Sound problem, unreliable or inaudible sound with intel integrated chipsets.

[SneakyWho_am_i]

Yes! I'm having the same issue! My sound was working perfectly for the last couple of weeks There's no reason for it to fail at all as I've made no changes (either manually, through apts, through synaptic or even alsaconfig).

Well, almost no changes. I did turn the volume up two days ago. Can that break everything? (lol...)

I found this in my X log later:

Nov  7 02:29:47 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Started up.
Nov  7 02:29:49 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: message_handler: message handler not found under /com/redhat/dhcp/eth1 for sub-path eth1.dbus.get.reason
Nov  7 02:30:25 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Unrequested down ?:3
Nov  7 02:31:00 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Unrequested down ?:3
Nov  7 02:32:10 sneakywhoami last message repeated 2 times
Nov  7 02:33:19 sneakywhoami last message repeated 2 times
Nov  7 02:33:56 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Unrequested down ?:3
Nov  7 02:35:10 sneakywhoami last message repeated 2 times
Nov  7 02:35:23 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9641]: main.c: This program is not intended to be run as root (unless --system is specified).
Nov  7 02:35:23 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9631]: main.c: This program is not intended to be run as root (unless --system is specified).
Nov  7 02:35:23 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9631]: pid.c: daemon already running.
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9631]: main.c: pa_pid_file_create() failed.
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9641]: alsa-util.c: Cannot find mixer control "PCM".
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9641]: module.c: Failed to open module "module-x11-bell": module-x11-bell.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9641]: module.c: Failed to open module "module-x11-publish": module-x11-publish.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9641]: module.c: Failed to open module "module-gconf": module-gconf.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami pulseaudio[9641]: main.c: Module load failed.
Nov  7 02:35:24 sneakywhoami last message repeated 2 times
Nov  7 02:35:45 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Unrequested down ?:3
Nov  7 02:36:19 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Unrequested down ?:3
Nov  7 02:36:56 sneakywhoami dhcdbd: Unrequested down ?:3
Nov  7 02:38:10 sneakywhoami last message repeated 2 times
Nov  7 02:39:22 sneakywhoami last message repeated 2 times

Something tells me that this string of messages is part of or a product of the problem. If you have this problem then I suggest you check for these as well (in Ubuntu, System > Administration > System Log) - I'm yet to find the answer but I'm on my way.

As I said, sound was working fine from all applications. The only thing I've done which has anything to do with configuring sound since then is setting up ltsp (for some reason it does not install automatically in edubuntu for some systems) and that shouldn't affect the server at all, right?

I know it seems silly to care about sound on a server but I'm kinda short on machines here

Anyway
I'm wondering (if you can wonder hard then I am wondering hard) why my log refers to "/com/redhat/eth1" - remember I'm on Edubuntu Server (Gutsy)

Seems this chipset may not be well supported at the moment.?

Ah yes. In the sound preferences I was unable to play a test sound on ANY device (there's a usb sound device as well and the light is now solid on though t produces only white noise)..........
After unmuting my audio channels, the ICH5 stops erroring out and appears to play a test sound but it is silent. I haven't tried moving the sliders up and down. maybe the controls are reversed

/me runs away to try it

I need sound! I need music lest I go mad

Hi guys. I just installed (Re-installed actually) openSuSE 10.2 and it is running great. Unfortunately, I am having the same problem I had with Ubuntu 6.06 where the sound is not working and nothing I do seems to help.

lspci returns this:

00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)

I have tried to install the proper alsa driver (intel8x0) and tried unmuting my audio channels. AFAIK, I succeeded. alsaconf does detect my sound and claims to have configured it, but when alsaconf tries the test sound I hear nothing. Amarok's test sound is equally silent to me.

I am at a loss as to where I've gone wrong or what to try next.

[Moonshinerat]

Don't know if it is related or not but I have an integrated intel chipset (945) and my sound has been fine until three days ago on Kubuntu Gutsy. It just suddenly stopped working, no changes, updates, software installs.... nothing.

I went into the sound settings and changed the hardware from Autodetect to Open Sound System and now I have sound but it's real quiet. Not quite sure what's happened here.

[SneakyWho_am_i]

I think it is related. I've been looking into it and it seems that they've had issues with Intel sound all through Gutsy. I was especially interested in ICH5, 6, 7 and 8 - all of which seem to have had problems over the last few months.

Some people reported that enabling backports and downloading the backports fixed it (to gain access to newer Alsa stuff) - this did nothing for me.

I had changed from generic kernel to an i386 kernel to try to beat some stability issues. When I load the generic kernel instead of the i386 kernel I am able to get sound through OSS also. The volume seems fine! However, amusingly, the only application so far that seems to support this is the sound control panel. Totem doesn't care. Still it's a great relief to know that my sound isn't completely [s]fu[/s]broken

I had also tried editing the alsa config to force my onboard soundcard into the first position on the list of devices, and start it in quirks mode or whatever it's called. That didn't help either.

But the fact that you were able to get something through OSS, and you're using Intel's sound, is good to hear (I think?) cause it means it is related (as far as I can see anyway as an ubuntu noob)

@ my last post: I know eth1 is an ethernet device but it struck me as super odd that it said redhat so i had to comment

but yeah my sound was good until 04 November when I downloaded some updates through Synaptic, then it stopped. What's weird is that those updates had nothing to do with sound, they were related to CUPS and a C compiler I think - or maybe Compiz.

Ah I dunno. But anyway OSS has given me some hope lol

[Moonshinerat]

Thanks for your post again sneaky. I'm going to work on this over the next few days for us. I have just reinstalled kubuntu 7.10 and the sound bombed out on the second day. The problem occured after I tried playing some MP3's. CD Audio through Kaffeine and Amarok was no problem, as was WAV and OGG. As soon as I attempted an MP3 the player opened the file and highlighted the play button. But then.... nothing. The play button greys out after the first time I press it and the song goes to zero length running time as though there is no data. After this I have checked the sound config and Autodetect no longer works and I have to switch to OSS, but even then Kaffeine will not play the MP3. Before anyone asks I have every CODEC under the sun on this thing and Fedora 8 does not suffer the same problems.

Let me know if you have an update to this problem. Thanks guys.

[SneakyWho_am_i]

Ok after poking and prodding the files I couldn't get anything I wanted out of it...

I solved this one in the GUI. Weird. There were a heap of other changes I haven't reverted (or recorded doh) but the last thing that I did was starting a system service.

In Gnome (where applicable, and yes I realise KDE is the superior desktop) Click System->Administration->Services and then choose alsa-utils - make sure it's running. For me that solved the problem (and I wanted to stab someone)

Nothing to do with the mixer, and no wonder I couldn't get Alsa working. It's still weird that OSS would work under one kernel but not the other but now I have auto/alsa sound back in both. I hope you're this lucky

Anyway enough talk, here's how you SHOULD be able to do it from a console":

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils start

or

sudo invoke-rc.d alsa-utils start

DON'T get too hopeful. Nothing I found was any help to me, and so this might not help you (you're in Kubuntu for starters) but I hope it helps.

My sound had died after an update from Synaptic, nothing to do with me (I didn't edit any files or change any settings in the GUI)... I'm glad it was just a stopped service and not a toasted module or config file or something.

Good luck!!!!!!


Oh and PS when I found that Totem would not play through OSS I started looking for plugins and engines for it. There was precious little in Synaptic, and none of it was of any use to me So once again I can relate (where OSS works until you actually try to use it)