and starts mythfrontend
> 31) exit mythfrontend
> 32) aplay .wav <------------------- SUCCESS
> 33) run alsamixer and raise master, PCM and front to 100% (PCM may have
> been at 100% already)
> 34) aplay .wav <------------------- SUCCESS
> 35) system claims there are 6 updat...

[bubba (terp4life2001)]

I'm doing DVI out of the PC with a DVI to HDMI cable, HDMI going into the TV.

I have exactly the same setup in a different room, different PC HW and alsa a slightly nicer model of TV that I'm doing the same thing for video and audio is optical (spdif). So, I just mixed up some equipment. I now have VGA from the PC to the TV and optical audio (spdif). I had to change the input setting on the TV menu, as expected. Video looks great, but no audio. Double checked alsamixer and all relevant volumes seem to be 100%.

Before that-

I tried the 17* driver and there was no sound.

Then I removed all NVIDIA drivers and there was sound.

Then I used the NVIDIA installer from their website. It installed version 185.18.36 on the system. I don't know the minor numbers on the Mythbuntu installed NVIDIA 185 driver, so I don't know if there are differences. Regardless, there was no sound with that driver.

I do remember having to change some application level things to use spdif on the other system/TV, but I don't remember what they were and also, I'm not sure if I'd need to do that for aplay.

[bubba (terp4life2001)]

I just realized that I had done everything in the last post over spdif, but without removing the mini-plug that I had been using for audio previously. I'm not sure if it matters or not. Much of what is posted below was also with spdif in the PC and TV and mini just on the PC, RCA was disconnected from the TV properly.

The previous post concluded in a state where I could not play sound and I was not running the nvidia driver. 'lsmod | grep -i nv' showed no results. This had been after a reboot. Someone on #alsa suggested to play with IEC958 settings. I toggled both IEC958 and "IEC958 Default PCM" in every configuration and no change with aplay. I wanted to make sure the LiveCD would work in this configuration (i.e. VGA video and spdif audio). The installer better recognized the TVs resolution. It's displaying at a very high resolution with is the opposite of when it was using DVI and mini.

Still no sound though. Should the installer setup ALSA/Pulse for spdif or is there something additional that I need to do. I seem to think there is or should be.

It was at this point that I realized the mini plug/cable was plugged into the PC, so I unplugged it and booted from the LiveCD again.

open xterm
scp .wav from server
aplay .wav <-------------------- FAILURE
alsamixer
raised master and front volumes to 100%
aplay .wav <-------------------- FAILURE

[Mario Limonciello (superm1)]

Did you ever get any more luck with this?

Does your NVIDIA graphics card also happen to have an HDMI port in addition to the DVI? It's possible that when the driver is installed that SP/DIF is routed through the HDMI port if so when the nvidia graphics driver is loaded.

[bubba (terp4life2001)]

Quick Answer: Close the defect, systems are no longer available for testing.

Long Answer:

I have not had any more luck with this. I had a HW problem with the system that has rendered it unusable as a frontend. I took a different nVidia graphics card out of another system to see if it was the particular graphics card that was flakey. I put it in the problematic mythtv system and everything worked great, sound and video. I shouted "woo hoo," as now I knew I only needed to buy a new graphics card. I took the working graphics card out of the mythtv system and returned it to its original system... and that's when things started failing.

The original system wouldn't post anymore. I then put the working graphics card back in mythtv system and I couldn't get sound working at all any more. It had worked just fine about 20 minutes before. Sadly, the system that wouldn't post was my frontend in my living room and the original frontend with the sound problems was the frontend in my bedroom. Within about 40 minutes I went from thinking that I had solved the problem to having no functioning frontends.

I tested the livingroom (dead) mobo to death and it couldn't get it to post at all. The power supply has since fried out (smoke) when testing something else so that might have been the reason. I tried to diagnose the system with the flakey sound after the graphics card switching, but somehow the graphics card switching really borked something on the system. Even with the LiveCD I could no longer get sound, which as you can see from the original report had previously been working.

At this point I was pretty frustrated. I gave up on those systems as frontends and ran out an bought two Acer Aspire Revos (nVidia ION) and now I'm fighting with their HDMI audio out.

Thanks for the assistance!

[MarcRandolph (mrand)]

Original reporter has moved on.