[gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

Hello list,

The USB sound dongle on this workstation has stopped working, but only for me. 
The system settings Audio setup window detects it but no sound is heard (I 
nearly said none appears :) . It worked a week ago, and it still works if I 
log in as a new user. Windows 10 has no trouble with it either. Nothing has 
changed in the kernel setup, and all the right modules are loaded.

Could I have something poisonous in $HOME? I'm awfully tired of creating new 
user accounts for myself. And this reminds me of the problem with Konsole not 
shutting down properly:
1.  https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=819459 and
2.  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=445862 .

A comment on [1] suggested something in my $HOME was to blame, but nothing 
came of it.

(The motherboard chip failed months ago, so I bought a UGreen USB dongle. 
System settings detects that, and the audio output of my GPU, as well as the 
dongle.)

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 9:50 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Hello list,
>
> The USB sound dongle on this workstation has stopped working, but only for me.
> The system settings Audio setup window detects it but no sound is heard (I
> nearly said none appears :) . It worked a week ago, and it still works if I
> log in as a new user. Windows 10 has no trouble with it either. Nothing has
> changed in the kernel setup, and all the right modules are loaded.
>
> Could I have something poisonous in $HOME? I'm awfully tired of creating new
> user accounts for myself. And this reminds me of the problem with Konsole not
> shutting down properly:
> 1.  https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=819459 and
> 2.  https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=445862 .
>
> A comment on [1] suggested something in my $HOME was to blame, but nothing
> came of it.
>
> (The motherboard chip failed months ago, so I bought a UGreen USB dongle.
> System settings detects that, and the audio output of my GPU, as well as the
> dongle.)
>
> --
> Regards,
> Peter.
>

Hi Peter,
   Sorry for the problems.

   Please provide info about your setup such as desktop environment and
how you set up your sound system. ALSA? pulseaudio? Something else?

   I have a new machine in which I have not yet used a previously working
USB sound device - a gen 3 Focusrite Scarlett 2/2. I'm happy to invest
a little time to bring it up sooner vs later if there's a way to help.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Wednesday, 23 March 2022 17:00:44 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 9:50 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> 
wrote:

> > The USB sound dongle on this workstation has stopped working, but only for
> > me. The system settings Audio setup window detects it but no sound is
> > heard (I nearly said none appears :) . It worked a week ago, and it still
> > works if I log in as a new user. Windows 10 has no trouble with it
> > either. Nothing has changed in the kernel setup, and all the right
> > modules are loaded.

>    Please provide info about your setup such as desktop environment and
> how you set up your sound system. ALSA? pulseaudio? Something else?

The machine is ~amd64 running Plasma. I log in via SDDM, but even if, instead, 
I log in first and then startx I still get no sound. I haven't touched ALSA; 
it's whatever Plasma wanted to support its audio process.

What floors me is that two users on the same machine get different results.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 10:15 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
<SNIP>
> The machine is ~amd64 running Plasma. I log in via SDDM, but even if, instead,
> I log in first and then startx I still get no sound. I haven't touched ALSA;
> it's whatever Plasma wanted to support its audio process.
>

So by 'Plasma' you imply KDE to me. Am I correct in that?

> What floors me is that two users on the same machine get different results.
>

Agreed but if it's KDE then generally that implies pulseaudio and users can have
different configurations. Assuming generalized KDE for the moment, then

System Settings -> Audio

should show your playback devices. Possibly the setting got switched to
an HDMI output on your video card or to the chipset sound device
and isn't USB at the moment?

HTH,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 10:20 AM Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 10:15 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> <SNIP>
> > The machine is ~amd64 running Plasma. I log in via SDDM, but even if, instead,
> > I log in first and then startx I still get no sound. I haven't touched ALSA;
> > it's whatever Plasma wanted to support its audio process.
> >
>
> So by 'Plasma' you imply KDE to me. Am I correct in that?
>
> > What floors me is that two users on the same machine get different results.
> >
>
> Agreed but if it's KDE then generally that implies pulseaudio and users can have
> different configurations. Assuming generalized KDE for the moment, then
>
> System Settings -> Audio
>
> should show your playback devices. Possibly the setting got switched to
> an HDMI output on your video card or to the chipset sound device
> and isn't USB at the moment?
>
> HTH,
> Mark

Also, assuming it's KDE then also run pavucontrol-qt (or whatever it's
called on your system) to ensure you see the application generating
audio is actually doing what you think it is - there's an app-by-app
set of VU meters showing where KDE is sending audio in terms of
which hardware output.

I.e. - KDE can send audio from different apps to one or more
hardware devices at the same time. pavucontrol should allow
you to see how this is happening at any time. I have it in my
favorites.

Good luck,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Wol]

On 23/03/2022 17:20, Mark Knecht wrote:
> So by 'Plasma' you imply KDE to me. Am I correct in that?

Yes and no ...

To a rough approximation, KDE is Qt4. Plasma is Qt5.

I don't really get it myself.

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 1:19 PM Wol <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On 23/03/2022 17:20, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > So by 'Plasma' you imply KDE to me. Am I correct in that?
>
> Yes and no ...
>
> To a rough approximation, KDE is Qt4. Plasma is Qt5.
>
> I don't really get it myself.
>
> Cheers,
> Wol

Interesting. Having moved to Kubuntu it's just Kubuntu to me, and it's
what I don't like about becoming primarily a Kubuntu user as you end
up much more 'detached' from all this stuff. However my important apps
also 'just work' and vendors provide answers which they seldom did
when I was running Gentoo.

As for Peter, I suspect given a little time the response I provided
should help him. Here I hooked up my Focusrite USB device while I
already had Chrome playing through a different spdif output.
pulseaudio changed the audio to the USB device and using pavucontrol I
switched it back to the spdif output. Hopefully Peter will have some
similar result.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Wol]

On 23/03/2022 20:31, Mark Knecht wrote:
> Interesting. Having moved to Kubuntu it's just Kubuntu to me, and it's
> what I don't like about becoming primarily a Kubuntu user as you end
> up much more 'detached' from all this stuff. However my important apps
> also 'just work' and vendors provide answers which they seldom did
> when I was running Gentoo.

I guess that's because there's only one Kubuntu. The snag is every 
gentoo is one of a kind ... :-)

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 3:05 PM Wol <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On 23/03/2022 20:31, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > Interesting. Having moved to Kubuntu it's just Kubuntu to me, and it's
> > what I don't like about becoming primarily a Kubuntu user as you end
> > up much more 'detached' from all this stuff. However my important apps
> > also 'just work' and vendors provide answers which they seldom did
> > when I was running Gentoo.
>
> I guess that's because there's only one Kubuntu. The snag is every
> gentoo is one of a kind ... :-)
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>

<hehe> Yeah, ain't that the truth! I'd likely be a Gentoo user if anyone
built and maintained a 'standard', stable distro, something delivered
in primarily binary files. I just lost patience dealing with all the issues
you guys deal with daily.

I still have a bit of my gentoo-users folder going back a few years.
One of the older threads I saved was actually talking to Peter in
2005. I built my first Gentoo machine in 2001, about a year after
Daniel started the distro. Kudo's to Peter for making it this far!

- Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Michael]

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On Wednesday, 23 March 2022 22:14:17 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:

> <hehe> Yeah, ain't that the truth! I'd likely be a Gentoo user if anyone
> built and maintained a 'standard', stable distro, something delivered
> in primarily binary files.
[snip ...]

There is this experiment making available binary packages based on Gentoo 
profiles, care of dilfridge:

 https://dilfridge.blogspot.com/2021/09/experimental-binary-gentoo-package.html

Although the article mentions a systemd profile, I've tried it with an openrc 
installation and it worked fine.  Binaries were downloaded and installed as 
part of a normal update, just as advertised.  I didn't try any packages in the 
gentoo toolchain, as this could break things, but I can see the benefit of 
using this facility at least selectively to bypass long compilations.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Wednesday, 23 March 2022 22:14:17 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:

> I still have a bit of my gentoo-users folder going back a few years.
> One of the older threads I saved was actually talking to Peter in
> 2005. I built my first Gentoo machine in 2001, about a year after
> Daniel started the distro. Kudo's to Peter for making it this far!

Too kind, Sir.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

RE: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Laurence Perkins]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> 
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2022 3:14 PM
> To: Gentoo User <gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org>
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding
> 
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 3:05 PM Wol <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
> >
> > On 23/03/2022 20:31, Mark Knecht wrote:
> 
> <hehe> Yeah, ain't that the truth! I'd likely be a Gentoo user if anyone built and maintained a 'standard', stable distro, something delivered in primarily binary files. I just lost patience dealing with all the issues you guys deal with daily.
> 

I believe that's called Sabayon.  Standard, provided configurations and supported apps with a binary package server just like it was a binary distro, but if you really want to customize something it's still Gentoo under the fancy GUI.

I've not actually used the distro itself, but their overlay has been quite handy in the past.

ChromeOS is supposedly similar, at least it as at one point, but I don't trust them any farther than I can throw them, so I didn't investigate much and just ripped all their stuff out of my Chromebook and replaced it with real Gentoo.

LMP

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Wednesday, 23 March 2022 17:20:53 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 10:15 AM Peter Humphrey 
<peter@prh.myzen.co.uk>
> wrote:
> 
> <SNIP>
> 
> > The machine is ~amd64 running Plasma. I log in via SDDM, but even if,
> > instead, I log in first and then startx I still get no sound. I haven't
> > touched ALSA; it's whatever Plasma wanted to support its audio process.
> 
> So by 'Plasma' you imply KDE to me. Am I correct in that?

Yes, as Wol said.

> > What floors me is that two users on the same machine get different
> > results.
> 
> Agreed but if it's KDE then generally that implies pulseaudio and users can
> have different configurations. Assuming generalized KDE for the moment,
> then
> 
> System Settings -> Audio
> 
> should show your playback devices. Possibly the setting got switched to
> an HDMI output on your video card or to the chipset sound device
> and isn't USB at the moment?

As I said, I do see all three sound devices there. I can switch them each on 
and off, and assign the kind of output I want from them. I do that, and using 
the Test buttons I hear nothing.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 2:35 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
<SNIP>
> > System Settings -> Audio
> >
> > should show your playback devices. Possibly the setting got switched to
> > an HDMI output on your video card or to the chipset sound device
> > and isn't USB at the moment?
>
> As I said, I do see all three sound devices there. I can switch them each on
> and off, and assign the kind of output I want from them. I do that, and using
> the Test buttons I hear nothing.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Peter.

Sorry, if that was actually in the original post I just didn't understand.

Jack's response to you was more complete and duplicates my thinking
about how to approach debugging.

To answer one of your earlier questions, but I doubt it applies in the
case of a simple USB sound device, it is possible for other programs
to program certain sound cards in ways that Alsa & pulseaudio would
not know about. I've used an RME HDSP9652 studio sound card
for about 15 years. It has 52 inputs, 52 outputs and lots of internal
hardware routing that general Linux sound doesn't know about and
cannot control. It's configured using two apps (hdspconf and
hdspmixer) to do a lot of special things that are recording studio
specific. At times I've misused these programs and had a lot of
mysterious problems. That said I think it's very unlikely anything
like this applies in your case, but technically it's possible.

Good luck getting this solved. Weird stuff.

Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Michael]

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On Thursday, 24 March 2022 22:04:48 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 2:35 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk>
> wrote: <SNIP>
> 
> > > System Settings -> Audio
> > > 
> > > should show your playback devices. Possibly the setting got switched to
> > > an HDMI output on your video card or to the chipset sound device
> > > and isn't USB at the moment?
> > 
> > As I said, I do see all three sound devices there. I can switch them each
> > on and off, and assign the kind of output I want from them. I do that,
> > and using the Test buttons I hear nothing.
> > 
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Peter.
> 
> Sorry, if that was actually in the original post I just didn't understand.
> 
> Jack's response to you was more complete and duplicates my thinking
> about how to approach debugging.
> 
> To answer one of your earlier questions, but I doubt it applies in the
> case of a simple USB sound device, it is possible for other programs
> to program certain sound cards in ways that Alsa & pulseaudio would
> not know about. I've used an RME HDSP9652 studio sound card
> for about 15 years. It has 52 inputs, 52 outputs and lots of internal
> hardware routing that general Linux sound doesn't know about and
> cannot control. It's configured using two apps (hdspconf and
> hdspmixer) to do a lot of special things that are recording studio
> specific. At times I've misused these programs and had a lot of
> mysterious problems. That said I think it's very unlikely anything
> like this applies in your case, but technically it's possible.
> 
> Good luck getting this solved. Weird stuff.
> 
> Mark

I usually troubleshoot such problems as Peter has, by creating a vanilla user 
account to compare settings against my normal user.  Using diff between the two 
accounts ~/.pulse files tends to reveal anything lurking in the undergrowth.  
'pactl stat' may also reveal any user differences.

Another thought, it may worth checking group membership, audio and plugdev/
usb(?), are the same for all users.  I mention this, because some recent 
update had me adding a user to the usb group to be able to use a USB scanner, 
which for many years had worked fine with plugdev membership only.


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Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Wednesday, 23 March 2022 17:20:53 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:

> [...] if it's KDE then generally that implies pulseaudio and users can
> have different configurations.

How could that happen? The second user is fresh from the oven, and I'm pretty 
sure I've never touched PulseAudio at all.

(I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested.)

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Thursday, 24 March 2022 09:43:49 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:

> I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested.

No dice. All that does is to allow me to set where I want each sound source to 
be sent, plus a few details. I still hear nothing, and pavumeter shows nothing 
being output.

I still can't escape the conclusion that something in my home directory is 
interfering with sound output.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Jack]

On 2022.03.24 05:55, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Thursday, 24 March 2022 09:43:49 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> 
> > I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested.
> 
> No dice. All that does is to allow me to set where I want each sound  
> source to
> be sent, plus a few details. I still hear nothing, and pavumeter  
> shows nothing
> being output.
> 
> I still can't escape the conclusion that something in my home  
> directory is
> interfering with sound output.
Just to confirm - pavucontrol shows the sound device as properly  
enabled on the Configuration tab, shows the correct output port for the  
device on the Output Devices tab, and shows the sound source being sent  
to the right device on the Playback tab (with volumes up) but still no  
sound from the speakers?  Do any of the sound meters show any apparent  
activity?  Can you see any difference between the pavucontrol display  
as youurself and as the user for whom sound does work?

I would guess that if it is something in your home directory, it is  
most likely a configuration setting, probably under .local or .config.   
I see several files under ~/.config/pulse.  You might try moving those  
elsewhere and restarting pulse ("pulseaudio -k" then restart  
pavucontrol) and comparing the before and after (if there is any change  
in behavior) and possibly also comparing those files from your home dir  
and those for the working user.

One other thing I might look for (I'm grasping at straws here, but also  
under .local or .config) is anything related to device initialization,  
perhaps USB settings.

Jack

[SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

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I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I went. I 
got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to the end if 
you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.

On Thursday, 24 March 2022 16:40:05 GMT Jack wrote:
> On 2022.03.24 05:55, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > On Thursday, 24 March 2022 09:43:49 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested.
> > 
> > No dice. All that does is to allow me to set where I want each sound
> > source to be sent, plus a few details. I still hear nothing, and pavumeter
> > shows nothing being output.
> > 
> > I still can't escape the conclusion that something in my home
> > directory is interfering with sound output.

> Just to confirm - 

Ok, I'm looking at pavucontrol now.

> pavucontrol shows the sound device as properly enabled on the Configuration
> tab,

Yes. The USB device, Unitek Y-247A, is enabled and the other two devices are 
Off.

> shows the correct output port for the device on the Output Devices tab,

Yes: the output port is shown as Speakers.

> and shows the sound source being sent to the right device on the Playback
> tab (with volumes up)

It shows System Sounds* at 100% volume, no matter what I select in the lower 
right corner. The options there are All Streams, Applications and Virtual 
Streams. I don't see an output device on this tab.

> but still no sound from the speakers?

No sound at all.

> Do any of the sound meters show any apparent activity?

Pavumeter shows Front Left and Front Right, with no activity on either. It 
correctly shows Analog Stereo going to the Y-247A.

> Can you see any difference between the pavucontrol
> display as youurself and as the user for whom sound does work?

*  The new user sees Firefox Stream as well as System Sounds on the Playback 
tab. When I logged back in as myself immediately after trying that, I got an 
anonymous error box - and heard its announcing beep! - saying Connection 
Failed: Connection Refused. (Screen shot attached. Does anyone know where 
errors like this are generated?)

> I would guess that if it is something in your home directory, it is
> most likely a configuration setting, probably under .local or .config.
> I see several files under ~/.config/pulse.  You might try moving those
> elsewhere and restarting pulse ("pulseaudio -k" then restart
> pavucontrol)

Lo! and behold! BBC Radio 3 bursts forth!

--->8

Huge relief, and similarly huge thanks to Jack and all others who've helped. 
Now I can go and watch those lectures from Gresham College that have bee 
queueing up.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

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Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[ny6p01]

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Glad you got it working!


Lee 😎

On Mar 25, 2022 at 2:32 AM, Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:

I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I
went. I got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to
the end if you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail. On
Thursday, 24 March 2022 16:40:05 GMT Jack wrote: > On 2022.03.24 05:55,
Peter Humphrey wrote: > > On Thursday, 24 March 2022 09:43:49 GMT Peter
Humphrey wrote: > > > I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested. > > > >
No dice. All that does is to allow me to set where I want each sound > >
source to be sent, plus a few details. I still hear nothing, and pavumeter
> > shows nothing being output. > > > > I still can't escape the conclusion
that something in my home > > directory is interfering with sound output. >
Just to confirm - Ok, I'm looking at pavucontrol now. > pavucontrol shows
the sound device as properly enabled on the Configuration > tab, Yes. The
USB device, Unitek Y-247A, is enabled and the other two devices are Off. >
shows the correct output port for the device on the Output Devices tab,
Yes: the output port is shown as Speakers. > and shows the sound source
being sent to the right device on the Playback > tab (with volumes up) It
shows System Sounds* at 100% volume, no matter what I select in the lower
right corner. The options there are All Streams, Applications and Virtual
Streams. I don't see an output device on this tab. > but still no sound
from the speakers? No sound at all. > Do any of the sound meters show any
apparent activity? Pavumeter shows Front Left and Front Right, with no
activity on either. It correctly shows Analog Stereo going to the Y-247A. >
Can you see any difference between the pavucontrol > display as youurself
and as the user for whom sound does work? * The new user sees Firefox
Stream as well as System Sounds on the Playback tab. When I logged back in
as myself immediately after trying that, I got an anonymous error box - and
heard its announcing beep! - saying Connection Failed: Connection Refused.
(Screen shot attached. Does anyone know where errors like this are
generated?) > I would guess that if it is something in your home directory,
it is > most likely a configuration setting, probably under .local or
.config. > I see several files under ~/.config/pulse. You might try moving
those > elsewhere and restarting pulse ("pulseaudio -k" then restart >
pavucontrol) Lo! and behold! BBC Radio 3 bursts forth! --->8 Huge relief,
and similarly huge thanks to Jack and all others who've helped. Now I can
go and watch those lectures from Gresham College that have bee queueing up.
-- Regards, Peter.

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Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Jack]

Glad it's solved, but you missed one point of picking it up a bit 
earlier.  Notes below:

On 3/25/22 05:31, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I went. I
> got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to the end if
> you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.
>
> On Thursday, 24 March 2022 16:40:05 GMT Jack wrote:
>> On 2022.03.24 05:55, Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>> On Thursday, 24 March 2022 09:43:49 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
>>>> I'm about to try pavu[...] as you suggested.
>>> No dice. All that does is to allow me to set where I want each sound
>>> source to be sent, plus a few details. I still hear nothing, and pavumeter
>>> shows nothing being output.
>>>
>>> I still can't escape the conclusion that something in my home
>>> directory is interfering with sound output.
>> Just to confirm -
> Ok, I'm looking at pavucontrol now.
>
>> pavucontrol shows the sound device as properly enabled on the Configuration
>> tab,
> Yes. The USB device, Unitek Y-247A, is enabled and the other two devices are
> Off.
No problem here, but some devices show several possible outputs, such as 
speakers and/or mic in use, or just two channels or higher comibnations.
>
>> shows the correct output port for the device on the Output Devices tab,
> Yes: the output port is shown as Speakers.
>
> and shows the sound source being sent to the right device on the Playback
> tab (with volumes up)
> It shows System Sounds* at 100% volume, no matter what I select in the lower
> right corner. The options there are All Streams, Applications and Virtual
> Streams. I don't see an output device on this tab.
If pavucontrol were not new to you, you would have noticed that there 
was no section there for Firefox.  That tab shows a section for every 
application generating and sending sound to pulseaudio, along with which 
output device that sound is being sent to.  Not seeing Firefox here, I 
would have first restarted the Firefox output, then restarted Firefox 
itself, and then restarted pulseaudio.  In your case, I don't know if 
either of the first two would have helped or not.
>
>> but still no sound from the speakers?
> No sound at all.
>
>> Do any of the sound meters show any apparent activity?
> Pavumeter shows Front Left and Front Right, with no activity on either. It
> correctly shows Analog Stereo going to the Y-247A.
>
>> Can you see any difference between the pavucontrol
>> display as youurself and as the user for whom sound does work?
> *  The new user sees Firefox Stream as well as System Sounds on the Playback
> tab. When I logged back in as myself immediately after trying that, I got an
> anonymous error box - and heard its announcing beep! - saying Connection
> Failed: Connection Refused. (Screen shot attached. Does anyone know where
> errors like this are generated?)
That second icon in the upper left looks to me (squinting a bit) like it 
might be a life saver ring buoy, but that doesn't help me in guessing 
what generated it.  Did you find anything in dmesg or /var/log/messages?
>
>> I would guess that if it is something in your home directory, it is
>> most likely a configuration setting, probably under .local or .config.
>> I see several files under ~/.config/pulse.  You might try moving those
>> elsewhere and restarting pulse ("pulseaudio -k" then restart
>> pavucontrol)
> Lo! and behold! BBC Radio 3 bursts forth!
>
> --->8
>
> Huge relief, and similarly huge thanks to Jack and all others who've helped.
> Now I can go and watch those lectures from Gresham College that have bee
> queueing up.
>

Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Wols Lists]

On 25/03/2022 15:01, Jack wrote:
> That second icon in the upper left looks to me (squinting a bit) like it 
> might be a life saver ring buoy, but that doesn't help me in guessing 
> what generated it.  Did you find anything in dmesg or /var/log/messages?

VLC?

Cheers,
Wol

Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Friday, 25 March 2022 17:49:59 GMT Wols Lists wrote:
> On 25/03/2022 15:01, Jack wrote:
> > That second icon in the upper left looks to me (squinting a bit) like it
> > might be a life saver ring buoy, but that doesn't help me in guessing
> > what generated it.  Did you find anything in dmesg or /var/log/messages?
> 
> VLC?

Not installed here.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 717 bytes --]

On Friday, 25 March 2022 09:31:44 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I went.
> I got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to the end
> if you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.

Hey, not so fast! In fact I have to rm -r ~/.config/pulse && pulseaudio -k 
after every login.

Next step. Find out what .config files change at login. I did that with a seven-
step procedure which I won't repeat because I've now found that starting the 
streaming of audio in Firefox kills the audio: I have to reset pulseaudio 
AFTER starting the audio stream.

So, is it reboot or Firefox that's making the mess?

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

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> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets
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> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/close-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/minimize-normal.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/minimize-backdrop-normal.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximized-normal.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/minimize-backdrop-active.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/minimize-active.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximize-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximized-backdrop-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/close-backdrop-active.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximized-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/close-backdrop-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/minimize-backdrop-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximize-backdrop-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximize-backdrop-normal.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximize-backdrop-active.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximize-normal.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/maximize-active.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/minimize-hover.svg
> ./.config/gtk-3.0/assets/close-backdrop-normal.svg
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< ./.config/akonadi/agent_config_akonadi_maildispatcher_agent_changes.dat
< ./.config/akonadi/agent_config_akonadi_maildir_resource_0_changes.dat
< ./.config/akonadi/agent_config_akonadi_ical_resource_0_changes.dat
< ./.config/akonadi/agent_config_akonadi_imap_resource_0_changes.dat
< ./.config/akonadi/agent_config_akonadi_archivemail_agent_changes.dat
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Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Michael]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1303 bytes --]

On Friday, 25 March 2022 16:16:10 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Friday, 25 March 2022 09:31:44 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I
> > went. I got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to
> > the end if you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.
> 
> Hey, not so fast! In fact I have to rm -r ~/.config/pulse && pulseaudio -k
> after every login.
> 
> Next step. Find out what .config files change at login. I did that with a
> seven- step procedure which I won't repeat because I've now found that
> starting the streaming of audio in Firefox kills the audio: I have to reset
> pulseaudio AFTER starting the audio stream.
> 
> So, is it reboot or Firefox that's making the mess?

Have you tried playing an audio file from the disk with a medial player (e.g. 
vlc or mpv), to see if sound is produced as expected?

Then did you try to play the same file with Firefox (from within Dolphin use 
'Open with')?

If both of the above work, as they should, the problem is not with your 
desktop sound settings.  Using some plugin on Firefox may come with its own 
sandbox/isolation which complicates matters.

PS.  If it is BBC or some such you want to listen/watch, have you considered 
using get_iplayer?


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Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Friday, 25 March 2022 16:34:30 GMT Michael wrote:
> On Friday, 25 March 2022 16:16:10 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > On Friday, 25 March 2022 09:31:44 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them as I
> > > went. I got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight
> > > to
> > > the end if you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.
> > 
> > Hey, not so fast! In fact I have to rm -r ~/.config/pulse && pulseaudio -k
> > after every login.
> > 
> > Next step. Find out what .config files change at login. I did that with a
> > seven- step procedure which I won't repeat because I've now found that
> > starting the streaming of audio in Firefox kills the audio: I have to
> > reset
> > pulseaudio AFTER starting the audio stream.
> > 
> > So, is it reboot or Firefox that's making the mess?
> 
> Have you tried playing an audio file from the disk with a medial player
> (e.g. vlc or mpv), to see if sound is produced as expected?
> 
> Then did you try to play the same file with Firefox (from within Dolphin use
> 'Open with')?
> 
> If both of the above work, as they should, the problem is not with your
> desktop sound settings.  Using some plugin on Firefox may come with its own
> sandbox/isolation which complicates matters.

I'll have to go looking for a suitable file - I don't have any lying around 
here.

> PS.  If it is BBC or some such you want to listen/watch, have you considered
> using get_iplayer?

Yes, and I didn't like it.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Jack]

On 2022.03.25 12:16, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> On Friday, 25 March 2022 09:31:44 GMT Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > I went through Jack's points one by one and answered each of them  
> as I went.
> > I got almost to the end before finding the answer. Jump straight to  
> the end
> > if you just want to see the fix, or read on for the detail.
> 
> Hey, not so fast! In fact I have to rm -r ~/.config/pulse &&  
> pulseaudio -k
> after every login.
> 
> Next step. Find out what .config files change at login. I did that  
> with a seven-
> step procedure which I won't repeat because I've now found that  
> starting the
> streaming of audio in Firefox kills the audio: I have to reset  
> pulseaudio
> AFTER starting the audio stream.
> 
> So, is it reboot or Firefox that's making the mess?

Have you also tried using a different browser?

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Friday, 25 March 2022 16:47:22 GMT Jack wrote:
> On 2022.03.25 12:16, Peter Humphrey wrote:

> Have you also tried using a different browser?

Yes. Konqueror behaves the same way. I had the site open in FF just now, but 
not playing, and I hadn't restarted PA. Then I opened the same site in 
Konqueror. No sound yet. Then I restarted PA and Konqueror's sound came to 
life. I shut Konqueror down and started FF streaming. I heard it straight 
away.

Next, abandoning Konqueror, I removed ~/.mozilla and started a new session. 
Without doing anything to FF I tried streaming again. Silence.

So it isn't any of the plugins I have in FF.

I haven't mentioned it before, but whenever I restart PA I get a plain window 
announcing something like "Audio Adapter Y247A. Analog audio". It only exists 
for a second or so and I haven't been able to capture it in a screen shot. It 
isn't a standard KDE window, or at least it has no colours or window 
decorations.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Jack]

On 3/26/22 07:12, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> I haven't mentioned it before, but whenever I restart PA I get a plain window
> announcing something like "Audio Adapter Y247A. Analog audio". It only exists
> for a second or so and I haven't been able to capture it in a screen shot. It
> isn't a standard KDE window, or at least it has no colours or window
> decorations.

I have also see that and have assumed it's from pulseaudio, showing its 
default sound device.

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 6:29 AM Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
>
> On 3/26/22 07:12, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > I haven't mentioned it before, but whenever I restart PA I get a plain window
> > announcing something like "Audio Adapter Y247A. Analog audio". It only exists
> > for a second or so and I haven't been able to capture it in a screen shot. It
> > isn't a standard KDE window, or at least it has no colours or window
> > decorations.
>
> I have also see that and have assumed it's from pulseaudio, showing its
> default sound device.

Generically, isn't this what's shown in the PA Volume Control,
Configuration tab, in the profile pulldown for the USB audio device?

I have 3 devices. Most options in the profile pulldowns say
"(unavailable)" . I've never explored why.

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Jack]

On 2022.03.26 10:22, Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 6:29 AM Jack  
> <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:
> >
> > On 3/26/22 07:12, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > I haven't mentioned it before, but whenever I restart PA I get a  
> plain window
> > > announcing something like "Audio Adapter Y247A. Analog audio". It  
> only exists
> > > for a second or so and I haven't been able to capture it in a  
> screen shot. It
> > > isn't a standard KDE window, or at least it has no colours or  
> window
> > > decorations.
> >
> > I have also see that and have assumed it's from pulseaudio, showing  
> its
> > default sound device.
> 
> Generically, isn't this what's shown in the PA Volume Control,
> Configuration tab, in the profile pulldown for the USB audio device?
> 
> I have 3 devices. Most options in the profile pulldowns say
> "(unavailable)" . I've never explored why.
I only seen "unavailable" for one device - a set of Bluetooth noise  
canceling headphones (Sony WH-CH700N) which shows High Fidelity  
Playback (A2DP Sink), Headset Head Unit (HSP) (unavailable), Handsfree  
Head Unit (HFP), and Off.  I believe the unavailability is due to some  
combination of the driver for the USB BT dongle (with it's own  
problems, being a cheap Chinese knockoff) and the BT sound drivers.  I  
assume the "unavailable" is for modes that the driver thinks the device  
(or maybe just the type or class of device) should handle, but doesn't.

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[ny6p01]

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Just a shot in the dark, but is alsasound service starting correctly?


Lee 😎

On Mar 26, 2022 at 6:29 AM, Jack <ostroffjh@users.sourceforge.net> wrote:

On 3/26/22 07:12, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> I haven't mentioned it before, but whenever I restart PA I get a plain window
> announcing something like "Audio Adapter Y247A. Analog audio". It only exists
> for a second or so and I haven't been able to capture it in a screen shot. It
> isn't a standard KDE window, or at least it has no colours or window
> decorations.

I have also see that and have assumed it's from pulseaudio, showing its
default sound device.

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Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Saturday, 26 March 2022 15:14:11 GMT ny6p01 wrote:
> Just a shot in the dark, but is alsasound service starting correctly?

It doesn't run at all, not even while I'm listening after restarting PA. I 
have alsa-lib, alsa-topology-conf, alsa-ucm-conf and alsa-plugins installed, 
but 'ps -ax | grep alsa' finds nothing. Also, I have no alsasound service.

I assume that PA doesn't need a running alsa process to function.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Mark Knecht]

On Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 10:02 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote:
>
> On Saturday, 26 March 2022 15:14:11 GMT ny6p01 wrote:
> > Just a shot in the dark, but is alsasound service starting correctly?
>
> It doesn't run at all, not even while I'm listening after restarting PA. I
> have alsa-lib, alsa-topology-conf, alsa-ucm-conf and alsa-plugins installed,
> but 'ps -ax | grep alsa' finds nothing. Also, I have no alsasound service.
>
> I assume that PA doesn't need a running alsa process to function.
>
> --
> Regards,
> Peter.
>

PA might not (or doesn't - my system has no alsa processes) need alsa
processes but it almost certainly using Alsa drivers.

lsmod | grep snd
lsmod | sound

However those depend on what you build as modules vs hard code into
your kernel.

ls /proc/asound would give you a view into what function, if any, alsa is
performing.

Re: [NOT SOLVED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Michael]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1640 bytes --]

On Saturday, 26 March 2022 17:14:52 GMT Mark Knecht wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 26, 2022 at 10:02 AM Peter Humphrey <peter@prh.myzen.co.uk> 
wrote:
> > On Saturday, 26 March 2022 15:14:11 GMT ny6p01 wrote:
> > > Just a shot in the dark, but is alsasound service starting correctly?
> > 
> > It doesn't run at all, not even while I'm listening after restarting PA. I
> > have alsa-lib, alsa-topology-conf, alsa-ucm-conf and alsa-plugins
> > installed, but 'ps -ax | grep alsa' finds nothing. Also, I have no
> > alsasound service.
> > 
> > I assume that PA doesn't need a running alsa process to function.
> > 
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Peter.
> 
> PA might not (or doesn't - my system has no alsa processes) need alsa
> processes but it almost certainly using Alsa drivers.
> 
> lsmod | grep snd
> lsmod | sound
> 
> However those depend on what you build as modules vs hard code into
> your kernel.
> 
> ls /proc/asound would give you a view into what function, if any, alsa is
> performing.

I think since this sound problem has been narrowed down to a difference 
between users on the same machine, it must be a userspace process issue.  
Kernel driver problems would be universal and dmesg would complain about it.

If the same ~./mozilla profile is reproducing the problem on the other user's 
account, which hitherto played sound without any desktop gymnastics, then the 
problem is firefox related.  Starting with an empty firefox profile on the 
same user will also help identify if the firefox configuration, addons and its 
sandboxing, or pa is to blame.  Starting both firefox and pa from a terminal 
may also provide some related output.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[ny6p01]

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If you have Gentoo, you have to resist the temptation to give in to
despair. If you do, good things usually follow.


Lee 😎

On Mar 23, 2022 at 3:15 PM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@gmail.com> wrote:

On Wed, Mar 23, 2022 at 3:05 PM Wol <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On 23/03/2022 20:31, Mark Knecht wrote:
> > Interesting. Having moved to Kubuntu it's just Kubuntu to me, and it's
> > what I don't like about becoming primarily a Kubuntu user as you end
> > up much more 'detached' from all this stuff. However my important apps
> > also 'just work' and vendors provide answers which they seldom did
> > when I was running Gentoo.
>
> I guess that's because there's only one Kubuntu. The snag is every
> gentoo is one of a kind ... :-)
>
> Cheers,
> Wol
>

<hehe> Yeah, ain't that the truth! I'd likely be a Gentoo user if anyone
built and maintained a 'standard', stable distro, something delivered
in primarily binary files. I just lost patience dealing with all the issues
you guys deal with daily.

I still have a bit of my gentoo-users folder going back a few years.
One of the older threads I saved was actually talking to Peter in
2005. I built my first Gentoo machine in 2001, about a year after
Daniel started the distro. Kudo's to Peter for making it this far!

- Mark

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[gentoo-user] Re: Sound not sounding

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 23/03/2022 18:50, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> The USB sound dongle on this workstation has stopped working, but only for me.
> The system settings Audio setup window detects it but no sound is heard

Run "alsamixer" (it's a command-line tool) and in the text UI that 
appears, press F6, select your USB audio device, and then check if it's 
muted or the volume is 0.

PulseAudio generally uses the ALSA sound mixer to change volumes, but 
not always. For some devices, it uses a software volume control that 
doesn't use the ALSA volume controls. So if those are set to 0, there 
will never be any sound.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Friday, 25 March 2022 00:07:30 GMT Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 23/03/2022 18:50, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > The USB sound dongle on this workstation has stopped working, but only for
> > me. The system settings Audio setup window detects it but no sound is
> > heard
> Run "alsamixer" (it's a command-line tool) and in the text UI that
> appears, press F6, select your USB audio device, and then check if it's
> muted or the volume is 0.

No alsamixer here, so I installed alsa-utils and did as you suggest. All seems 
fine: volume at full, muting off.

> PulseAudio generally uses the ALSA sound mixer to change volumes, but
> not always. For some devices, it uses a software volume control that
> doesn't use the ALSA volume controls. So if those are set to 0, there
> will never be any sound.

There was sound just fine until one day last week. I'm not aware of any change 
by which I could have affected sound - just routine daily upgrades and ordinary 
use of the system.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.

[ABANDONED] Re: [gentoo-user] Sound not sounding

[Peter Humphrey]

On Wednesday, 23 March 2022 16:50:03 -00 Peter Humphrey wrote:

> The USB sound dongle on this workstation has stopped working, but only for
> me. The system settings Audio setup window detects it but no sound is heard
> (I nearly said none appears :) . It worked a week ago, and it still works
> if I log in as a new user. Windows 10 has no trouble with it either.
> Nothing has changed in the kernel setup, and all the right modules are
> loaded.

--->8

I gave up: not just life is too short - so was my sanity. I installed a new 
stable system from bare metal, created a new user account and now I have a 
working system.

Oddly, the system announces that it's found the USB sound dongle when I switch 
the speakers on, even though the dongle has been there all along. Yet another 
of life's little mysteries, I suppose.

Thanks are due to many who tried to help, so thank you all.

-- 
Regards,
Peter.