Bug#814757: [Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#814757: alsa-base: dmix/software mixing doesn't work

[Andoru]

> > > Sometimes pulseaudio is the cause.
> >
> > $ apt-cache policy pulseaudio
> > pulseaudio:
> >   Installed: (none)
> >   Candidate: 7.1-2
> >   Version table:
> >  7.1-2 500
> > 500 http://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages
>
> What tells:
>
> dpkg -l | egrep "(alsa|libaso)"

$ dpkg -l | egrep "(alsa|libaso)"
ii  alsa-base
1.0.27+1   all  dummy package to ease
purging of obsolete conffiles
ii  alsa-oss
1.0.28-1   amd64ALSA wrapper for OSS
applications
ii  alsa-tools
1.1.0-1amd64Console based ALSA
utilities for specific hardware
ii  alsa-tools-gui
1.1.0-1amd64GUI based ALSA
utilities for specific hardware
ii  alsa-utils
1.1.0-2amd64Utilities for
configuring and using ALSA
ii  alsamixergui
0.9.0rc2-1-9.1 amd64graphical soundcard
mixer for ALSA soundcard driver
ii  gstreamer0.10-alsa:amd64
0.10.36-2  amd64GStreamer plugin for
ALSA
ii  libalsaplayer0
0.99.81-1+b1   amd64alsaplayer plugin
library
ii  libasound2:amd64
1.1.0-1amd64shared library for ALSA
applications
ii  libasound2:i386
1.1.0-1i386 shared library for ALSA
applications
ii  libasound2-data
1.1.0-1all  Configuration files and
profiles for ALSA drivers
ii  libasound2-dev:amd64
1.1.0-1amd64shared library for ALSA
applications -- development files
ii  libasound2-plugins:amd64
1.1.0-1amd64ALSA library additional
plugins


> >
> > Did they disable search engine indexing on those lists? I wasn't able to
> > find much useful info for ALSA and this specific issue while searching.
> > Also no posts over on those mailing lists turned up...
>
> Just ask on those lists ;-)

Would've done that, but I wouldn't have wanted to be shunned for asking an
oft-asked question, since you said this issue was answered multiple times
before.

> And please ask your searchengine on how
> to use emailin mailing lists and learnwhat an email thread is.

Exactly how do you think I got to post on alsa's bug report and alsa-user
mailing lists?
I asked a completely different question by the way.

> > If I do that, I get no sound through the analog jack output. What
probably
> > happens is that the HDMI is used for sound output instead... Somebody at
> > the ALSA user mailing list suggested me to use config #2 (from my first
> > message in this bug report) just to set the default soundcard without
> > setting dmix, but it didn't work...
>
> Just do as user:
>
> $ mv $HOME/.asoundrc $HOME/.asoundrc.save

Don't have an ~/.asoundrc, so I'll assume I have to do that to
/etc/asound.conf

> $ cat < $HOME/.asoundrc
> defaults.pcm.!card PCH
> defaults.ctl.!card PCH
> EOF

That's exactly the same as configuartion #2 that I've tried, and which
didn't work... Read my initial message in this bug report, please.
But I gave it a spin this time again, in case I messed up something last
time (and I did, just not with ALSA).

>
> As root:
>
> # service alsa-utils restart

That gives me:
Failed to restart alsa-utils.service: Unit alsa-utils.service is masked.

So I used this instead:

# /etc/init.d/alsa-utils restart

Which unfortunately didn't seem to change anything, so probably the command
I issued didn't work.
But after restarting, the sound was the same, but I found out what was
causing all these issues:
In VLC I've set up a custom device for audio output instead of "Default",
and that seemed to hold the sound blocked to one app. After changing it
back to "Default", everything works as expected (multiple sound sources,
browser add-ons sounds work, WebM/HTML5 players have sound)

This can be now closed as it's no longer a bug. The message about missing
files led me to think that the ALSA package I got was broken, thus the bug
report.

Bug#814757: [Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#814757: alsa-base: dmix/software mixing doesn't work

[Elimar Riesebieter]

* Andoru  [2016-02-16 01:27 +0200]:

> > Sometimes pulseaudio is the cause.
> 
> $ apt-cache policy pulseaudio
> pulseaudio:
>   Installed: (none)
>   Candidate: 7.1-2
>   Version table:
>  7.1-2 500
> 500 http://ftp.debian.org/debian unstable/main amd64 Packages

What tells:

dpkg -l | egrep "(alsa|libaso)"
> 
> > According to http://alsa.opensrc.org/DmixPlugin you don't need to setup
> > dmix for analogue output. Dmix is enabled by default for soundcards which
> > don't support hardware mixing. You still need to set it up for digital
> > outputs.
> 
> If I don't set up dmix in the config file, it doesn't work either way.
> 
> > A better source for help is us...@lists.debian.org as this was discussed
> > multiple times in the past.
> 
> Did they disable search engine indexing on those lists? I wasn't able to
> find much useful info for ALSA and this specific issue while searching.
> Also no posts over on those mailing lists turned up...

Just ask on those lists ;-) And please ask your searchengine on how
to use emailin mailing lists and learnwhat an email thread is.

> > A good start is just to throw away all the asoud.conf and .asoundrc
> > stuff. It overconstrains your system. The latest alsa is very tough and
> > should do what you need.
> 
> If I do that, I get no sound through the analog jack output. What probably
> happens is that the HDMI is used for sound output instead... Somebody at
> the ALSA user mailing list suggested me to use config #2 (from my first
> message in this bug report) just to set the default soundcard without
> setting dmix, but it didn't work...

Just do as user:

$ mv $HOME/.asoundrc $HOME/.asoundrc.save
$ cat < $HOME/.asoundrc
defaults.pcm.!card PCH
defaults.ctl.!card PCH
EOF

As root:

# service alsa-utils restart

Elimar
-- 
  Excellent day for drinking heavily.
  Spike the office water cooler;-)

Bug#814757: [Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#814757: alsa-base: dmix/software mixing doesn't work

[Elimar Riesebieter]

* Andoru  [2016-02-15 07:09 +0200]:

> Package: alsa-base
> Version: 1.0.27+1
> Severity: normal
> 
> So I've been trying to fix this problem for a while now, but I can't seem
> to set up ALSA in a way to enable multiple sound sources at once (2 or more
> apps/programs to use the soundcard simultaneously). Despite having a dmix
> entry in /etc/asound.conf, it still refuses to work the way I intend it to.

Sometimes pulseaudio is the cause.

> And speaking of which, here's how my asound.conf looked like:
[...] 

According to http://alsa.opensrc.org/DmixPlugin you don't need to
setup dmix for analogue output. Dmix is enabled by default for
soundcards which don't support hardware mixing. You still need to
set it up for digital outputs.

> And here's what 'aplay -l' gives me:
> 
> 
> 
>  List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices 
> card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD
> Analog]
>   Subdevices: 1/1
>   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
> 
> 
> 
> As you probably guessed, I'm using an integrated soundcard (that's on a
> Intel B85 chipset), and I've set it to use the jack plug output instead of
> the HDMI one.

No need for a dmix setup.

> Another issue that I'm having is that the sounds/music/etc that are
> supposed to be outputted by Firefox, don't get played at all (like for
> example add-ons that notify me when I get an e-mail, or HTML5 audio and/or
> video players, or other such stuff). Curiously the flash player seems to be
> unaffected by this issue, probably because it's stand-alone to the browser
> itself.
> 
> Before attempting to submit this bug request, I tried asking for help on
> the alsa user mailing list (
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.user/39409), 

A better source for help is us...@lists.debian.org as this was
discussed multiple times in the past.

> and out of that I tried those asound.conf configurations:

A good start is just to throw away all the asoud.conf and .asoundrc
stuff. It overconstrains your system. The latest alsa

ii alsa-base 1.0.27+1
ii alsa-utils1.1.0-2
ii libasound2:amd64  1.1.0-1
ii libasound2-data   1.1.0-1
ii libasound2-plugins:amd64  1.1.0-1


is very tough and should do what you need.

Elimar
-- 
  Obviously the human brain works like a computer.
  Since there are no stupid computers humans can't be stupid.
  There are just a few running with Windows or even CE ;-)