Bug#712209: pulseaudio: getting no audio

[Felipe Sateler]

On Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 4:51 AM, Francesca Ciceri <madamezou at zouish.org> wrote:
> Ok, here we go :).
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 01, 2014 at 06:12:20PM -0400, Felipe Sateler wrote:
>> Top may not display it because of limited space. What does `ps -fea |
>> grep pulse` say?
>
> Scenario #1: at startup, no audio, pulseaudio is not running, and there's
> no /run/user/1000/pulse dir:
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ps -fea |grep pulse
> madamez+  1618  1516  0 10:16 pts/0    00:00:00 grep pulse
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ls -lah /run/user/1000/
> total 0
> drwx------ 4 madamezou madamezou 80 Jun  3 10:16 .
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root      root      60 Jun  3 10:16 ..
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou 60 Jun  3 10:16 dconf
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou 40 Jun  3 10:16 gvfs
>
> Scenario #2: manually lanching pulseaudio with "pulseaudio -vvvv"
> The process is running, the dir is created with madamezou:madamezou but
> I still get no audio.
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ps -fea |grep pulse
> madamez+  2031  1516  1 10:17 pts/0    00:00:00 pulseaudio -vvvv
> madamez+  2040  2031  0 10:17 pts/0    00:00:00
> /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
> madamez+  2057  2048  0 10:17 pts/1    00:00:00 grep pulse
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ls -lah /run/user/1000/
> total 0
> drwx------ 5 madamezou madamezou 100 Jun  3 10:17 .
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root      root       60 Jun  3 10:16 ..
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  60 Jun  3 10:16 dconf
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  40 Jun  3 10:16 gvfs
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  40 Jun  3 10:18 pulse
>
> Scenario #3: after an "alsactl init": still no sound, process apparently
> running, dir is madamezou:madamezou
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ps -fea |grep pulse
> madamez+  2060     1  0 10:37 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/pulseaudio
> --start --log-target=syslog
> madamez+  2069  2060  0 10:37 ?        00:00:00
> /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
> madamez+  2091  2084  0 10:37 pts/3    00:00:00 grep pulse
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ls -lah /run/user/1000
> total 0
> drwx------ 5 madamezou madamezou 100 Jun  3 10:37 .
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root      root       60 Jun  3 10:35 ..
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  60 Jun  3 10:35 dconf
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  40 Jun  3 10:35 gvfs
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  80 Jun  3 10:37 pulse
>
> Scenario #4: after an "alsactl init" + "pulseaudio -k; pulseaudio -vvvv"
> I get audio and this is the situation:
>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ps -fea |grep pulse
> root      2117  2040  0 10:40 pts/1    00:00:00 pulseaudio -vvvv
> root      2121  2117  0 10:40 pts/1    00:00:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper
> madamez+  2136  2084  0 10:42 pts/3    00:00:00 grep pulse

This is very strange. Did you start pulseaudio as root?

>
> madamezou at malatesta:~$ ls -lah /run/user/1000/
> total 0
> drwx------ 5 madamezou madamezou 100 Jun  3 10:37 .
> drwxr-xr-x 3 root      root       60 Jun  3 10:35 ..
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  60 Jun  3 10:35 dconf
> drwx------ 2 madamezou madamezou  40 Jun  3 10:35 gvfs
> drwx------ 2 root      root       80 Jun  3 10:40 pulse
>
> Killing the process here results in losing audio again.
>
>
>> This is a bit confusing for me too ;). Perhaps the permission denied
>> results in pulseaudio not starting, and thus you get audio when there
>> is no pulseaudio running?
>
> Really no idea :) It's not clear to me, either, even if I'm trying to
> isolate all the possible scenarios.
> I'm sorry I cannot give more clear information: I'm afraid I really
> don't understand what is suppose to happen nor what it's actually
> happening.

The above test shows that pulseaudio is indeed running. But it appears
that unless it is running as root it cannot work. Can you confirm if
starting pulseaudio as root (without alsactl init) makes audio work?

>
>> What happens if you use aplay -D hw:1,0 -c 2 <wavfile> when pulseaudio
>> is not working? Do you get sound? Use aplay -l to find out a suitable
>> number to put after the hw: part, and try 1 and 2 for the -c option.
>
> With aplay I get audio, even if pulseaudio is not working.
>
> I used plughw: though, because hw: gave me an error (aplay:
> set_params:1239: Channels count non available).
>
>> Also, when pulseaudio is not working, does pavucontrol show you
>> anyhing in the output devices?
>>
>
> Yes, pavucontrol shows the bar moving in the "output device" and
> "playback" tabs.

But does it show your two devices (hdmi output and analog stereo)? If
PA could not grab the card you would only have a null sink.


Lets try the following: Please send again a log of pulseaudio, both
when it is working and when it is not. But this time please avoid
word-wrapping it (it makes it harder to parse). You can use the
--log-target=file:logfile.log option to make pulseaudio log directly
to a file. Also attach the pactl list output in both cases. If you
started pulseaudio as root before, please send the files for a third
scenario with pulseaudio running as root.


-- 

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler