No sound on external speaker

**satimis** · 09-24-2012

Hi all,

Fedora 17 64 bit

System Settings -> Sound -> Output
Choose a device for sound output:

Code:

RS780 Azalia controller Digitaol Stereo (HDMI)

But

Code:

analog output built-in audio

not found

The built-in speaks on LCD display works. But I can't select sound on external speakers

Please advise how to fix it? TIA

satimis

**Roxoff** · 09-24-2012

I wonder if the hardware you have is hiding the analogue sound when you use the HDMI? Is that sound option there if you boot up using HDMI? What about if you boot up using the laptop display and plug in the HDMI afterwards?

Does Alsamixer give you an option to turn the analogue device on and off in either of these scenarios?

I know the HDMI is supposedly DRM locked, so if you're using it it's supposed to prevent you diverting part of the audio/video output stream down another channel. Perhaps if the HDMI socket is built-in you'll have a BIOS option for that? It might prevent you from playing DRM stuff over the HDMI display if that's the case, but it might be an interesting test if it a setting exists.

**satimis** · 09-24-2012

Originally Posted by Roxoff

I wonder if the hardware you have is hiding the analogue sound when you use the HDMI? Is that sound option there if you boot up using HDMI? What about if you boot up using the laptop display and plug in the HDMI afterwards?

Please explain in more detail. How to boot up using
the laptop display and plug in the HDMI afterwards?

Does Alsamixer give you an option to turn the analogue device on and off in either of these scenarios?

$ alsamixer

Code:

 Card: PulseAudio                                     F1:  Help               │
│ Chip: PulseAudio                                     F2:  System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture  F5: All             F6:  Select sound card  │
│ Item: Master                                         Esc: Exit               │

Only "Master" is there

**satimis** · 09-24-2012

Originally Posted by satimis

Please explain in more detail. How to boot up using
the laptop display and plug in the HDMI afterwards?

$ alsamixer

Code:

 Card: PulseAudio                                     F1:  Help               │
│ Chip: PulseAudio                                     F2:  System information │
│ View: F3:[Playback] F4: Capture  F5: All             F6:  Select sound card  │
│ Item: Master                                         Esc: Exit               │

Only "Master" is there

Edit:

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is running on this PC but on another HD. Both HDs are NOT connected at the same time. There is no sound problem on Ubuntu. Both built-in speakers and external speakers are working without problem.

System Settings -> Sound -> Output
Choose a device for sound output:

both

Code:

RS780 Azalia controller Digitaol Stereo (HDMI)

analog output built-in audio

are there.

**Roxoff** · 09-24-2012

Originally Posted by satimis

Please explain in more detail. How to boot up using
the laptop display and plug in the HDMI afterwards?

I made the assumption that you had an HDMI socket on your machine and you were either booting up with and without it connected. The test was about booting up with the HDMI lead unplugged from your laptop and then plugging it in after bootup was complete. If you don't have an HDMI lead running from your laptop, then you probably can't do this.

From your later posts you clearly have a difference between Fedora and Ubuntu. I use Fedora 17 on my desktop and, while I don't use the same sound chip as you, I don't experience this problem. For me the analogue sound device is available.

There could be a bug in the Fedora sound system, however, that is not present in the Ubuntu system. It may help to compare which versions of Alsa and/or PulseAudio you have installed.

There may also be an issue with your Video drivers, as, it would seem, the HDMI output is generated by the video card. Do you run proprietary drivers on either system? Perhaps your Fedora is running with Nouveau drivers while in Ubuntu you've got the closed-source nVidia drivers?

**satimis** · 09-24-2012

Originally Posted by Roxoff

- snip -

It may help to compare which versions of Alsa and/or PulseAudio you have installed.

Fedora 17
=======

$ rpm -qa | grep alsa

Code:

alsa-tools-firmware-1.0.25-2.fc17.x86_64
alsa-lib-1.0.25-3.fc17.x86_64
alsa-firmware-1.0.25-1.fc17.noarch
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.25-3.fc17.x86_64
alsa-utils-1.0.25-8.fc17.x86_64

$ rpm -qa | grep pulseaudio

Code:

pulseaudio-module-zeroconf-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
wine-pulseaudio-1.5.11-1.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-gdm-hooks-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-gconf-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-bluetooth-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-esound-compat-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-module-x11-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-utils-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64
alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.25-3.fc17.x86_64
pulseaudio-libs-glib2-1.1-9.fc17.x86_64

- snip -
Do you run proprietary drivers on either system?

No.

Ubuntu 12.04
==========

$ apt-cache policy alsa-*

Code:

bluez-alsa:
  Installed: 4.98-2ubuntu7
  Candidate: 4.98-2ubuntu7
  Version table:
 *** 4.98-2ubuntu7 0
        500 http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

gstreamer0.10-alsa:
  Installed: 0.10.36-1ubuntu0.1
  Candidate: 0.10.36-1ubuntu0.1
  Version table:
 *** 0.10.36-1ubuntu0.1 0
        500 http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Pack

alsa-utils:
  Installed: 1.0.25-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 1.0.25-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.25-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

alsa-base:
  Installed: 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu1 0
        500 http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ apt-cache policy pulseaudio

Code:

pulseaudio:
  Installed: 1:1.1-0ubuntu15.1
  Candidate: 1:1.1-0ubuntu15.1
  Version table:
 *** 1:1.1-0ubuntu15.1 0
        500 http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1:1.1-0ubuntu15 0
        500 http://hk.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages

satimis

**Roxoff** · 09-25-2012

It looks like the biggest difference is with PulseAudio (1.1.0 with Ubuntu and 1.1.9 with Fedora). There is a change log here: pulseaudio-1.1-9.fc17 | Build Info | Koji. The interesting bit is this:

Code:

* Sat Apr 21 2012 Matthias Clasen <mclasen@redhat.com> - 1.1-9 - Update default.pa to not load the CK module 
* Tue Feb 28 2012 Bruno Wolff III <bruno@wolff.to< - 1.1-8 - Fix for building with gcc 4.7 
* Mon Feb 20 2012 Lennart Poettering <lpoetter@redhat.com> - 1.1-7 - Temporary fix for CK/systemd move (#794690)
* Mon Jan 23 2012 Dan Horák <dan@danny.cz> - 1.1-6 - rebuilt for json-c-0.9-4.fc17 
* Sat Jan 14 2012 Fedora Release Engineering <rel-eng@lists.fedoraproject.org> - 1.1-5 - Rebuilt for https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_17_Mass_Rebuild 
* Tue Dec 13 2011 Adam Jackson <ajax@redhat.com> 1.1-4 - Fix RHEL build 
* Tue Nov 22 2011 Rex Dieter <rdieter@fedoraproject.org> 1.1-3 - Obsoletes: padevchooser < 1.0 
* Thu Nov 10 2011 Rex Dieter <rdieter@fedoraproject.org> 1.1-2 - -libs: Obsoletes: pulseaudio-libs-zeroconf - use versioned Obsoletes/Provides - tighten subpkg deps via %_isa - remove autoconf/libtool hackery 
* Thu Nov 03 2011 Lennart Poettering <lpoetter@redhat.com> - 1.1-1 - New upstream release

Most of these are fixes to make it build on different platforms. Perhaps that last update in the list includes something that has changed HDMI output - it's all a bit unspecific.

I suspect you have no way to roll back to a version of PulseAudio on Fedora to 1.1-0 or earlier. The assumption I'd make is that this no longer works, either by design or by some unexpected change. Perhaps it would be useful to raise a bug with Fedora about it? At least then you'd get an official response.

It might also help to look at the check-in log for PulseAudio - the change that made this happen might be clearly marked. I suspect that when Ubuntu comes to include 1.1.1 or later, that it might bring in the change too.

Other suggestions:
- I saw bug reports against Fedora that showed that selinux had caused problems for the audio system -especially with the bluez package. It might be interfering - so you could try temporarily disabling selinux and see if that causes the problem to stop.
- If you've an nVidia or ATI video chipset, you could try using the proprietary video drivers - it might contain better support for the audio output via HDMI.

**satimis** · 09-25-2012

Hi Roxoff,

Problem solved as follows;

System Settings -> Sound

Sound window starts:
Select "Hardware" tag
On "Profile" droplist
-> select "Analog Surround 7.1 Output + Analog Stereo Input"

Select "Output" tag
"Internal Audio Analog Surround 7.1" device appears
-> Select above device for sound output

Now external speakers work.

Thanks.

satimis

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