Re: [gentoo-user] no sound with pulseaudio

["Canek Peláez Valdés" <caneko@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 7:08 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Am 29.09.2011 00:03, schrieb Canek Peláez Valdés:
>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 5:49 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> Am 28.09.2011 23:28, schrieb Canek Peláez Valdés:
>>>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 5:24 PM, Tamer Higazi <th982a@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hi!
>>>>> I have configured pulseaudio according
>>>>>
>>>>> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/PulseAudio
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> but I simply have no sound.
>>>>>
>>>>> The pulseaudio playback volume meter shows me signal, and that the bars
>>>>> are jumping if I playback a music track.
>>>>>
>>>>> alsa-plugins (with pulseaudio USE flag)
>>>>> gst-plugins-pulse
>>>>>
>>>>> are installed. But I don't know what is being blocked, that I have no
>>>>> sound output at my headphones.
>>>>>
>>>>> PS: the headphones are ok.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any suggestions?
>>>>
>>>> What music player are you using? Did you set or modify ~/.asoundrc?
>>>
>>> ~/.asoundrc doesn't exist.
>>>
>>> I have /etc/asound.conf with these entries:
>>>
>>>
>>> pcm.pulse {
>>>    type pulse
>>> }
>>>
>>> ctl.pulse {
>>>    type pulse
>>> }
>>>
>>> for all alsa applications to be redirected to pulse!
>>
>> Mmmh. It's not exactly like that: If you use pcm.pulse and ctl.pulse,
>> then you need to specify pulse as the virtual ALSA device. If you want
>> "all alsa applications to be redirected to pulse", you need:
>>
>> pcm.!default {
>>     type pulse
>> }
>>
>> ctl.!default {
>>     type pulse
>> }
>>
>>> The players Rhythmbox, xine all with pulseaudio default output plugins.
>>
>> That should work. Did you check in sound settings that pulse is indeed
>> the desired output
>>
>>>> What Desktop do you use?
>>>
>>> Gnome, latest 2.x version
>>>
>>>  Is the pulseaudio daemon running?
>>>
>>> Yes!
>>>
>>> tamer@office ~ $ pstree -pu | grep puls
>>>
>>> |-pulseaudio(22833,tamer)-+-gconf-helper(22840)---{gconf-helper}(22841)
>>>        |                         |-{pulseaudio}(22839)
>>>        |                         `-{pulseaudio}(22842)
>>
>> Looks OK.
>>
>>> I have added all config files in "/etc/pulse/"
>>
>> I wouldn't touch the files on /etc/pulse. I recommend first trying to
>> make it work with the files included with pulseaudio (backup
>> /etc/pulse, move the dir out of /etc and emerge again pulseaudio)
>> before trying anything else. Supposedly, pulseaudio should "just
>> works". Since the first time I installed it I have never touched the
>> files in /etc/pulse, except to change the log-level of the daemon.
>>
> As requested, I moved the pulse folder somewhere else and remerged
> pulseaudio as well moved /etc/asound.conf somewhere else as well.
>
> No sound!

Weird.

>> I'm on GNOME 3, so things are a little different, and I don't remember
>> exactly the dialogs, but instead of the Gentoo wiki page, I would
>> follow this:
>>
>> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup
>>
>> And more specifically:
>>
>> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup#GNOME
>>
>> and
>>
>> http://www.pulseaudio.org/wiki/PerfectSetup#GStreamerApplications
>>
>> Also, in really weird cases, the ALSA device gets its volume muted:
>> You can try to remove (back up first) /etc/asound.conf, and run (as
>> root)
>>
>> alsamixer -V all
>
> I did, and fired all the bars up. nothing! really nothing!

Really weird.

>> and trying to unmute and turn up the volume on everything. When you
>> hear something with any player, return the asound.conf to /etc and try
>> again.
>>
>> Regards.
>
> I have the dumb feeling that one process is blocking the output, I hear
> in my headphones the white noise of my system, which wouldn't be there
> if the soundcard hadn't been initialised.

It's more simple than that: if you see the bars movind in the mixer
application, some sound should be made.

> Is there a way to find out which applications might make use of the
> soundcard right now?!

Probably with strace or a similar tool; however, let me see first if
I'm understanding the problem. This is a laptop? If so, the sound
works without headphones? The internal speakers work?

Also, can you please post the output of "pactl list"?

Regards.
-- 
Canek Peláez Valdés
Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México