[Gutsy] ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

[Dax Solomon Umaming]

This was triggered after the latest upgrade. I can play videos just fine, but after I'm done with it, Audio stops. I've restarted alsa-utils and disabled, then enabled sound in KControl but still no luck. I've tried different audio/video players but there's just no sound. I can get the audio back when I reboot, but then, after playing one video or song, audio stops again and I have to reboot to get my audio back.

artsd:
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Error while initializing the sound driver:
device: default can't be opened for playback (Device or resource busy)

aplay -l:
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: I82801DBICH4 [Intel 82801DB-ICH4], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel 82801DB-ICH4]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: I82801DBICH4 [Intel 82801DB-ICH4], device 4: Intel ICH - IEC958 [Intel 82801DB-ICH4 - IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Volodymyr Buell (vbuell)]

I've have the same situation.

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: AD198x Analog [AD198x Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 1: AD198x Digital [AD198x Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Jeremy Visser (jeremy-visser)]

Same problem — programs like Totem and Rhythmbox work fine, but any games (like Warsow, OpenArena or Urban Terror) fail, and also Flash doesn't have any sound.

I have an NVIDIA sound device exactly the same as Vladimir's, and receive exactly the same error as the OP's when launching Urban Terror:

------ Initializing Sound ------
Initializing SDL audio driver...
ALSA lib ../../../src/pcm/pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
SDL audio driver is "(UNKNOWN)".
SDL_OpenAudio() failed: No available audio device
Sound initialization failed.
--------------------------------

[Volodymyr Buell (vbuell)]

The similar story but for Debian:

http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.bugs.dist/browse_thread/thread/e73d1e39fa366665/5ba36d2863d1a60d?lnk=raot

[Ulrik Mikaelsson (rawler)]

Same here. Regression from Feisty

[Janne Solanpää (solanpaa)]

Same problem. I can't hear any sounds in flash, and in "Sound settings" I can't hear anything via ALSA, but ESD works like a charm.

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

[Ivan Diaz (gmdario)]

I just updated the ALSA Drivers, Firmware, Libs and Utils to last version (www.alsa-project.org) and now works!

[ca111a (ca111a)]

same here, no sound in vlc, but totem is ok.

~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: nForce2 [NVidia nForce2], device 0: Intel ICH [NVidia nForce2]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: nForce2 [NVidia nForce2], device 2: Intel ICH - IEC958 [NVidia nForce2 - IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Ivan Diaz (gmdario)]

Update the alsa-driver, firewall and utils to last version from ALSA website. And it will work!..

[Jeremy Visser (jeremy-visser)]

But they're not in .deb format, are they?

I'm not sure what Ubuntu's policy for updates is — would this new working ALSA stuff be able to be backported to Gutsy, because this is such a widespread issue? Or will I have to package it up myself and put it in a PPA for people to download?

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

For an update to gutsy, te exact issue would have to be determined, and a patch from newer alsa code would have to be grabbed and included in an update.

[Ivan Diaz (gmdario)]

Well, i packed a DEB of the firmware and driver... check the attachment.
If doesn't works, we will wait until a professional does it.

[John Meuser (meuserj)]

Same problem here, except with different hardware:

john.meuser@d-ilsit1 ~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
john.meuser@d-ilsit1 ~$

[Schneekatze (s-addams)]

I've tried updating the ALSA drivers, libraries, plugins & utils, to 1.0.15rc3, and my setup still won't play Flash sound (I've tried aoss).

[m61 (mike-clarkson)]

same problem, different hardware again
$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: Conexant Digital [Conexant Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Lungten (joycoz-deactivatedaccount)]

This happened to me too when I tried to play mp3 music using audacious. The error says:

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:864:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

** (audacious:8298): WARNING **: alsa_setup(): Failed to open pcm device (default): Device or resource busy

The ouptut of my aplay -l is:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel ICH6]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 4: Intel ICH - IEC958 [Intel ICH6 - IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

It didn't happen before. I reinstalled gutsy on my laptop and then I saw this error.

[Lungten (joycoz-deactivatedaccount)]

I see why this happened to me with audacious. Its because of the audio plugin. ALSA 1.3.5 Ouptut plugin does not work. Audacios works with Pulse Audio Plugin. I don't know why. It use to work before.

[Skeletonix (tomaskloucek)]

Same here !

[A. Villaveces (avillavecesn)]

same problem here when trying to run RoseGarden.

[exactt (giesbert)]

some error message here: trying to get sound from flash plugin using pulseaudio. as soon as a flash video starts the error messages appear.

-desktop:~$ aplay -l
**** Liste von PLAYBACK Geräten ****
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
  Untergeordnete Geräte: 0/1
  Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
  Untergeordnete Geräte: 1/1
  Untergeordnetes Gerät '0: subdevice #0

[exactt (giesbert)]

my problem vanished by placing an apropriate asound.conf in /etc/ .

might be a completely different problem. so sorry for the interruption.

[Jeremy Visser (jeremy-visser)]

After a lot of experimenting, it seems to be (for me) caused by the fact that PulseAudio is installed, but not activated properly. I find sound is a lot more reliable when I route everything through PulseAudio. I added the following to /etc/asound.conf (only takes effect after a reboot):

--------8<--------
pcm.pulse {
    type pulse
}

ctl.pulse {
    type pulse
}

pcm.!default {
    type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
    type pulse
}
--------8<--------

I also uncommented and edited the first two "load-module" directives of /etc/pulse/default.pa:

--------8<--------
load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0
load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:0,0
--------8<--------

Can people try that on for size?

[Jaap Haitsma (jaap)]

Also for me the problem is occurring when I have pulseaudio installed

[BandD (swords-into-plowshares)]

I get the same error message when I try to run Skype through the terminal. It makes it so I can't make or receive calls.

My lspci -v is:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 03)
        Subsystem: Sony Corporation Unknown device 81bb
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

aplay -l:

card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC260 Analog [ALC260 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[peter-starling (peter-spreeuwers)]

After upgrade to gutsy, no sound.
Tried autodetect in system/preferences/sound and that worked but no alsa.
simply typing:

asoundconf reset-default-card

made alsa work so I could select alsa again in preferences.

I had very little problems after upgrading. Only opengl drivers, sound and vmwareplayer didn't work at once. I think ubuntu did a great job.

[Kenneth Loafman (kenneth-loafman)]

This happens in Hardy as well. Skype and sox no longer work even though Totem and others are fine. This is a regression since all was working well prior to the last set of updates today.

$ play foo.dat
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:866:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
ALSA snd_pcm_open error: Device or resource busy
play ao: Could not open default device: error 5
play soxio: Failed writing `default':

[schnollk (schnollk)]

same here only on Hardy. I get this with flash plugin audio in browsers (firefox, opera) which worked fine until a couple of days ago. Otherwise sound works fine. Was there an repos updated package related to this? I didn't change anything that I'm aware of. Anyway, see attachments for more information.

[schnollk (schnollk)]

Oh, and uname:
2.6.24-19-generic #1 SMP Wed Jun 4 16:35:01 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

[Patrick Horgan (phorgan1)]

I get the same error message on Hardy when trying to use SDL audio. (snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
If I kill pulseaudio, or uninstall it everything works fine. What is pulseaudio? If I uninstall it everything works ok, so why do I need/want it?
Patrick

[jun wang (mars704)]

same here, no sound in firefox, but mplayer is ok.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Not due to alsa-kernel but userspace apps blocking on hw:/default:

[era (era)]

Shouldn't this bug be reopened against those userspace apps then?

[Peter Billam (pj-pjb)]

About 60% of the times I boot the machine I get the message:
ALSA pcm_dmix.c:996:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
during boot on the console, but it's not logged in /var/log/*
Then I can't start alsamixer, it says "No mixer elems found"
and there's no audio at all.
But about 40% of boots there's no such message, and audio works fine.
Could be a race condition? I wouldn't blame userspace apps, it's during boot...
I'm using debian lenny testing 2.6.26-1-686 #1 SMP Sat Jan 10 18:29:31 UTC 2009

[Peter Billam (pj-pjb)]

I've noticed something which might be a clue:
When the machine boots with the pcm_dmix.c:996: bug and no audio,
the power-management puts the machine into standby mode after a
certain time of inactivity, as it should.
But in those 40% of boots where the audio works, the power-management
works OK initially, but fails after 12...20 hours and the machine
then remains fully-powered forever. There are no error messages.
The power-management seems to always work when the audio has failed,
and seems to always fail (after some hours) when the audio is working...