On Tue, Apr 28, 2020 at 2:43 AM Peter Humphrey <pe...@prh.myzen.co.uk> wrote: > > Morning all, > > The motherboard sound chip failed, so I bought a USB sound adapter [1]. > Problem: no sound: firefox says it isn't working and KDE sounds don't 'appear'. > I have all the likely-looking options set in the kernel (5.4.28), modules > where possible. I've read the Gentoo wiki articles on USB and audio, but they > didn't offer any help. <SNIP> > # aplay -l > **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** > card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: Generic Digital [Generic Digital] > Subdevices: 1/1 > Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 > card 2: Device [USB Audio Device], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] > Subdevices: 1/1 > Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 > > # arecord -l > **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices **** > card 1: USB [HD Webcam USB], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] > Subdevices: 1/1 > snd_seq_device 16384 1 snd_rawmidi > mc 40960 4 videodev,snd_usb_audio,videobuf2_v4l2,videobuf2_common > snd_hda_codec_generic 77824 1 > snd_hda_intel 28672 0 > snd_intel_nhlt 16384 1 snd_hda_intel > snd_hda_codec 122880 2 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel > snd_hda_core 73728 3 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec > snd_pcm 98304 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_usb_audio,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core > snd_timer 32768 1 snd_pcm > snd 81920 10 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_i> > soundcore 16384 1 snd > > Why those Intel modules? The built-in Intel device is switched off in the BIOS. >
Because your video card probably makes sound available to send to your TV over HDMI and it uses the Intel driver, or because the BIOS switch wasn't honored by the kernel. > Can anyone point me in the right direction? > > 1. The device is a 'Sabrent USB External Stereo Sound Adapter'; The blurb at amazon.co.uk includes Linux in its list of OSes. I bought it via https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Sabrent-External-Adapter-Windows-AU-MMSA/dp/B00IRVQ0F8/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=usb+sound&qid=1588065420&sr=8-3 Please provide the output of ls /proc/asound cat /proc/asound/cards cat /proc/asound/modules 1) First, if you really don't want the intel stuff loaded then either don't build it in your kernel or (easier - it's what I do) just blacklist the intel sound driver. The following link has some instructions which explain the process. https://www.techtimejourney.net/how-to-blacklist-a-sound-card-in-linux/ Restart Alsa and double check the cards and modules shown in /proc/asound. 2) As you are on KDE you likely have pulseaudio running. Run pavucontrol, run Firefox with some audio and see where you are sending Firefox audio. 3) You probably don't have to mess with Alsa configuration itself to fix this so keep it simple for now. We can go there later if need be. Mark
