sound stops after a random interval

[Giorgos Akrivas]

This issue appeared in Natty, sound was working OK in maverick.

Sound suddenly stops working, without the system apparently noticing (there are still sound controls, applications play sounds but nothing comes out of the speakers). There are some ways I can make sound reappear:
1. sudo alsa force-reload
2. rm -rf ~.pulse && sudo alsa force-reload
3. logout, login from console, perform 2. and then login from gdm
4. restart

sometimes 1. is enough, but sometimes I need to go all way to 4.

note: ubuntu-bug audio crashes with the following message:

23822
ERROR: symptom script /usr/share/apport/symptoms/audio.py crashed:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 56, in thread_collect_info
    package = symb['run'](report, ui)
  File "/usr/share/apport/symptoms/audio.py", line 203, in run
    package = problem_func(report, ui, card, isOutput, jack)
  File "/usr/share/apport/symptoms/audio.py", line 78, in symptom_fails_after_a_while
    pa_finish_logging()
TypeError: pa_finish_logging() takes exactly 1 argument (0 given)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.24+dfsg-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-9.43-generic 2.6.38.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-9-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.23.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: giorgos 23822 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: giorgos 23822 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf9df8000 irq 44'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1988B'
   Components : 'HDA:11d4198b,1043829b,00100300'
   Controls : 48
   Simple ctrls : 26
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x46d0x802'/'USB Device 0x46d:0x802 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.2, high speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:0802'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 6144
   Mono: Capture 4682 [76%] [24.28dB] [on]
Date: Mon May 16 23:40:46 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110426)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=el_GR.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/29/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 1004
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: P5K-E
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Asset-1234567890
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacture
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr1004:bd01/29/2008:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnP5K-E:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKComputerINC.:rnP5K-E:rvrRev1.xx:cvnChassisManufacture:ct3:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: P5K-E
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer

[Giorgos Akrivas (gakrivas-gmail)]

update: the problem is with spdif output, the other outputs do produce sound. To conclude: after a random time, spdif sound stops working, the rest of the outputs do work.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Thanks for your bug report. Could you please get a log from PulseAudio as outlined at the following URL? https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log. If you can grab the log whilst experiencing the failure of S/PDIF to function, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[Giorgos Akrivas (gakrivas-gmail)]

Thanks. I created a log from PulseAudio as per given instructions and "fortunately" the issue occured after about 15 minutes. So I started pulseaudio using verbose output to a file, then started listening to some music from spdif, played some youtube videos and some local files, and suddenly all spdif output stopped. I checked and the analog output was working. I *think* that the issue appeared while I was playing a local video, but this may be irrelevant.

I attache the log file.

Thanks a lot.

[negora (negora)]

Hello:

I think that I'm suffering from the same problem on Natty, because I'm also using a SPDIF output and sound stops working suddenly, after awhile, without a clear origin.

In my case, restarting PulseAudio is not enough. I even logout and login again on Ubuntu, using the same account or another, but there's no sound back. However, if I put the system in hibernation and then wake it up, sound starts working again (thanks to a tip from another user on the Ubuntu Forums).

These symptoms make me think that it has nothing to do with PulseAudio. Am I right?

Some people have reported similar problems here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1760669 . I'm not sure if all them are related or have a common origin.

Thanks.

[Spenser Gilliland (spenser-gilliland)]

I'm suffering from the same bug.

[Spenser Gilliland (spenser-gilliland)]

Sorry I should be more specific.

Running x86_64 Ubuntu 11.04 on a AMD Athlon 64 x2.

There are two sound devices appearing in the volume control. The first is the audio chip on the mother board; the second is the hdmi audio on the graphics card.

The relevant sections of lspci -vvv

00:06.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP55 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
 Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 81f6
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0 (500ns min, 1250ns max)
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 21
 Region 0: Memory at fe024000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

02:00.1 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5600 Series]
 Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device aa60
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 41
 Region 0: Memory at fdbfc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

[negora (negora)]

The "lspci -vvv" output for my sound device is as follows:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
 Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. P5B
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 45
 Region 0: Memory at f7ffc000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

I've tried to connect my computer using the analogue output and sound works OK, whereas digital one doesn't work.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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