noise (crackling) when muting PCM volume and audio is playing

[Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín]

When PCM volume is muted and some audio is playing, I hear noise through front and LFE speakers (or earphones when plugged in). If no audio is playing, I don't hear the noise.

NOTE: that we have been seeing PCM channels becoming muted during updates without user intervention so it is worth checking your Alsa PCM mixer level if you are suddenly getting crackling sound when sound is supposed to be being produced.

Individually muting Master (which control front speakers) or LFE volume, I can't hear the noise. PCM volume controls both front and LFE speakers simultaneously.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10
Package: linux-image-2.6.27-3-generic 2.6.27-3.4 [modified: lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.pcimap lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.dep lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.ieee1394map lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.usbmap lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.isapnpmap lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.seriomap lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.alias lib/modules/2.6.27-3-generic/modules.symbols]
ProcCmdLine: root=UUID=0fba0e14-cec6-4293-82ea-81d8896a607b ro
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.27-3.4-generic
SourcePackage: linux

[Juan Pablo Salazar Bertín (snifer)]

I forgot: it's an Intrepid alpha 6 clean install.

My alsa info: <http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=591efcd74bc725015e44f030ecc0292392802211>

[Clément Léger (clem-vangelis)]

I can confirm this bug on an Inspiron 9400 with a fresh intrepid ibex install

[hp_zouil (alefauch)]

I can also confirm this bug on an Asus F3JM-AK022H with an Intel 82801G sound card

see my alsa info here: http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=1773714551780eac7f6165ba709ae9efb3743ba0

I found that if you mute the sound with the OSS Mixer, the cracking is gone but then you have no sound anymore.

[Clément Léger (clem-vangelis)]

problem solved by removing pulseaudio :/ , what a pain to add a non-working sound server to intrepid...

[Jixop (jixopp)]

Removing Pulseaudio worked for me too.
Follow next explanation and reboot.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=973637

[davie (daviemoston)]

looks like #275392 is related - reports of static noise when using pulseaudio, and it looks like they were when PCM was muted.
This bug should probably be against pulseaudio, not the kernel.

[davie (daviemoston)]

also see bug #220842 which reported this problem in hardy

[davie (daviemoston)]

reports of removing pulseaudio fixing the problem suggest that this is a pulseaudio problem rather than kernel

[dvdmeer (dennis-dvdmeer)]

After the updates today, it seems like it's being fixed (at least, in Jaunty I don't have this problem anymore).

[dvdmeer (dennis-dvdmeer)]

Did some testing today,
the crackling noise is NOT gone when playing audio in firefox browser. But the I'm don't have the crackling noise anymore when playing files in audacious.

[davie (daviemoston)]

the comments on the pulseaudio bug suggest that this is an alsa problem

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Per a decision made by the Ubuntu Kernel Team, bugs will longer be assigned to the ubuntu-kernel-team in Launchpad as part of the bug triage process. The ubuntu-kernel-team is being unassigned from this bug report. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies for more information. Thanks.

[Lennart Karssen (l.c.karssen)]

After this week's updates of the pulseaudio packages I suddenly got these crackling sounds as well.
Running 'alsamixer -Dhw' and then unmuting the PCM channel solved it, as mentioned in the duplicate report of Bug #275392.

[Adam Niedling (krychek)]

I don't understand why this is not a pulseaudio bug. If I remove pulseaudio I don't have this problem, if I reinstall it I have this problem again.

[Kiall Mac Innes (kiall)]

I've spent about 8 hours googling to find some info on this :)

Lennart Karssen's fix sorted this for me..

I'm on a dell precision M65 - 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

If you need any info i'll happily provide... just post the relevant commands here..

[Victoria Wilson (mail-vwilson)]

This bug is still appearing; today I spent several hours trying to debug my sound drivers when a PulseAudio update had muted PCM (not all my sliders are at max by default, and I don't memorize where they all are - so not easy to find) and then produced just crackling instead of sound. Then I run across this bug and it's been going on for five months!!

Is someone fixing this?

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

I also have a crackling sound problem. However, crackling is kind of progress compared to no sound at all which I first had after some update some days ago.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

PS Cf https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/328030.

[Shang Wu (shangwu)]

Me second, running Jaunty 9.04 RC:

2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:57:59 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

Attached the lspci/lspci -vvnn files & alsa-info.txt

[gearond (gearond)]

First of all, Ubuntu is a damn fine linux. It's almost ready for show time, very close. I'm actually using it now daily. My USB wireless was not working in 8.04, so I couldn't, now I will only go back to Windoze when I have to, or to listen to music :-(.
The bug here happens to me (jaunty, 6 month old Gateway T series (sorry can give more)). If I mute the PCM under Alsa SB, the sound never comes back, and all I hear is crackling. Also (I'll report on a different bug report ) I have three other problems/concerns. A/ Volume response curve for sliders is VERY MUCH poo poo, not logarithmic, you get all the volume in the last 15% of the slider. B/ I haven't got ANY output on the headphones at all, but the sound on the speakers goes away when I plug in the headphones. Since it's got crappy speakers, this is important to me. C/ I"d like to see separate sound for different applications like windbloze has.
THANKS for all the hard work, all you designers and bug fixers. You guys are really changing the world. When I went to get a plugin for flashplayer, the only linux mentioned by name was Ubuntu @ Adobe. I swear, you're going to make the FUD factory (@ one microsoft way) work hard to keep up.

[AmenophisIII (amenophisiii)]

i upgraded from intrepid to jaunty and the problem still exists, although it got better. previously i had multiple crackles per second, with jaunty its down to a few (2-5) packed together every 3-6 seconds.

ich10 8086:3a3e, standard jaunty audio packages, jaunty 64bit kernel and vanilla kernel package (2.6.29-02062902-generic)

[gika2002 (gika2002)]

Sony Vaio and Jaunty.
The problem of the crackling when mute the sound was fixed by removing the pulseaudio.
Thank you all.

[Kim Cascone (kim-anechoicmedia)]

I can confirm this bug is still happening on a Dell Studio 1537

kernel: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic
Jaunty /Ubuntu 9.04

by playing audio in some app
muting the PCM
produces the crackling audio symptom

when unmuting the PCM control
the sound does not return until you dirty a slider

[Paul Swanson (paul-swanson)]

I'm affected by this bug on my HP Pavilion dv5 running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). My audio device is an Intel HDA, or more specifically: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03). Specifically, I can hear a crackling noise when the PCM channel is muted and audio is playing.

** Friendly reminder **

If you haven't already stated your Ubuntu version and audio device model please do so. The lspci command is one way you can quickly tell the model of audio device / sound card you're running.

This bug report is currently lacking a definitive diagnosis of what's to blame, your feedback will help this process.

(I know the removal of PulseAudio has removed the symptoms for some, but this is not a solution. It doesn't tell us definitively whether the problem lies with ALSA or PulseAudio; this we're yet to prove. Secondly, if it is PulseAudio then we need it fixed, not removed)

[Pelládi Gábor (pelladigabor)]

I have this bug on an Asus EEE 901, Ubuntu Jaunty, Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

[Kim Cascone (kim-anechoicmedia)]

Dell Studio 1537 sound card info from Audacity:

==============================
Default capture device number: 4
Default playback device number: 4
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: ALSA: HDA Intel: STAC92xx Analog (hw:0,0)
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.011610
Low Output Latency: -1.000000
High Input Latency: 0.046440
High Output Latency: -1.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: ALSA: HDA Intel: INTEL HDMI (hw:0,3)
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 8
Low Input Latency: -1.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.011610
High Input Latency: -1.000000
High Output Latency: 0.046440
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 2
Device name: ALSA: hdmi
Input channels: 0
Output channels: 8
Low Input Latency: -1.000000
Low Output Latency: 0.011610
High Input Latency: -1.000000
High Output Latency: 0.046440
Supported Rates:
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 3
Device name: ALSA: pulse
Input channels: 32
Output channels: 32
Low Input Latency: 0.011610
Low Output Latency: 0.011610
High Input Latency: 0.046440
High Output Latency: 0.046440
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 4
Device name: ALSA: default
Input channels: 32
Output channels: 32
Low Input Latency: 0.011610
Low Output Latency: 0.011610
High Input Latency: 0.046440
High Output Latency: 0.046440
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    192000
==============================
Device ID: 5
Device name: OSS: /dev/dsp
Input channels: 16
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.011610
Low Output Latency: 0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.046440
High Output Latency: -0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Selected capture device: 4 - ALSA: iMic USB audio system: USB Audio (hw:1,0)
Selected playback device: 4 - ALSA: iMic USB audio system: USB Audio (hw:1,0)
Supported Rates:
    8000
    9600
    11025
    12000
    15000
    16000
    22050
    24000
    32000
    44100
    48000
    88200
    96000
    192000
Unable to open Portmixer

========================
from lspci:
========================
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

[Paul Swanson (paul-swanson)]

Thanks to those who have already posted their distribution and sound card version.

Please remember, if you have a log file to upload ... use the ATTACHMENT feature. ;)

Thanks!

[Pelládi Gábor (pelladigabor)]

I solved the noise problem by editing /etc/pulse/default.pa. I replaced the line
load-module module-hal-detect tsched=0
with
load-module module-hal-detect
and the noise (crackling) was gone.

[AmenophisIII (amenophisiii)]

after testing this for a few minutes i can confirm, that removing tsched=0 does indeed fix this for me (g45/ich10 hda), but introduces other more severe problems: buffer underruns in vlc resulting in almost completly broken audio (lots of silence).

[Karol Pucyński (kpucynski)]

I have the same issue on Jaunty.
Card is Realtek ALC889a (on Gigabyte P45-DQ6).

* pulseaudio 1:0.9.14-0ubuntu20.2
* alsa 1.0.18.dfsg-1ubuntu8

[Meeko (bjorn-aarset)]

Confirmed on EEE 901 with Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

[Karol Pucyński (kpucynski)]

It looks like the problem is gone in Karmic Alpha 6 (at least for me)...

[Brewster Malevich (brews)]

Yeah, I had this issue on Jaunty, but no longer in Karmic (so far).

[SyscomDT (scott-mickelson)]

I have this issue on Jaunty running on my ASUS f3jc. I have not removed pulseaudio yet. What would the consequence of doing so be?
Thanks

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

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