No sound after startup (audio device shown as Dummy Output)

[prusswan]

(testing from the ubuntu audio dev ppa)

Running sudo alsa force-reload (or sudo killall pulseaudio) seems to be current workaround to get it to work

hardware info (when sound is working):
Code:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
 Subsystem: Dell Device 02bb
 Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 48
 Memory at f6500000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel
 Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 1:
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf6500000 irq 49'
   Mixer name : 'IDT 92HD81B1C5'
   Components : 'HDA:111d76d5,102802bb,00100402'
   Controls : 17
   Simple ctrls : 9
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20110720.1)
Package: alsa-driver (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_SG.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-16.25-generic 3.2.6
Tags: precise
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-16-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-02-06 (10 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 12/17/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A06
dmi.board.name: 0T052J
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: N/A
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA06:bd12/17/2009:svnDellInc.:pnVostro1320:pvrNull:rvnDellInc.:rn0T052J:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvrN/A:
dmi.product.name: Vostro 1320
dmi.product.version: Null
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Please run apport-collect 933209 so we can get some information about your hardware, preferably before you reload ALSA to get audio working again.

Please also get a log from PulseAudio: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log.

[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

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[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

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[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

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[prusswan (prusswan)]

apport information

[prusswan (prusswan)]

added pulseaudio log (following the steps to produce the log actually got the sound working)

[prusswan (prusswan)]

recently discovered that `sudo killall pulseaudio` seems to get the sound back somehow. Not sure if problem lies with pulseaudio or alsa-driver

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

My suspicion about this is that, at startup, some other program (i e, not pulseaudio) is locking the sound card. As a result, pulseaudio does not detect the card correctly.

Not sure how to figure this out in the best way though.

What about the login session (lightdm/gdm/etc) - does sound work there?

[prusswan (prusswan)]

nope, no sound in login session. I do hope this gets fixed (I agree it is probably a matter of looking into the right places) even though the crude workaround is available

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Could you see if it's possible to run "sudo fuser -v /dev/snd/*" right after startup, or maybe switch to a VT and execute it there? With some luck we might catch the offending application.

[prusswan (prusswan)]

This is what I see when I had to do a killall, I thought the pcm devices are interfering but they seem to be started again after the killall, with sound playing.

/dev/snd/controlC0: 11048
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: 11048m
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: 11048m
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo killall pulseaudio
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 11079
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: 11079m
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: 11079m
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 11079
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: 11079m
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: 11079m
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 11079
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: 11079m
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: 11079m
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 11079
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop/Support/r8168-8.027.00$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 11079

[prusswan (prusswan)]

I also tried to hunt down the errant process (using the idea from http://askubuntu.com/questions/25622/my-sound-stopped-working-today-how-can-i-fix-it):

user@user-laptop:~/Desktop$ sudo fuser -f /dev/snd/*
/dev/snd/controlC0: 1075
/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: 1075m
user@user-laptop:~/Desktop$ ps aux | grep 1075
106 1075 0.8 0.1 330812 5220 ? Sl 11:18 0:04 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog

so I didn't find any other process name there, and below is a snippet of what I think would be relevant from /var/log/syslog:

Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> (wlan0): device state change: ip-config -> activated (reason 'none') [70 100 0]
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> Policy set 'user (eth1)' (wlan0) as default for IPv4 routing and DNS.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> Activation (wlan0) successful, device activated.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop NetworkManager[651]: <info> Activation (wlan0) Stage 5 of 5 (IPv4 Commit) complete.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop dbus[625]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher' (using servicehelper)
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop dbus[625]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher'
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop avahi-daemon[652]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv6 with address fe80::c617:feff:fea4:a3dc.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop avahi-daemon[652]: New relevant interface wlan0.IPv6 for mDNS.
Apr 12 11:18:46 user-laptop avahi-daemon[652]: Registering new address record for fe80::c617:feff:fea4:a3dc on wlan0.*.
Apr 12 11:18:55 user-laptop ntpdate[1263]: adjust time server 91.189.94.4 offset -0.105939 sec
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop dbus[625]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit': timed out
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Warning: PolicyKit call failed: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop accounts-daemon[1153]: started daemon version 0.6.15
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop pulseaudio[1075]: [pulseaudio] server-lookup.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11
Apr 12 11:19:07 user-laptop pulseaudio[1075]: [pulseaudio] main.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11

[prusswan (prusswan)]

I noted that pulseaudio is started by 106 on startup, is this normal? After the kill it is started by my userid:

user 3404 4.2 0.1 399304 5576 ? S<l 11:41 0:01 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog

[prusswan (prusswan)]

If it matters, the lines below were added to /var/log/syslog after kill pulseaudio (new process is 3404)

Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Successfully made thread 3397 of process 1758 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Supervising 2 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Successfully made thread 3398 of process 1758 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Supervising 3 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Successfully made thread 3404 of process 3404 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Supervising 1 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Successfully made thread 3405 of process 3404 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Supervising 2 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Successfully made thread 3406 of process 3404 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Apr 12 11:41:30 user-laptop rtkit-daemon[1077]: Supervising 3 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Yes, that's helpful. This one seems to be the first sign of failure:

> dbus[625]: [system] Failed to activate service 'org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit': timed out

Without consolekit, PulseAudio won't have access to sound cards.

Second, this:

> pulseaudio[1075]: [pulseaudio] server-lookup.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NotSupported: Unable to
> autolaunch a dbus-daemon without a $DISPLAY for X11

It looks like pulseaudio is first being started inside a console, or some other context that can't access X.

I'm really not an expert on the consolekit/dBus stuff, but it looks like PulseAudio is not the primary source of failure here.

> I noted that pulseaudio is started by 106 on startup, is this normal?

It would be normal to have it started by lightdm at startup, but I don't know if this is the same as "106".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

I'm marking this as invalid (for alsa-driver, not for dbus) based on the original reporter's feedback - if you're not having the same dbus problems, please file a new bug instead. Thanks.

[manzur (sl-solaris)]

no audio

[Vladimir (neutravlad)]

I had the same issue. This solved it: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/908751/comments/4

[no!chance (ralf-fehlau)]

After upgrade to Ubuntu14.04 the sound device is broken. There is only a dummy output available. Ubuntu12.04 worked fine.