Following an update I made this week to the system, I have attempted to play a number of games, including "X Rebirth" from gog.com, "Minecraft," downloaded from Mojang. In those games making use of the OpenAL library, no sound is coming through PulseAudio; there is a stream listed in Pulse, but there is no sound, and the meter does not indicate that PulseAudio is even receiving any audio. I am also noticing the problem in Blender, but in this case, the issue seems to cause the VSE to stick to the frame it's at when set to "A/V Sync"
To make matters worse, once the stream shows in "pavucontrol," the program won't end. If the audio is integral to the software, such as the case of Blender, the software itself will freeze when I attempt to close it; I will have to kill the program to make it shut down completely. Other programs that use a sound server with OpenAL seem to close, but the stream is still showing in pavucontrol, and the process is still shown as running in "ps x". Killing the frozen app makes it go away; and so far, the normal kill command will work; there's no need to "-9" it.
Even openal-info freezes, after displaying the following:
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Available playback devices:
CM106 Like Sound Device Analog Stereo
Available capture devices:
M-Audio Fast Track MKII Analog Stereo
Monitor of CM106 Like Sound Device Analog Stereo
Default playback device: CM106 Like Sound Device Analog Stereo
Default capture device: CM106 Like Sound Device Analog Stereo
ALC version: 1.1
** Info for device "CM106 Like Sound Device Analog Stereo" **
ALC version: 1.1
ALC extensions:
ALC_ENUMERATE_ALL_EXT, ALC_ENUMERATION_EXT, ALC_EXT_CAPTURE,
ALC_EXT_DEDICATED, ALC_EXT_disconnect, ALC_EXT_EFX,
ALC_EXT_thread_local_context, ALC_SOFTX_device_clock, ALC_SOFTX_HRTF,
ALC_SOFT_loopback, ALC_SOFTX_midi_interface, ALC_SOFT_pause_device
OpenAL vendor string: OpenAL Community
OpenAL renderer string: OpenAL Soft
OpenAL version string: 1.1 ALSOFT 1.16.0
OpenAL extensions:
AL_EXT_ALAW, AL_EXT_DOUBLE, AL_EXT_EXPONENT_DISTANCE, AL_EXT_FLOAT32,
AL_EXT_IMA4, AL_EXT_LINEAR_DISTANCE, AL_EXT_MCFORMATS, AL_EXT_MULAW,
AL_EXT_MULAW_MCFORMATS, AL_EXT_OFFSET, AL_EXT_source_distance_model,
AL_LOKI_quadriphonic, AL_SOFT_block_alignment, AL_SOFT_buffer_samples,
AL_SOFT_buffer_sub_data, AL_SOFT_deferred_updates, AL_SOFT_direct_channels,
AL_SOFT_loop_points, AL_SOFT_MSADPCM, AL_SOFT_source_latency,
AL_SOFT_source_length
EFX version: 1.0
Max auxiliary sends: 4
Supported filters:
Low-pass, High-pass, Band-pass
Supported effects:
EAX Reverb, Reverb, Chorus, Distortion, Echo, Flanger, Ring Modulator,
Compressor, Equalizer, Dedicated Dialog, Dedicated LFE
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This problem persisted, even following a clean installation with no PPAs installed. I'm assuming the problem is in OpenAL, because programs not making use of that library (YouTube, VLC, etc.) don't seem to have the problem. The update that seemed to be the breaking point was an update to kernel 4.2.0-34 (I no longer have the original system, thinking a full restore would fix things), so there might be something in the new kernel that's interfering with OpenAL.
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The required information:
Description: Ubuntu 15.10
Release: 15.10
libopenal1:
Installed: 1:1.16.0-3
Candidate: 1:1.16.0-3
Version table:
*** 1:1.16.0-3 0
500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ wily/universe amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
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Please let me know if there's any additional information that I will need to provide.
I've added an attachment with a backtrace from the moment Blender locks when I try and shut it down.