[Pkg-pulseaudio-devel] Bug#522177: pulseaudio: on EWS88MT (Via ice1712) this is caused by IEC958 profiles

[Sjoerd Simons]

In the future, could you report a new bug if the reason you're seeing an issue
has nothing to do with what the other reports are seeing :)

On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 01:51:50AM +0200, Arno Schuring wrote:
> Subject: pulseaudio: no sound because of IEC958 profiles
> Package: pulseaudio
> Version: 0.9.15-1
> Severity: normal
> 
> Short version: check the "Configuration" tab in pavucontrol!
> Long version:
> 
> I got bitten today by this as well, after installation of 0.9.15-1
> (0.9.14 worked without problems): no error messages, no indication that
> anything is wrong, and still no sound. In fact, pavumeter happily shows
> output as if music is playing, and in paman I can see streams appearing
> and disappearing as they should. I even installed pavucontrol from
> unstable (the one in testing has broken dependencies) to check for muted
> steams as Julien mentioned above, but they are not muted. Also tried
> commenting out the *-restore modules, had no effect.
> 
> I have solved my problem after much trial and error, I hope that this
> will help others too.
> 
> Check the rightmost tab in pavucontrol, and see if there are any options
> on that tab relating to IEC958 (also known as S/PDIF, digital audio).
> Try to select an option that does NOT mention iec958, and you might get
> your sound back. It might also be the case that the only option without
> iec958 is "Off". If that is true, you're in my boat. Welcome! Try the
> following:
> - open /etc/pulse/default.pa, and
> DISABLE module-hal-detect.so
> ADD load-module module-alsa-sink sink_name=i_love_pulse_out device=hw:0
> 
> The ice1712-based cards have a 10-channel audio interface, so my actual
> load-module line is a bit more complicated than the above. I haven't
> tested the above line, you may have to adapt it for your own needs.
> 
> Now, as to why this is necessary: Pulseaudio tries to get different
> configuration profiles from the ALSA information (seen with pulseaudio
> -vv). In my case, there are none. Pulseaudio will log lines like:
> 
> D: alsa-util.c: Checking for playback on analog-stereo (front)
> D: alsa-util.c: Trying front:0 with SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: alsa-util.c: Trying front:0 without SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: alsa-util.c: Trying plug:front:0 with SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> D: alsa-util.c: Trying plug:front:0 without SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> I: alsa-util.c: Failed to set hardware parameters on plug:front:0:
> Invalid argument
> 
> However, it does find configuration profiles for the digital inputs and
> outputs:
> 
> D: alsa-util.c: Checking for playback on iec958-stereo (iec958)
> D: alsa-util.c: Trying iec958:0 with SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> [...]
> D: alsa-util.c: Checking for capture on iec958-stereo (iec958)
> D: alsa-util.c: Trying iec958:0 with SND_PCM_NO_AUTO_FORMAT ...
> I: module-alsa-card.c: Found output profile 'Output Digital Stereo
> (IEC958) + Input Digital Stereo (IEC958)'
> 
> 
> And as a result, the only profiles available will be the digital ones.
> By specifying a manual load-module line, you prevent PA from going on a
> fishing trip for configuration profiles, and by commenting out the
> hal-detect module, you prevent PA from trying to open the same device
> twice (once via the config file, once via HAL autodetection).
> 
> Hope this helps anyone. As for this bug, maybe pulseaudio should try to
> guess a profile if it can't get a useful response from ALSA. Or fall
> back to not using profiles at all.

Well it got useful responses, these just didn't include the profile you'd like
to use. Could you do the following for me:
  0) Report a new bug against pulseaudio so we can track this issue properly
  1) Provide the kernel, alsa and pulseaudio version your running. Preferrably
     ensure you're running the latests version available in debian

Thanks,
  Sjoerd
-- 
You can observe a lot just by watching.
		-- Yogi Berra