pulseaudio errors, sound/audio bugs

[scotty2]

I see a few errors coming from syslog, etc. regarding sound problems. The problem I see is in the volume slider, in the upper desktop pull-down menu. When I grab the slider and go up, it starts to jump and not move smoothly, then I get distorted 'pops' out of my speakers. The lower volume levels seem ok, but I think that there is something going on after seeing my error logs. Seems that pulseaudio and my sound drivers don't quite work right.

Using a M2N-SLI ASUS board, with stock audio. Motherboard drivers are nVidia and C-Media. I have the drivers disk with some Linux code, if needed.

Syslog:

Feb 21 11:21:48 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[5424]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Feb 21 11:21:49 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[5424]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

Messages Log:

Feb 16 14:40:03 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[7586]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Feb 16 14:40:03 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[7586]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Feb 16 14:40:03 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[7586]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.
Feb 16 14:40:18 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[7586]: module-alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 5.99 ms
Feb 16 14:43:49 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[7586]: module-alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 11.97 ms
Feb 16 14:44:00 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[7586]: module-alsa-sink.c: Increasing wakeup watermark to 17.01 ms

Feb 16 14:58:40 X-PuTeR kernel: [ 75.279239] warning: `pulseaudio' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
Feb 16 14:58:41 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3815]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Feb 16 14:58:41 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3815]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

Feb 16 22:26:48 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[10958]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Feb 16 22:26:48 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[10958]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Feb 16 22:26:49 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[10958]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

Feb 17 15:46:46 X-PuTeR kernel: [ 33.056478] warning: `pulseaudio' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
Feb 17 15:46:46 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3861]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Feb 17 15:46:47 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3861]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

etc,etc,etc... through today:

Feb 21 11:21:48 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[5424]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Feb 21 11:21:48 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[5424]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Feb 21 11:21:49 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[5424]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

Sound for the most part is working ok. I also get random results/movement from the sliders on the main volume control page. When I try to turn up the PCM, etc the movement is choppy and sometimes the link between left and right channels 'breaks' and I have to try to get them back together manually.

Running the Jaunty Alpha 4 - Kernel 2.28.8

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

I also got this one;
warning: `pulseaudio' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)

$ pulseaudio --version
I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
I: caps.c: Dropping root privileges.
I: caps.c: Limited capabilities successfully to CAP_SYS_NICE.
N: main.c: Called SUID root and real-time and/or high-priority scheduling was requested in the configuration. However, we lack the necessary privileges:
N: main.c: We are not in group 'pulse-rt', PolicyKit refuse to grant us the requested privileges and we have no increase RLIMIT_NICE/RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limits.
N: main.c: For enabling real-time/high-priority scheduling please acquire the appropriate PolicyKit privileges, or become a member of 'pulse-rt', or increase the RLIMIT_NICE/RLIMIT_RTPRIO resource limits for this user.
pulseaudio 0.9.14

[scotty2 (granny6989)]

Saw this again and is persisting - in syslog, currently on Jaunty Alpha 5...

Mar 11 17:25:39 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3792]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Mar 11 17:25:39 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3792]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

This is from messages log:

Mar 9 17:14:10 X-PuTeR kernel: [ 139.796568] warning: `pulseaudio' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
Mar 9 17:14:11 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3787]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Mar 9 17:14:11 X-PuTeR pulseaudio[3787]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16.00 dB to -16.00 dB which makes no sense.

[elpitagorico (elpitagorico)]

I have same problem.
This is from user.log:
Apr 13 18:45:11 aj-desktop pulseaudio[4656]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Apr 13 18:45:11 aj-desktop pulseaudio[4656]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from -16,00 dB to -16,00 dB which makes no sense.
Apr 13 18:45:19 aj-desktop pulseaudio[4656]: module-x11-xsmp.c: X11 session manager not running.
Apr 13 18:45:19 aj-desktop pulseaudio[4656]: module.c: Failed to load module "module-x11-xsmp" (argument: ""): initialization failed.

[Denis Konstantinov (linvinus)]

i have the same problem
i just rename
/etc/pulse/default.pa
alsa without pulse work fine

[nigmac (nigmac)]

I think I have a related problem, my system just hung and after rebooting all I can find in the message log for the correct time is as follows (I was playing music through Banshee at the time) :-

Jun 21 19:03:46 hobgoblin pulseaudio[4077]: alsa-util.c: Device front:0 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz.
Jun 21 19:03:46 hobgoblin pulseaudio[4077]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:2 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 32000 Hz.
Jun 21 19:03:46 hobgoblin pulseaudio[4077]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "Mic" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Jun 21 19:03:46 hobgoblin pulseaudio[4077]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 16000 Hz.
Jun 21 19:03:46 hobgoblin pulseaudio[4077]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 2 channels, changed to 1.
Jun 21 19:03:46 hobgoblin pulseaudio[4077]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from 18.00 dB to 18.00 dB which makes no sense.

[Adam (adam-jackman)]

It looks like I have the same issue, but instead of a hanging system, Banshee is exiting too.

Jul 6 22:49:09 Noisy pulseaudio[23214]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Jul 6 22:49:09 Noisy pulseaudio[23214]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "PCM" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Jul 6 22:49:09 Noisy pulseaudio[23214]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find fallback mixer control "Mic" or mixer control is no combination of switch/volume.
Jul 6 22:49:09 Noisy pulseaudio[23214]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 16000 Hz.
Jul 6 22:49:09 Noisy pulseaudio[23214]: alsa-util.c: Device hw:1 doesn't support 2 channels, changed to 1.
Jul 6 22:49:09 Noisy pulseaudio[23214]: module-alsa-source.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from 18.00 dB to 18.00 dB which makes no sense.

[Adam (adam-jackman)]

Same issue appears under red hat and for the same sound card:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=469416

Hardware device 1 is the Sound Balster Audigy 2 mic.

adam@Noisy:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
  Subdevices: 32/32
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
----Lines removed
  Subdevice #31: subdevice #31
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
  Subdevices: 8/8
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
 --Lines removed
  Subdevice #7: subdevice #7
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 3: emu10k1 [Multichannel Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 4: p16v [p16v]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
adam@Noisy:~$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 1: emu10k1 mic [Mic Capture]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Audigy2 [Audigy 2 ZS [SB0350]], device 4: p16v [p16v]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[Adam (adam-jackman)]

Only Banshee quits, rythmbox seems unaffected.

I'm getting the following from Banshee, so it looks like it is another issue :(

adam@Noisy:/etc/pulse$ banshee -h
[Info 10:14:17.252] Running Banshee 1.4.3: [Ubuntu jaunty (development branch) (linux-gnu, i486) @ 2009-03-22 18:04:14 UTC]
Mirage - Open DB - URI=file:/home/adam/.cache/banshee-mirage/mirage.db,version=3
Mirage - Database version 3 is up to date
[Info 10:14:20.624] All services are started 3.0865s
[Info 10:14:22.248] nereid Client Started

Object reference not set to an instance of an object
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
at Hyena.Gui.PixbufImageSurface..ctor (Gdk.Pixbuf,bool) <0x00037>
at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.get_MissingAudioImage () <0x00081>
at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.LoadMissingImage (bool) <0x00033>
at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.LoadImage (Banshee.Collection.TrackInfo) <0x00075>
at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.LoadCurrentTrack () <0x00062>
at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.OnPlayerEvent (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs) <0x0003f>
at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngineService.RaiseEvent (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs) <0x00158>
at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngineService.OnEngineEventChanged (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs) <0x000ac>
at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngine.RaiseEventChanged (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs) <0x00016>
at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngine.OnEventChanged (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs) <0x0004e>
at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngine.OnEventChanged (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEvent) <0x00036>
at Banshee.GStreamer.PlayerEngine.OnStateChange (intptr,Banshee.GStreamer.GstState,Banshee.GStreamer.GstState,Banshee.GStreamer.GstState) <0x0005b>
at (wrapper native-to-managed) Banshee.GStreamer.PlayerEngine.OnStateChange (intptr,Banshee.GStreamer.GstState,Banshee.GStreamer.GstState,Banshee.GStreamer.GstState) <0x0004a>
at (wrapper managed-to-native) Gtk.Application.gtk_main () <0x00004>
at Gtk.Application.Run () <0x00007>
at Banshee.Gui.GtkBaseClient.Run () <0x00035>
at Banshee.Gui.GtkBaseClient.Startup () <0x00031>
at Hyena.Gui.CleanRoomStartup.Startup (Hyena.Gui.CleanRoomStartup/StartupInvocationHandler) <0x000a2>

Exception in Gtk# callback delegate
  Note: Applications can use GLib.ExceptionManager.UnhandledException to handle the exception.
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Hyena.Gui.PixbufImageSurface..ctor (Gdk.Pixbuf pixbuf, Boolean disposePixbuf) [0x00000]
  at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.get_MissingAudioImage () [0x00000]
  at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.LoadMissingImage (Boolean is_video) [0x00000]
  at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.LoadImage (Banshee.Collection.TrackInfo track) [0x00000]
  at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.LoadCurrentTrack () [0x00000]
  at Banshee.Gui.Widgets.TrackInfoDisplay.OnPlayerEvent (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs args) [0x00000]
  at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngineService.RaiseEvent (Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEventArgs args) [0x00000]
  at Banshee.MediaEngine.PlayerEngineService.OnEngineEvent...

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi scotty2,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/lucid.

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 332631

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[scotty2 (granny6989)]

Jeremy -

I will hopefully get this tested tonite. The issue for me had to do with a particular motherboard - ASUS m2nsli with Nvidia Bios. I think it was more of a compatibility issue with the bios rather than a pulse audio issue. Either way, I will test this and get back to you shortly.
S*

[scotty2 (granny6989)]

Still seems to persist, but not as much of an issue now. Originally, when I installed the OS, I would finish up and reboot, and the speakers would screetch at me until I slid the volume slider down a bit. At that point, everything would work fine, aside from seeing that error show up during boot and consistently in logs. I noticed that after loading Ubuntu, the default volume level would be about 70-80%, and once I turned it down to maybe 50-60% it would be fine. I don't recall it causing any other real issues.

I still think that it is mainly due to the NVidia audio BIOS. While I do have driver disks, etc that have linux drivers, I have never been able to install these myself. I would be willing to pass any of that info along if it would help any developers. The current errors I see are at the end of the log and are included below. Same messages but so far haven't heard or noticed any real sound problems.

Mar 18 21:13:56 scott-desktop pulseaudio[1293]: alsa-mixer.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from 0.00 dB to 0.00 dB which makes no sense.
Mar 18 21:13:56 scott-desktop pulseaudio[1293]: last message repeated 2 times
Mar 18 21:13:56 scott-desktop rtkit-daemon[1295]: Sucessfully made thread 1315 of process 1293 (n/a) owned by '114' RT at priority 5.
Mar 18 21:13:56 scott-desktop rtkit-daemon[1295]: Supervising 2 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 21:13:56 scott-desktop rtkit-daemon[1295]: Sucessfully made thread 1322 of process 1293 (n/a) owned by '114' RT at priority 5.
Mar 18 21:13:56 scott-desktop rtkit-daemon[1295]: Supervising 3 threads of 1 processes of 1 users.
Mar 18 21:13:57 scott-desktop acpid: client connected from 1355[109:114]
Mar 18 21:13:57 scott-desktop acpid: 1 client rule loaded
Mar 18 21:14:00 scott-desktop gdm-session-worker[1267]: GLib-GObject-CRITICAL: g_value_get_boolean: assertion `G_VALUE_HOLDS_BOOLEAN (value)' failed
Mar 18 21:14:06 scott-desktop rtkit-daemon[1295]: Sucessfully made thread 1444 of process 1444 (n/a) owned by '1000' high priority at nice level -11.
Mar 18 21:14:06 scott-desktop rtkit-daemon[1295]: Supervising 4 threads of 2 processes of 2 users.
Mar 18 21:14:06 scott-desktop pulseaudio[1444]: alsa-mixer.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from 0.00 dB to 0.00 dB which makes no sense.
Mar 18 21:14:06 scott-desktop pulseaudio[1444]: last message repeated 2 times

[Andy (andylhart)]

I get this, see second line:

Aug 7 11:20:40 andy-desktop kernel: [52308.339045] cp210x 3-5.2:1.0: cp210x converter detected
Aug 7 11:20:40 andy-desktop pulseaudio[1818]: alsa-mixer.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from 0.00 dB to 0.00 dB which makes no sense.
Aug 7 11:20:40 andy-desktop rtkit-daemon[1820]: Sucessfully made thread 16764 of process 1818 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.

[Richard Smith (richard-featplus)]

Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid AMD64, Nvidia video driver, NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 AGP 8x

This has happened a few times:
User1 on F8 console
User2 on F9 console
 User2 playing streamed music in Firefox
 Switch to User1 on F8
   Music stops playing
   After around 30 sec:
                       Screen blanks
                       Drum roll
                       Login screen, on F9
                       The previous X session on F9 has crashed out, all the work on open windows gone.
I found the following log messages, but ultimately perhaps it is Xorg or nvidia that should take responsibility for the X session crash?

/var/log/messages:
Aug 27 11:19:51 joseph pulseaudio[26567]: pid.c: Stale PID file, overwriting.
Aug 27 11:19:52 joseph pulseaudio[26567]: main.c: Unable to contact D-Bus: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoServer: Failed to connect to socket /tmp/dbus-T203Jnz5Q3: Connection refused
Aug 27 11:19:54 joseph pulseaudio[26624]: alsa-mixer.c: Your kernel driver is broken: it reports a volume range from 0.00 dB to 0.00 dB which makes no sense.
Aug 27 11:20:59 joseph pulseaudio[26624]: last message repeated 2 times