[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#468741: alsa-base: Sound stops working for new sessoins after a couple of days

[Shai Berger]

Package: alsa-base
Version: 1.0.16-1
Severity: normal


This bug seems related to #446968, but that bug seems mired in mac-powerpc-specific
device driver issues, whereas I am running an Intel-based PC.

About once or twice a week, sound stops working on my system. Well, that's not exactly
accurate; sound stops working for new logins; if an old login is open when the problem
starts, sound for this session will usually (though not always) keep working. This
computer serves the whole family, and we use virtual consoles so there are up to
four sessions open at one time (none remote).

As reported in #446968, whenever this happens, applications which try to use sound
tend to hang; most annoyingly, flash hangs the whole browser (of course, this is out
of scope of this bug).

On my system, there doesn't seem to be an "/etc/init.d/alsa" as mentioned in #446968;
after reading other bugs, I've tried "/etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset" and 
"/etc/init.d/acpid restart", to no avail; a reboot does solve the problem,
so I guess I just need to find out what it is that I need to restart. I
hope it doesn't turn out to be the kernel...

As per the info requested in #446968:

$ lsmod |  grep snd  # when sound works (that is, right after reboot):
snd_hda_intel         259100  2 
snd_pcm_oss            39104  0 
snd_pcm                72132  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_mixer_oss          15296  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy           3812  0 
snd_seq_oss            29440  0 
snd_seq_midi            8192  0 
snd_rawmidi            22656  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6976  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                46544  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              21156  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          7852  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    48356  13 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               7584  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         10088  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

$ lsmod |  grep snd  # when sound fails (that is, a few days later):
snd_hda_intel         259100  3 
snd_pcm_oss            39104  0 
snd_pcm                72132  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_mixer_oss          15296  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy           3812  0 
snd_seq_oss            29440  0 
snd_seq_midi            8192  0 
snd_rawmidi            22656  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      6976  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                46544  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              21156  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          7852  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    48356  15 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_pcm,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               7584  1 snd
snd_page_alloc         10088  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

$ cat /etc/modules
# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

loop
sbp2

We're all using KDE & arts, so maybe some of the problem is there; next time
this happens, I'll see if a new gnome session gets sound. But I'm skeptic.

Thanks,
	Shai.


-- Package-specific info:
--- Begin additional package status ---
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name                             Version                          Description
+++-================================-================================-================================================================================
ii  libasound2                       1.0.15-3                         ALSA library
--- End additional package status ---
--- Begin /proc/asound/version ---
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.14 (Fri Jul 20 09:12:58 2007 UTC).
--- End /proc/asound/version ---
--- Begin /proc/asound/cards ---
 0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0x93220000 irq 23
--- End /proc/asound/cards ---
--- Begin /dev/snd/ listing ---
total 0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  0 2008-03-01 03:37 controlC0
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 24 2008-03-01 03:37 pcmC0D0c
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 16 2008-03-01 03:37 pcmC0D0p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 17 2008-03-01 03:37 pcmC0D1p
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116,  1 2008-03-01 03:37 seq
crw-rw---- 1 root audio 116, 33 2008-03-01 03:37 timer
--- End /dev/snd/ listing ---

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.23-1-686 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages alsa-base depends on:
ii  linux-sound-base           1.0.16-1      base package for ALSA and OSS soun
ii  lsof                       4.78.dfsg.1-4 List open files
ii  module-init-tools          3.3-pre11-4   tools for managing Linux kernel mo

Versions of packages alsa-base recommends:
ii  alsa-utils                    1.0.15-3   ALSA utilities

Versions of packages libasound2 depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.7-8      GNU C Library: Shared libraries

-- no debconf information