desktop-packages team mailing list archive

[Brett Bogert <bbogert24@xxxxxxxxx>]

Raymond,

I spent most of the day today (Sunday) trying to see if I could make any progress toward
making the combined digital audio over the DVI to HDMI or HDMI to HDMI issues I am
having any better(e.g. no "System Ready" sound without disabling the onboard sound
in the bios and loss of the first 1 to 2 seconds of audio when output is initiated) and
I am sad to say I made little to no progress. 

I made multiple attempts to force HDMI to be default using methods I found that
worked for others with no progress. I also read a butt load of ALSA and Pulseaudio
tips, tricks and bug reports as well as design documentation from ALSA. 

I figured if I could get the HDMI digital sound on rhe Video card working properly I 
would not need the analog as default for anything other than the inputs (non-linear
 video editing and such). 

I also wanted to try the fglrx or fglrx-updates driver but there is a problem with
dependencies and Wine that prevents installing the driver if Wine is installed.

A few issues with HDMI were solved by using the fglrx proprietary driver so I 
thought I would give it a try until I ran into the dependency problem.

About the only thing I accomplished today was to find out that even if the
alc892 chip is disabled on the motherbord to force the HDMI to the default
(e.g. "0") entry when the alc892 chip is re-enabled the sound stays on HDMI
at least from the "System Ready" sound standpoint.  I checked the /proc/
asound card entries and the alc892 was listed at card "0" so I am not sure
how the "System Ready" sound is still being output via the HDMI output.

Other sounds played by the sox "play" command seem to be coming out
at the analog "green" output despite the desktop being set to HDMI in
the System Settings Sound dialog(AARRGGHH).

Oh well at least I am learning a bit about the linux sound systems(lol).

I will spend the rest of the evening backing up this system in case we
need to do anything nasty that might take it down and will make a
new up to date respin on my "build server" in case I need to reinstall
the OS at some point(e.g. we will be able to do destuctive testing if
needed).

Thanks again.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop
Packages, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1394711

Title:
  [HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB, playback] No sound at all with built in
  display speakers

Status in “alsa-driver” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  Problem Description: No sound at monitors built in speakers after
  fresh install of Utopic 14.10 Unity Desktop.

  Details: After installing Ubuntu 14.10 I had no sound at all from the
  speakers in my monitor.

  After troubleshooting I determined that the output from the sound system at the 'green' 
  connector on the motherboard was fine but was not being delivered to the monitors speakers. 

  I then replaced the audio cable from the motherboard to the monitor
  which did not help.

  I assumed that the analog input of the monitor had gone bad and removed a HDMI cable from my television 
  and tried using it from the Video Card to the monitor and the sound in the monitor speakers worked(e.g.
  HDMI with combined Video and Audio signal).  

  I assumed that the analog input in the monitor had gone bad and bought a new HDMI cable and used it from
  the Video card to the monitor. 

  This did not work well however as I had to disable the audio chip on the motherboard to force the system 
  to use the video card sound functionality to get the "system ready" sound to work. 

  There was also a large latency when sending the sound signal through the video card to the monitor causing the 
  "system ready" sound and "desktop notifications" to be cut off or not output at all.

  A short time after this I installed the same Utopic 14.10 Unity Desktop onto another computer with a similar monitor
  and had the same result (no sound through the monitor speakers) and discovered the real cause of the problem. 

  The cause of the problem became appearant on the second install when the "system ready" sound was played but 
  was cut off after a second or so.

  After this no more sound at all was output to the monitors speakers.

  For some reason in Utopic 14.10 the sound input in the monitor is being coupled to the video input making it impossible
  to use the HDMI input for video and the monitors analog input for sound.  The audio input is "tracking" the video input
  in the monitor and the audio input is switching from the analog input to the HDMI input if a HDMI video cable is being
  used.

  This lead me to the conclusion that code is switching the analog input in the monitor to the HDMI audio input based
  on HDMI video being used and this was proven by the fact that a VGA (analog) video cable and analog audio cable/input
  works fine as well as a combined HDMI video/audio cable working (not quite fine but working) and to the conclusion that
  someone has coupled the Video and Audio inputs of the video monitor in the software in Utopic 14.10.

  In short the analog audio input in the monitor is being "switched" to the HDMI audio input if a HDMI video cable is being 
  used reguardless of it actually carrying audio (e.g. in my case a DVI to HDMI cable is only used for video and a seperate 
  analog audio cable is being used to carry the audio signal to the analog input in the monitor).

  Note that this hardware configuration seemed to work fine in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (e.g. HDMI video and analog audio) and
  just appeared after the fresh installs of 14.10. 

  Again this problem does not occur if a VGA video cable and and the aforementioned analog audio cable and input are 
  used and only occurs if a DVI to HDMI video cable and analog audio cable/input on the monitor are used. 
  A HDMI combined video/audio cable works as well other than the undesirable characteristics described above
  (e.g. having to disable onboard audio to force use of the sound on the video card to get  the "system ready" sound 
  and latency problems with the audio).

  Hardware specifics: Motherboards are ASUS Sabertooth and m5a97 with ASUS mx279h and mx239h monitors respectively.
  Monitors are connected via DVI to HDMI video cables and audio is being delivered via an 1/8" stereo audio cable from the
  "green" analog output at the motherboard to the analog input of the monitor.

  I am not sure to who this issue belongs because I could not tell who is switching the audio input in the monitor.
  It occurs sometime during the playing of the "system ready" sound (this timing may be specific to my hardware
  configuration and may occur earlier or later depending upon the relative speed of the system).

  I also was not sure what data to collect as I could not tell what software subsystem (e.g. ALSA or Display) was responsible
  for the audio input in the monitor being switched.

  Please let me know what data I can collect so this problem can be resolved and I can get back to using my DVI to HDMI
  video cable and analog audio input and still have sound. In the mean time I have to use the VGA (analog) video cable so
  that the analog input to the monitor can be used as the HDMI combined video/audio cable solution had undesirable
  side effects.

  This bug report was originated using  the ubuntu-bug command from terminal so I expect that some data was collected
  but I am not sure if it will be what is needed to resolve the issue.

  Thank You

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
  Package: alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu4
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-24.32-generic 3.16.4
  Uname: Linux 3.16.0-24-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu8
  Architecture: amd64
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  wolfland   4088 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/controlC1:  wolfland   4088 F.... pulseaudio
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Thu Nov 20 10:36:59 2014
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-11-20 (0 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: WolfLand-Elite-v1.4 14.10 - Release amd64
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: alsa-driver
  Symptom: audio
  Symptom_AlsaPlaybackTest: ALSA playback test through plughw:SB failed
  Symptom_Card: Turks/Whistler HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6000 Series] - HDA ATI HDMI
  Symptom_DevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  wolfland   4088 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/controlC1:  wolfland   4088 F.... pulseaudio
   /dev/snd/seq:        timidity   1612 F.... timidity
  Symptom_Type: No sound at all
  Title: [HDA-Intel - HDA ATI SB, playback] No sound at all
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  dmi.bios.date: 01/06/2014
  dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
  dmi.bios.version: 2301
  dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
  dmi.board.name: SABERTOOTH 990FX/GEN3 R2.0
  dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
  dmi.board.version: Rev 1.xx
  dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
  dmi.chassis.type: 3
  dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
  dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr2301:bd01/06/2014:svnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:pnTobefilledbyO.E.M.:pvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnSABERTOOTH990FX/GEN3R2.0:rvrRev1.xx:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
  dmi.product.name: To be filled by O.E.M.
  dmi.product.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
  dmi.sys.vendor: To be filled by O.E.M.

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