PulseAudio cannot detect my soundcard (sometimes)

[Andrea Grandi]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

1) andrea@andrea-laptop:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

2) andrea@andrea-laptop:~$ apt-cache policy pulseaudio
pulseaudio:
  Installed: 1:0.9.19-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 1:0.9.19-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.9.19-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

3) I expect my soundcard to be detected after a normal boot and I expect PulseAudio mixer can display it

4) Sometimes (yes, only sometimes, it doesn't happen always) PulseAudio can't detect my sound card, and this is what I see in PulseAudio mixer: http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/5295/soundpreferences.jpg

5) Here you can find more informations about my soundcard device:

andrea@andrea-laptop:~$ lshw -C multimedia
WARNING: you should run this program as super-user.
  *-multimedia
       description: Audio device
       product: 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 1b
       bus info: pci@0000:00:1b.0
       version: 03
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=HDA Intel latency=0
       resources: irq:21 memory:f6500000-f6503fff

andrea@andrea-laptop:~$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 3: NVIDIA HDMI [NVIDIA HDMI]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

andrea@andrea-laptop:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 07)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Graphics Port (rev 07)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 (rev 03)
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 03)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation ICH9M/M-E SATA AHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G96 [GeForce 9600M GT] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8071 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 16)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless WiFi Link 5100

p.s: feel free to ask me more information if you need them to fix this bug.

[Andrea Grandi (andreagrandi)]

As I already explained, normally (for example in this moment) sound card is detected without any problem, you can see it here: http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/9381/soundcarddetected.jpg

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package pulseaudio - 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+341-g62bf-0ubuntu1

---------------
pulseaudio (1:0.9.22~0.9.21+341-g62bf-0ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * New snapshot based on stable-queue git branch (testing requested
    specifically by upstream)
    - LP: #164745, #173212, #201391, #204536, #207796, #210016, #221038,
    - LP: #226342, #230408, #236423, #237443, #250059, #269585, #274304,
    - LP: #274577, #275474, #277532, #277566, #277932, #278025, #280534,
    - LP: #283049, #286816, #287036, #292732, #298011, #298301, #300290,
    - LP: #302038, #311497, #311853, #324062, #339448, #344057, #348979,
    - LP: #350829, #356206, #367379, #367544, #369822, #371897, #374846,
    - LP: #375570, #381801, #399515, #402950, #403786, #408169, #409322,
    - LP: #409723, #410326, #410446, #417695, #417976, #419271, #421072,
    - LP: #422774, #423979, #424655, #425028, #427016, #431072, #432660,
    - LP: #437640, #437996, #442191, #443306, #443389, #446719, #449762,
    - LP: #455417, #461532, #464652, #483191, #497537, #503780
  * debian/patches/:
    + add: 0099-change-configure-git-version-tag.patch: Match released
           upstream 0.9.21 for shlibs and LIBPULSE_VERSION_INFO
    - drop: 0004-set-tsched0.patch (no longer relevant)
            0050-revert-pacmd-poll-argv.patch (no longer relevant)
            0056-dont-bail-on-sound-class-modem.patch (merged)
            0056-ignore-sound-class-modem.patch (merged)
            0058-Backport-4c793.patch (merged)
            0059-Backport-978d3.patch (merged)
            0060-fix-implicit-func-decl-cpu-arm.patch (merged)
            0061-Backport-c5fdb.patch (merged)
            0070-dont-bail-on-sound-class-modem-devs.patch (merged)
    + refresh: 0001-change-resample-and-buffering.patch
               0090-disable-flat-volumes.patch
               0091-dont-load-cork-music-on-phone.patch
               0057-load-module-x11-bell.patch
 -- Daniel T Chen <email address hidden> Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:33:05 -0500

[asdasd (webmaster-corespb)]

This bug is back. Except now it doesn't ever detect the sound card. A couple of days ago it was fine, though. I dist-upgraded from karmic to lucid beta1 and it worked then too.

$ apt-cache policy pulseaudio
pulseaudio:
  Installed: 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14
  Candidate: 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14 0
        500 http://pt.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
Release: 10.04

[Daniel Mowan (djmowan)]

I have the same problem. My sound card is detected only once out of every 3 or 4 times that I restart my computer.

When my sound card isn't detected, I also can't restart my computer normally. I have to use the terminal to restart.
Do you have that problem also? or just the sound card problem.

I haven't been able to find any forums about someone who has these problems only occasionally and at the same time.

[George Maschke (georgemaschke)]

I am encountering the same problem Daniel Mowan described. Ubuntu detects my sound card (built in on the motherboard, a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5) only once in every several restarts. When this happens, I also cannot properly shut down the computer. Choosing to shut down only logs out, and once logged out, the shut down option seems to do nothing.

~$ apt-cache policy pulseaudio
pulseaudio:
  Installed: 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14
  Candidate: 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
Release: 10.04

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

George, since you appear to be using different hardware to the OP, could you please file a separate bug using the command "ubuntu-bug pulseaudio", so we can get some more detailed informatino about your hardware?

Thanks