Unable to start alsamixer due to resource conflict caused by proprietary Nvidia driver

[Fernando Muñoz]

Binary package hint: alsa-utils

Sounds seems to be working okay but I can't start alsamixer:

usuario@usuario-desktop:~$ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 alsamixer
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument

usuario@usuario-desktop:~$ lspci -nn | grep Audio
00:05.0 Audio device [0403]: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio [10de:03f0] (rev a2)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: alsa-utils 1.0.22-0ubuntu5
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.38-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Aug 3 18:16:42 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=es_CO.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: alsa-utils

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

Strace of alsamixer

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Where are you running alsamixer from, in a GUI terminal, or text console?

What happens if you run alsamixer with sudo?

Could you also run the following command in a terminal, so we can get more informatino about your system: "apport-collect -p alsa-base 613248"

Thanks

 affects ubuntu/alsa-utils
 status incomplete

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

I am running alsamixer from a gnome-terminal, the same thing occurs when running it as sudo.

usuario@usuario-desktop:~$ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 sudo alsamixer
cannot load mixer controls: Invalid argument

I noticed that alsamixer tries to open /dev/snd/controlC0 so when I tried to open it and read it I get this error.

usuario@usuario-desktop:~$ LANG=en_US.UTF-8 cat /dev/snd/controlC0
cat: /dev/snd/controlC0: File descriptor in bad state

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

The last error with /dev/snd/controlC0 is expected. You should not attempt to manipulate /dev/snd/ nodes directly; that's alsa-lib's purpose/functionality.

Can you try an strace of LANG=C alsamixer, please?

[Fernando Muñoz (fmunozs)]

I don't have one of this machines at right now, however I think the issue is with the nvidia driver provided with Ubuntu 10.04. I was able to get a working audio and 3D acceleration after using the latest driver from www.nvidia.com

I am going to test a beta of Ubuntu 10.10 to confirm it, also I'll get you the output of that command on Ubuntu 10.04 with the Ubuntu provided nvidia drivers.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Thanks. Your update confirms my suspicion that the proprietary Nvidia driver was involved with incorrect resource allocation.