[Intel DH67CL, Realtek ALC892, Grey SPDIF Out, Rear] No sound at all

[Adrian Mariano]

After rebooting I have no sound. My sound device doesn't show up at all in the mixer.

Running "sudo alsa force-reload" corrects the problem, until the next reboot.

This problem started in 18.10 and persists now in 19.04.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-13.14-generic 5.0.6
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-13-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 7 21:50:22 2019
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-19 (1844 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Symptom: audio
Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:PCH failed
Symptom_Card: Built-in Audio - HDA Intel PCH
Symptom_DevicesInUse:
 Error: command ['pkexec', 'fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/controlC1', '/dev/snd/hwC1D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D8p', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D7p', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D3p', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D2c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D1p', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 127: polkit-agent-helper-1: error response to PolicyKit daemon: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: No session for cookie
 Error executing command as another user: Not authorized

 This incident has been reported.
Symptom_Jack: Grey SPDIF Out, Rear
Symptom_Type: No sound at all
Title: [, Realtek ALC892, Grey SPDIF Out, Rear] No sound at all
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-05-04 (3 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/04/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: BLH6710H.86A.0160.2012.1204.1156
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: DH67CL
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAG10212-203
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrBLH6710H.86A.0160.2012.1204.1156:bd12/04/2012:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnDH67CL:rvrAAG10212-203:cvn:ct3:cvr:
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.10-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 19.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=16884d4b-f470-48dc-a0db-a7257e7c549a
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-04-19 (1845 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/tcsh
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.0.0-13-generic root=UUID=e1d7a30a-5e6a-4884-bc20-6e3597c05830 ro
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-13.14-generic 5.0.6
PulseList:
 Error: command ['pacmd', 'list'] failed with exit code 1: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
 No PulseAudio daemon running, or not running as session daemon.
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-5.0.0-13-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-5.0.0-13-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.178
RfKill:

Tags: disco
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-13-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to disco on 2019-05-04 (4 days ago)
UserGroups:

_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 12/04/2012
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: BLH6710H.86A.0160.2012.1204.1156
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: DH67CL
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAG10212-203
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrBLH6710H.86A.0160.2012.1204.1156:bd12/04/2012:svn:pn:pvr:rvnIntelCorporation:rnDH67CL:rvrAAG10212-203:cvn:ct3:cvr:

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It appears 'audacity' is the exclusive user of /dev/snd/seq according to your AudioDevicesInUse.txt.

Please try:
  1. Reconfiguring Audacity to use PulseAudio and not ALSA or OSS.
  2. Uninstalling 'audacity'.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I'm a little confused here. What does audacity have to do with the fact that there is no sound after a reboot? Audacity happens to be running now...perhaps that's why it's the only program using ALSA. (Is ALSA deprecated?) But audacity does not start automatically at boot, so it is irrelevant to the problem, which is that the sound device is not even recognized until "alsa force-reload".

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

The attached file AudioDevicesInUse.txt suggests that 'audacity' is stealing the hardware device from pulseaudio -- bypassing it.

If that is the issue then it's unfortunately not a bug. You need to be sure that all audio software (including audacity) is configured to use PulseAudio only, and not ALSA directly. Because the latter will prevent all other audio (via PulseAudio) from working.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I repeat, immediately after a reboot, audacity is not running. Are you saying that audacity can prevent the system from recognizing my sound hardware at boot just from being installed?

At the moment, sound works despite the audacity's configuration because I ran "alsa force-reload'.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Sorry, yes, while that problem is shown in the attached files it does sound irrelevant now.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Added a kernel task because our kernel engineers are experts at such ALSA issues. And often the solution lies in the kernel.

[Ubuntu Kernel Bot (ubuntu-kernel-bot)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. While running an Ubuntu kernel (not a mainline or third-party kernel) please enter the following command in a terminal window:

apport-collect 1828136

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

apport information

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

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[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I ran the "apport-collect 1828136" command as directed by the automated script. A little puzzled that it gave the message

dpkg-query: no packages found matching alsa-driver
dpkg-query: no packages found matching linux

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

The automated script said I should change the status to "confirmed" even though I am the reporter.

When 18.10 came out some other people reported similar issues:

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2403077

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2405764

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Yeah, kernel bugs have a slightly different process regarding "Confirmed".

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

After booting up, please run:

ls -la /dev/snd/ #could you see some dev nodes

aplay -l # could you see some audio devices

sudo chmod a+rw /dev/snd/*
aplay -l # could you see some different output from the 1st time.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

Summary: looks to me like aplay -l is showing the intel hardware. No

adrian> ls -la /dev/snd
total 0
0 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 320 May 9 18:07 ./
0 drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 5080 May 9 18:07 ../
0 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 80 May 9 18:07 by-path/
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 7 May 9 18:07 controlC0
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 12 May 9 18:07 controlC1
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 6 May 9 18:07 hwC0D0
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 11 May 9 18:07 hwC1D0
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 3 May 9 18:07 pcmC0D0c
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 2 May 9 18:07 pcmC0D0p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 4 May 9 18:07 pcmC0D1p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 5 May 9 18:07 pcmC0D2c
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 8 May 9 18:13 pcmC1D3p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 9 May 9 18:13 pcmC1D7p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 10 May 9 18:13 pcmC1D8p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 1 May 9 18:07 seq
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 33 May 9 18:07 timer
adrian> aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
adrian> sudo chmod a+rw /dev/snd/*
[sudo] password for adrian:
adrian> aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC892 Digital [ALC892 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
adrian> ls -la /dev/snd
total 0
0 drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 320 May 9 18:07 ./
0 drwxr-xr-x 20 root root 5080 May 9 18:07 ../
0 drwxrwxrwx 2 root root 80 May 9 18:07 by-path/
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 7 May 9 18:07 controlC0
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 12 May 9 18:07 controlC1
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 6 May 9 18:07 hwC0D0
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 11 May 9 18:07 hwC1D0
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 3 May 9 18:15 pcmC0D0c
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 2 May 9 18:15 pcmC0D0p
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 4 May 9 18:15 pcmC0D1p
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 5 May 9 18:07 pcmC0D2c
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 8 May 9 18:15 pcmC1D3p
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 9 May 9 18:15 pcmC1D7p
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 10 May 9 18:15 pcmC1D8p
0 crw-rw----+ 1 root audio 116, 1 May 9 18:15 seq
0 crw-rw-rw-+ 1 root audio 116, 33 May ...

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

According to the log of ls and aply -l, your audio hardware is recognized by the driver after booting up.

And alsa is ready to work, I can't find any problem here. I guess you could run 'aplay test.wav' to play sound after booting up without "sudo alsa force-reload"

you wrote "After rebooting I have no sound. My sound device doesn't show up at all in the mixer.", does it mean there is only a dummy output in the gnome-sound-setting?

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

If I look at the sound settings using pavucontrol (I don't normally use gnome and don't seem to have a program called gnome-sound-setting installed) then under the configuration tab I see the nvidia hardware but not the built in audio. (The nvidia card has only HDMI and my speakers don't have that input, so I can't try using that. I don't have any devices with HDMI input.)

After running 'alsa force-reload' the built-in audio appears as a configuration option.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I rebooted and went into the "Ubuntu" desktop and looked at the sound settings. It shows an output tab and said "dummy". I clicked and was able to switch it to the nvidia card. I think maybe the nvidia card was off, which it should be since there's no output device connected.

I went back into my regular environment and observed that the nvidia output was available but not the built-in sound. I ran aplay test.wav and could see in pavucontrol that sound output was going to the nvidia output. (It shows a real-time output level bar.)

I ran alsa force-reload. When I do this the message "Terminating processes: <pid>" appears and instantly at that point, the built in sound appears in pavucontrol on the configuration tab. For some reason though, in this case, even after I selected it, I still got no sound. I rebooted again, went straight into my normal environment, confirmed that only the nvidia card was available, ran 'alsa force-reload', the built-in sound appears instantly as described above, then there is a many second delay while alsa loads and messages about loading of sound driver modules appears. And then I can play sound, e.g. with aplay.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

I guess you alsa driver works after booing up, but the pulseaudio fails to get your built in sound card via alsa-lib.

To check it, after booing up, run pactl list cards, I guess you could only see one dummy card and one nvidia hdmi audio card; after sudo alsa force-reload and run pactl list cards, you will see one built in audio card and one nvidia hdmi audio card.

If it does, we need to debug pulseaduio to check why it fails to detect built-in card after booing up.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I rebooted, ran pactl list cards, ran alsa force reload, then re-ran the pactl command. Results was as you predicted. The pactl outputs before and after appear below.

Here's the before output:

Card #0
        Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_01_00.1
        Driver: module-alsa-card.c
        Owner Module: 5
        Properties:
                alsa.card = "1"
                alsa.card_name = "HDA NVidia"
                alsa.long_card_name = "HDA NVidia at 0xfe080000 irq 17"
                alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
                device.bus_path = "pci-0000:01:00.1"
                sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.1/sound/card1"
                device.bus = "pci"
                device.vendor.id = "10de"
                device.vendor.name = "NVIDIA Corporation"
                device.product.id = "0fbc"
                device.string = "1"
                device.description = "HDA NVidia"
                module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
                device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
        Profiles:
                output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5900, available: no)
                output:hdmi-surround: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 800, available: no)
                output:hdmi-surround71: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 800, available: no)
                output:hdmi-stereo-extra1: Digital Stereo (HDMI 2) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5700, available: yes)
                output:hdmi-stereo-extra2: Digital Stereo (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 5700, available: no)
                output:hdmi-surround-extra2: Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 600, available: no)
                output:hdmi-surround71-extra2: Digital Surround 7.1 (HDMI 3) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority: 600, available: no)
                off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority: 0, available: yes)
        Active Profile: off
        Ports:
                hdmi-output-0: HDMI / DisplayPort (priority: 5900, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
                        Properties:
                                device.icon_name = "video-display"
                        Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo, output:hdmi-surround, output:hdmi-surround71
                hdmi-output-1: HDMI / DisplayPort 2 (priority: 5800, latency offset: 0 usec, available)
                        Properties:
                                device.icon_name = "video-display"
                                device.product.name = "DELL U2715H
 "
                        Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra1
                hdmi-output-2: HDMI / DisplayPort 3 (priority: 5700, latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
                        Properties:
                                device.icon_name = "video-display"
                        Part of profile(s): output:hdmi-stereo-extra2, output:hdmi-surround-extra2, output:hdmi-surround71-extra2

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the after output:

Car...

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

The before file was attached to the last comment. Here's the after file from pactl.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

Then edit /etc/pulse/client.conf, change the line "; extra-arguments = --log-target=syslog" to "extra-arguments = -vvvv --log-target=file:/tmp/a.txt".

reboot.

you will find the /tmp/a.txt, this is the pulseaaudio log, let us try to find some clues from the log.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I followed the instructions but no log file was created.

I noticed in the man page for pulse-client.conf it says

extra-arguments= Extra arguments to pass to the PulseAudio daemon when
       autospawning.

and in /etc/pulse/client.conf.d I see

autospan=no

I tried playing sound, running "alsa force-reload" and checking for the log file but nothing seemed to cause that file to be created.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

This is something I never met before, this is the content of my /etc/pulse/client.conf, and I can find the /tmp/a.txt after booting up. Maybe this is the root cause of the problem you report, the pulseaudio doesn't start as the 18.10 or 19.04, the pulseaudio still act as the 14.04. Did you upgrade the system from 14.04?

# This file is part of PulseAudio.
#
# PulseAudio is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# PulseAudio is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
# along with PulseAudio; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

## Configuration file for PulseAudio clients. See pulse-client.conf(5) for
## more information. Default values are commented out. Use either ; or # for
## commenting.

; default-sink =
; default-source =
; default-server =
; default-dbus-server =

; autospawn = yes
; daemon-binary = /usr/bin/pulseaudio
; extra-arguments = --log-target=syslog
 extra-arguments = -vvvv --log-target=file:/tmp/a.txt

; cookie-file =

; enable-shm = yes
; shm-size-bytes = 0 # setting this 0 will use the system-default, usually 64 MiB

; auto-connect-localhost = no
; auto-connect-display = no

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I believe that I upgraded incrementally as new releases came out from 14.04. (Hard to recall for sure back that far.) But definitely I got to 18.10 from 18.04 to 18.04 from 17.10. And 18.04, I didn't have this problem. In fact, I have a second machine that I'm "scared" to upgrade that's still running 18.04 because I don't want to have this problem on two machines.

So you don't think the existence of /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf with the contents

autospawn=no

could explain the lack of the log file? I notice that this file does not exist on my other machine.

If I enable autospawn does something else need to change?

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

there is no client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf on my computer too.

And the pulseaudio usually sets "autospawn=yes" or "Restart=on-failure" in the systemd.

Maybe you could delete 00-disable-autospawn.conf temporarily and do a test, if it does not work, restore it.

And you could run "dpkg -S 00-disable-autospawn.conf" to check which package installed this file.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I removed the 00-disable-autospawn.conf file and rebooted. Then I get a.txt containing this:

D: [pulseaudio] conf-parser.c: Parsing configuration file '/etc/pulse/client.con
f'
E: [autospawn] core-util.c: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
W: [autospawn] lock-autospawn.c: Cannot access autospawn lock.
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to acquire autospawn lock

which seems not very enlightening. I tried alsa force-reload and it works as usual and nothing more appears in a.txt.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I looked around a bit and found ~/.config/pulse, a directory with permission 700. Changed it to 777. That didn't make a difference. Also found ~/.pulse with this contents:

12 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 12288 Oct 7 2013 11597e2b32f1c4cb56501b9c00000008-card-database.tdb
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 43 Apr 19 2014 11597e2b32f1c4cb56501b9c00000008-default-sink
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 42 Apr 19 2014 11597e2b32f1c4cb56501b9c00000008-default-source
16 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 16384 Apr 19 2014 11597e2b32f1c4cb56501b9c00000008-device-volumes.tdb
 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 adrian adrian 23 Apr 19 2014 11597e2b32f1c4cb56501b9c00000008-runtime -> /tmp/pulse-8aAagnINg7zP
16 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 16384 Apr 19 2014 11597e2b32f1c4cb56501b9c00000008-stream-volumes.tdb
 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 adrian adrian 23 Nov 27 2011 38756220f384bf82c1d1020046a3eb64-runtime -> /tmp/pulse-PKdhtXMmr18n
 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 adrian adrian 23 Sep 21 2009 38756220f384bf82c1d1020046a3eb64:runtime -> /tmp/pulse-2L9K88eMlGn7
36 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 36864 May 9 21:01 d2db290d8cab75358b4e4df65352b09e-card-database.tdb
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 48 May 11 11:34 d2db290d8cab75358b4e4df65352b09e-default-sink
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 42 May 11 11:34 d2db290d8cab75358b4e4df65352b09e-default-source
12 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 12288 May 9 20:57 d2db290d8cab75358b4e4df65352b09e-device-volumes.tdb
32 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 32768 May 9 20:56 d2db290d8cab75358b4e4df65352b09e-stream-volumes.tdb
36 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 36864 Apr 19 2014 dde22083dcde33e18c82670353529afd-card-database.tdb
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 43 Apr 19 2014 dde22083dcde33e18c82670353529afd-default-sink
 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 42 Apr 19 2014 dde22083dcde33e18c82670353529afd-default-source
12 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 12288 Apr 19 2014 dde22083dcde33e18c82670353529afd-device-volumes.tdb
16 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 16384 Apr 19 2014 dde22083dcde33e18c82670353529afd-stream-volumes.tdb
 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 5982 Mar 10 2012 default.pa
 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 adrian adrian 5920 Mar 10 2012 default.pa~

Some kinda old stuff in there. Deleted (well, renamed) the directory. No change in behavior. Also it didn't get re-created, which seemed a bit surprising since some of the files in there were new.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I forgot to mention that dpkg -S says:

libpulse0:amd64, libpulse0:i386: /etc/pulse/client.conf.d/00-disable-autospawn.conf

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

On my machine, this is the log the pulseaudio find the sound card via udev, could you find similar info in your a.txt?

D: [pulseaudio] module.c: Checking for existence of '/usr/lib/pulse-11.1/modules/module-udev-detect.so': success
D: [pulseaudio] module-udev-detect.c: /dev/snd/controlC0 is accessible: yes
D: [pulseaudio] module-udev-detect.c: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0 is busy: no
D: [pulseaudio] module-udev-detect.c: Loading module-alsa-card with arguments 'device_id="0" name="pci-0000_00_1f.3" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3" namereg_fail=false tsched=yes fixed_latency_range=no ignore_dB=no deferred_volume=yes use_ucm=yes card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"'
D: [pulseaudio] dbus-util.c: Successfully connected to D-Bus session bus e5c15c9d6b0ef73c65f51ef05cd77146 as :1.30
D: [pulseaudio] reserve-wrap.c: Successfully acquired reservation lock on device 'Audio0'

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I already posted the log file a.txt in its entirety. Here it is again:

D: [pulseaudio] conf-parser.c: Parsing configuration file '/etc/pulse/client.con
f'
E: [autospawn] core-util.c: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
W: [autospawn] lock-autospawn.c: Cannot access autospawn lock.
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to acquire autospawn lock

I'm guessing that the failure of autospawn prevented anything else from being logged.

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

E: [autospawn] core-util.c: Home directory not accessible: Permission denied

I printed out the "Home directory" on my computer, it is /home/$my_account, and the USER of pulseaudio is $my_account too (through ps -aux"), then there is no "Permission denied" problem.

In the pulseaudio, it will check the USER of home dir and USER of pulseaudio daemon, if they don't equal, it will have "Permission denied" problem.

#ifdef HAVE_GETUID
    if (st.st_uid != getuid())
        return -EACCES;
#endif

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

From ps I see that "/usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no" is running with user "adrian" and also my home directory is owned by "adrian".

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

my system is ubuntu 18.04. And from log ps:

The user of "/usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no" is gdm

The user of "/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog" is my account.

If the user is differnt, I have no idea, maybe we should report the problem to <email address hidden>.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

On my ubuntu 18.04 system I only have

/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog

owned by me. On my 19.04 system

/usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no

also owned by me. Note gdm is not running. I assume lightdm, which is running, is the alternative.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

User 'gdm' is normal and not a bug. That's the user which runs the login screen.

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

So is the next step that I should post this to <email address hidden>? Do I need to be a list member to post there?

[Hui Wang (hui.wang)]

Yes, and it looks like you need to be a list member first.

you could register this list from: https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/pulseaudio-discuss

[Adrian Mariano (avm4)]

I finally posted on the pulseaudio list and someone referred me to this bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/timidity/+bug/1793640

I uninstalled timidity and that seems to have fixed the problem.