[Jetway Mini-Top, Nvidia GPU] Ubuntu fails to output audio with HDMI

[Wes Garner]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

This could be a bug in either pulsaudio or alsa-driver
Audio over HDMI fails unless specific plughw:0,7 is specified in defaults
HDMI is selected in sound settings in all correct places. alsamixer shows none muted. Sound settings only show one HDMI output, does not make a tone when doing tests nor does TV or receiver show connection.

Works:
aplay -D plughw:NVidia,7 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav
aplay -D plughw:0,7 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

Fails:
Any Ubuntu system sounds, including tests in sound settings
Playing audio through nautilus (holding mouse over MP3) or any other application that doesn't have 0,7 specified
aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

Also, even if 0,7 is specified with applications, usually pass-through audio from a video file causes device busy or device not found with 0,7

The following workaround thread does work mostly but still causes occasional problems in different applications such as XBMC
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1668737

cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version
NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 270.29 Wed Feb 23 16:18:35 PST 2011
GCC version: gcc version 4.5.2 (Ubuntu/Linaro 4.5.2-5ubuntu2)

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: default [USB PnP Sound Device ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

grep eld_valid /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#0.0:eld_valid 0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#1.0:eld_valid 1
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#2.0:eld_valid 0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#3.0:eld_valid 0

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22+stable-queue-24-g67d18-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-6.34-generic 2.6.38-rc7
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-6-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 1: default [USB PnP Sound Device ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: mediacenter 3010 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfe97c000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia GPU 0b HDMI/DP'
   Components : 'HDA:10de000b,10de0101,00100200'
   Controls : 17
   Simple ctrls : 5
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'default'/'C-Media Electronics Inc. USB PnP Sound Device at usb-0000:00:1d'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB0d8c:013c'
   Controls : 7
   Simple ctrls : 3
Date: Mon Mar 14 16:15:55 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Symptom: audio
Symptom_Card: HDA-Intel - HDA NVidia
Symptom_Jack: Digital Out, HDMI
Title: [To Be Filled By O.E.M., Nvidia GPU 0b HDMI/DP, Digital Out, HDMI] Pulseaudio fails to detect card
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-03-09 (5 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 08/26/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 080015
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.vendor: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr080015:bd08/26/2010:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

G'day Wes. This is just a guess on my part, but the upstream 2.6.39-rc2 kernel contains a patch which may fix your problem. From the changelog:

commit eccaca28e29861a63ebc067bfff59c7efa427371
Author: Ben Skeggs
Date: Wed Mar 30 05:03:47 2011 +0000

    drm: export drm_find_cea_extension to drivers

    Nouveau needs access to this structure to build an ELD block for use
    by the HDA audio codec.

    Signed-off-by: Ben Skeggs
    Signed-off-by: Dave Airlie

A PPA of this kernel is available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

In Natty, there is now the workaround to easily select the right profile - in your case, it should probably be "HDMI Extra nr 2".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]