No audio under X (only when booted to text mode) - MS-7549, Realtek ALC888, Green Line Out, Rear Pulseaudio fails to detect card

[oddhack]

When booting in graphics mode, direct to Unity, sound seems to work fine.

When booting in text mode, sound works at the console level; apps like mpg123 play properly with either pulseaudio or alsa drivers. However, after starting X, apps (mpg123, xine, totem, etc.) do not report errors and appear to be operating properly, but also do not generate any audio. Looking at the Sound panel in gnome-control-center, no devices are listed under the "Hardware" tab and only "Dummy Output" under the "Output" tab (in contrast to the 4 audio outputs listed when booting in graphics mode).

In some cases, the app trying to do audio starts thrashing the CPU (or it may be X thrashing it on the app's behalf), and Ctrl-Alt-F2 to a text console and killing the app is the only way to make the system usable again.

The audio behavior is the same whether I start X with Unity or a traditional window manager like WindowMaker.

I have tried steps 1-7 under https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting without success. Since I'm getting sound at console level, it's clearly not a matter of the drivers not being present at all and the "Manual Installation" step seems inapplicable.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: pulseaudio 1:1.1-0ubuntu15
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.38-generic-pae 3.2.16
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae i686
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
AplayDevices: aplay: device_list:252: no soundcards found...
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices: arecord: device_list:252: no soundcards found...
AudioDevicesInUse: Error: command ['fuser', '-v', '/dev/snd/by-path', '/dev/snd/controlC1', '/dev/snd/hwC1D0', '/dev/snd/pcmC1D3p', '/dev/snd/controlC0', '/dev/snd/hwC0D3', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0c', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D0p', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D1p', '/dev/snd/pcmC0D2c', '/dev/snd/seq', '/dev/snd/timer'] failed with exit code 1:
Date: Thu May 24 13:13:25 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/tcsh
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
Symptom: audio
Symptom_Card: HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB
Symptom_Jack: Green Line Out, Rear
Title: [MS-7549, Realtek ALC888, Green Line Out, Rear] Pulseaudio fails to detect card
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 01/06/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: V8.3
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: 785GTM-E45 (MS-7549)
dmi.board.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrV8.3:bd01/06/2010:svnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:pnMS-7549:pvr1.0:rvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:rn785GTM-E45(MS-7549):rvr1.0:cvnMICRO-STARINTERNATIONALCO.,LTD:ct3:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: MS-7549
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD

[oddhack (developer-oddhack)]

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems says to report no-sound problems against the "linux source package", but ubuntu-bug decided to file this against "pulseaudio". Not sure if I should try to change it? I did add the kernel-sound tag and subscribed Ubuntu-audio as also suggested there.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

It sounds like the apps running on the console are not using PulseAudio directly, i.e they are using ALSA or OSS, and when PulseAudio loads in the X session, it cannot access the audio hardware, because the console app is using the audio hardware exclusively.

Please try getting a log from PulseAudio as outlined here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PulseAudio/Log whilst playing audio from a console app.

[oddhack (developer-oddhack)]

I'm attaching two logs - the first is starting pulseaudio in text mode and successfully playing a few seconds of audio using mpg123, the second is starting pulseaudio under X and unsuccessfully doing the same thing.

[oddhack (developer-oddhack)]

And the second log.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We appreciate that this bug may be old and you might not be interested in discussing it any more. But if you are then please upgrade to the latest Ubuntu version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pulseaudio (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]