Linux troubles again, this time it’s my audio that’s not working. I didn’t even realize it wasn’t working for a while. Then it randomly hit me, no audio. Obviously, this is not enough to convince me to switch to Windows, as I’m not a fan of that operating system. However it is really annoying so I’m gonna have to try and fix it.
Diagnosing the problem
Let’s see what shows up in /proc/asound/card0
[root@magenta-matrix ~]# ls -lah /proc/asound/card0
total 0
dr-xr-xr-x 21 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 .
dr-xr-xr-x 13 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 ..
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 codec#0
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 codec#2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.3
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.6
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.7
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 eld#2.8
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 id
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm0c
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm0p
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm10p
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm3p
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm7p
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm8p
dr-xr-xr-x 4 root root 0 Mar 22 21:02 pcm9p
[root@magenta-matrix ~]#
Looks pretty typical, I noticed that I didn’t have alsa-utils installed, time to install it. After installing it I ran aplay -l.
[root@magenta-matrix ~]# aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC257 Analog [ALC257 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 9: HDMI 3 [HDMI 3]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 10: HDMI 4 [HDMI 4]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
[root@magenta-matrix ~]#
Again, pretty typical. Let’s run alsa-mixer.
[root@magenta-matrix ~]# alsamixer
cannot open mixer: Host is down
[root@magenta-matrix ~]#
Oh?
Let’s check the kernel logs!
[ 8.365403] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: DSP detected with PCI class/subclass/prog-if info 0x040380
[ 8.365438] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: enabling device (0000 -> 0002)
[ 8.365616] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1f.3: bound 0000:00:02.0 (ops i915_audio_component_bind_ops [i915])
[ 8.403612] input: Wacom HID 51CD Pen as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.1/i2c_designware.1/i2c-7/i2c-WCOM51CD:00/0018:056A:51CD.0003/input/input16
[ 8.403721] input: Wacom HID 51CD Finger as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:15.1/i2c_designware.1/i2c-7/i2c-WCOM51CD:00/0018:056A:51CD.0003/input/input17
[ 8.403907] wacom 0018:056A:51CD.0003: hidraw1: I2C HID v1.00 Mouse [WCOM51CD:00 056A:51CD] on i2c-WCOM51CD:00
[ 8.417150] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: autoconfig for ALC257: line_outs=1 (0x14/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0) type:speaker
[ 8.417155] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: speaker_outs=0 (0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 8.417157] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: hp_outs=1 (0x21/0x0/0x0/0x0/0x0)
[ 8.417159] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: mono: mono_out=0x0
[ 8.417160] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: inputs:
[ 8.417161] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: Mic=0x19
[ 8.417162] snd_hda_codec_realtek hdaudioC0D0: Internal Mic=0x12
[ 8.419652] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-mvm-rs'
[ 8.419997] thermal thermal_zone7: failed to read out thermal zone (-61)
[ 8.421603] iwlwifi 0000:00:14.3 wlp0s20f3: renamed from wlan0
[ 8.480274] input: HDA Intel PCH Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input19
[ 8.480304] input: HDA Intel PCH Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input20
[ 8.480330] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=3 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input21
[ 8.480354] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=7 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input22
[ 8.480375] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=8 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input23
[ 8.480396] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=9 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input24
[ 8.480418] input: HDA Intel PCH HDMI/DP,pcm=10 as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0/input25
Looks normal? I don’t see why it’s not working.
Maybe a kernel update? Oh nope… :/ I could try building the latest kernel from source but I don’t want to.
I didn’t even bother trying pactl info
alice :: magenta-matrix [~] % pactl info
Server String: /run/user/1000/pulse/native
Library Protocol Version: 34
Server Protocol Version: 34
Is Local: yes
Client Index: 34
Tile Size: 65472
User Name: alice
Host Name: magenta-matrix
Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.24)
Server Version: 14.0.0
Default Sample Specification: float32le 2ch 48000Hz
Default Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Default Sink: @DEFAULT_SINK@
Default Source: @DEFAULT_SOURCE@
Cookie: 76cb:e022
alice :: magenta-matrix [~] %
Oh nothing looks out of the ordinary, so it looks normal again. Yet pavucontrol shows nothing!
Hmm, maybe I could try reinstalling pipewire with sudo pacman -S pipewire-alsa pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack pipewire and rebooting? Sadly nope, doesn’t work. :/
Last thing I’ll try is falling back to the linux-lts kernel package. Unfortunately tho, that did not fix it, leading me to believe it’s not a kernel problem after all.
Pipewire
Pipewire is a new thing, replacement for pulseaudio. It’s great when it works, but it might be problematic since it’s really new. Maybe I should try switching back to pulseaudio! My dependency tree is an absolute nightmare!
alice :: magenta-matrix [~] % sudo pacman -R pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack pipewire-alsa
checking dependencies...
error: failed to prepare transaction (could not satisfy dependencies)
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-bluetooth' required by gnome-bluetooth
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency 'pulseaudio' required by gnome-settings-daemon
:: removing pipewire-alsa breaks dependency 'pulseaudio-alsa' required by gnome-settings-daemon
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'libpipewire-0.3.so=0-64' required by gst-plugin-pipewire
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'pipewire' required by krfb
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'pipewire' required by kwin
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'pipewire' required by mutter
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency 'pulseaudio' required by pavucontrol-qt
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'pipewire' required by pipewire-media-session
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'libpipewire-0.3.so=0-64' required by pipewire-media-session
:: removing pipewire-pulse breaks dependency 'pulseaudio' required by plasma-pa
:: removing pipewire breaks dependency 'pipewire' required by xdg-desktop-portal
alice :: magenta-matrix [~] %
I have plenty of btrfs snapshots so might as well live on the edge and do sudo pacman -Rdd pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-jack pipewire-alsa!
Installing pulseaudio:
$ sudo pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-bluetooth pulseaudio-alsa pulseaudio-jack pulseaudio-zeroconf
Let’s see if audio is fixed!
I’m back after rebooting typing this in vim with no graphical interface, because removing pipewire broke plasma! Using nmtui to connect to the internet!
pacman -Syu $(pacman -Qqn) --overwrite="*" to force reinstall all packages.
Reboot, and audio works! Pipewire was the problem!
Conclusion
In conclusion pipewire was the problem, an update to pipewire broke audio! Maybe I should file a bug report, maybe there’s already a bug report, I’ll have to see, but for now I’m back on pulseaudio!
