Loss of Sound

Linux Support
1

Can anyone please help with the following problem ?

The sound on a desktop PC running Debian Jessie has stopped working - no
sound from any websites (e.g. BBC or YouTube) and trying to play a
standard sound file I have saved which is used to test the sound with
vlc gives:

Audio output failed:
The audio device “default” could not be used:
Device or resource busy.

and in the terminal window it says:

VLC media player 2.2.6 Umbrella (revision 2.2.6-0-g1aae78981c)
[00000000013f0608] pulse audio output error: PulseAudio server
connection failure: Connection refused
[0000000001318118] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface.
Use ‘cvlc’ to use vlc without interface.
[00000000013f0608] alsa audio output error: cannot open ALSA device
“default”: Device or resource busy
[00000000013f0608] core audio output error: module not functional
[00007fc2a8c02b08] core decoder error: failed to create audio output

The sound was then suddenly regained.

The sound has now been suddenly lost again.

Loose wiring is not suspected.

The only file in /etc/pulse is client.conf

2

have you tried renaming the pulseaudio configuration directory in your home folder, then restarting plusleaudio so it’s automatically recreated

In recent versions of Ubuntu the pulseaudio config directory would be at
~/.config/pulse
but earlier versions had it at
~/.pulse
I’m not sure which it’ll be in Debian.

so try renaming that directory to say
~/.config/pulse-old
or
~/.pulse-old
then restart pulseaudio with:

pulseaudio -k

pulseaudio should automatically respawn, and the pulseaudio config directory automatically recreated.

3

Thanks Very Much for your reply.

I am new to this forum.

Can you please tell me what Code: Select means ?

Thanks.

4

ignore the words “Code: [Select]”, they are there just to tell you what follows is a code box (ie. it either contains a terminal command for you to run, or the output from a command that you have already run)

Just open a terminal and run the following command (the bit between the lines)

pulseaudio -k
5

I would be very grateful if someone could help to solve the following
problem with support by telephone. If anyone is willing and able to
supply such support, could they please let me know their availability
and how much they would charge per hour. Thanks very much.

(a) The sound on a desktop PC running Debian Jessie has stopped working - no
sound from any websites (e.g. BBC or YouTube) and trying to play a
standard sound file I have saved which is used to test the sound with
vlc gives:

Audio output failed:
The audio device “default” could not be used:
Device or resource busy.

and in the terminal window it says:

VLC media player 2.2.6 Umbrella (revision 2.2.6-0-g1aae78981c)
[00000000013f0608] pulse audio output error: PulseAudio server
connection failure: Connection refused
[0000000001318118] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface.
Use ‘cvlc’ to use vlc without interface.
[00000000013f0608] alsa audio output error: cannot open ALSA device
“default”: Device or resource busy
[00000000013f0608] core audio output error: module not functional
[00007fc2a8c02b08] core decoder error: failed to create audio output

(b) The sound was then suddenly regained.

(c) The sound has now been suddenly lost again.

(d) Loose wiring is not suspected.

(e) The only file in /etc/pulse is client.conf

(f) Running the pulseaudio command :-

% pulseaudio -k

gives

pulseaudio: Command not found.

(g) files in .pulse are:

259df95a2b75426bb6ef25f372b08be2-runtime@
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-card-database.tdb
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-default-sink
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-default-source
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-device-volumes.tdb
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-runtime@
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-stream-volumes.tdb

6

Did you rename to .pulse directory (in the home folder of the user you normally log in as) ?

According to the Debian wiki:
https://wiki.debian.org/PulseAudio#Restarting_the_Pulseaudio_Daemon
to restart the pulseaudio daemon (after renaming the directory) run

$ pulseaudio --kill
$ pulseaudio --start

(as the user you normally log in as, not as root)

That said, is pulseaudio even installed in Debian by default ? … check with:

dpkg -l | grep pulseaudio

If not and you’re using ALSA, do you have 2 sound cards by any chance ?

What’s the output from:

aplay -l

?

7

Thanks very much for all your advice, Mark.

Pulseaudio was installed on Friday and

% dpkg -l | grep pulseaudio

gave

ii pulseaudio 5.0-13 amd64 PulseAudio sound server
ii pulseaudio-module-x11 5.0-13 amd64 X11 module for PulseAudio sound server
ii pulseaudio-utils 5.0-13 amd64 Command line tools for the PulseAudio sound server

% aplay -l

gave

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Jessie was then re-booted and the sound then re-appeared.

Also

% ls /etc/pulse

gave

client.conf daemon.conf default.pa system.pa

and

% ls ~/.pulse

gave

259df95a2b75426bb6ef25f372b08be2-card-database.tdb
259df95a2b75426bb6ef25f372b08be2-device-volumes.tdb
259df95a2b75426bb6ef25f372b08be2-runtime@
259df95a2b75426bb6ef25f372b08be2-stream-volumes.tdb
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-card-database.tdb
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-default-sink
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-default-source
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-device-volumes.tdb
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-runtime@
3e0b1f6422592f67f9f012034c3323d0-stream-volumes.tdb

Vlc was used to run a test sound file (soundfile.wav) and that ran okay.

Sound also worked fine on YouTube.

However, the sound was then lost when trying to use vlc again on a sound file and
also was not present when trying to use sound with a Web browser.

% vlc soundfile.wav

gave

VLC media player 2.2.6 Umbrella (revision 2.2.6-0-g1aae78981c)
[0000000000971608] pulse audio output error: PulseAudio server connection failure: Connection refused
[0000000000899118] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface. Use ‘cvlc’ to use vlc without interface.
[0000000000971608] alsa audio output error: cannot open ALSA device “default”: Device or resource busy
[0000000000971608] core audio output error: module not functional
[00007fcbdcc02b68] core decoder error: failed to create audio output

This behaviour (i.e. sound first working and then not working)
is similar to what happened before the installation of pulseaudio on Friday.

So the cause of the loss of sound remains a mystery, I’m afraid.

8

If (in VLC) you go to:-

Tools > Preferences

then tick the “All” box.

Then in the left panel go to:-

Audio > Output Modules > ALSA

Is the “Audio output device” set to:-

Audio output device: Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server

?

And have youu installed pavucontrol ?

9

Audio output device is set to “Automatic”

10

I’m afraid that pavucontrol is not installed.

I very much hope you can continue to help with this
matter as it is becoming urgent to solve this problem
and no-one else seems interested to help.

Thanks.

11

If you’ve installed pulseadio I’d suggest you also install pavucontrol which will give you a menu item (PulseAudio Volume Control) for configuring pulseaudio input/output.

I’d also try setting VLC to

Audio output device: Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server

12

vlc appears to now be working although it still gives the following error
(as before):

[000000000104d608] pulse audio output error: PulseAudio server connection failure: Connection refused

Also, there now appears to be sound with the Chromium browser (although this was off and on before so
we shall see if it lasts), but still no sound with the Iceweasel browser.

13

The iceweasel browser is the browser needed for most work.

14

Can you post the output (if any) from:

cat ~/.asoundrc

and

cat /etc/asound.conf
15

% cat ~/.asoundrc
No such file or directory

% cat /etc/asound.conf
pcm.!default {
type hw
card 0
}

ctl.!default {
type hw
card 1
}

16

There is now also a problem with strange sounds
coming through the speakers from time to time.

It is like a metallic whooping sound.

Could this possibly signify a problem with the soundcard, given
the loss of sound problem ?

17

Another problem has arisen whereby first thing this morning the monitor was
found to be completely black. Switching the monitor off and then on again
gave a “No Signal” message. The computer was eventually restarted but the intermittent
metallic whooping sounds continue.

This whole problem has become very worrying and distressing.

I appreciate that you must be a very busy person, Mark, but would you possibly
be able to offer support over the phone to quicken the solution of the problems that have arisen ?
If you can’t personally provide such support, would you be able to suggest a colleague who might be
able to priovide phone support ?

It would greatly help if this support can be provided this evening.

Any such help would be paid for, of course. Just let me know the cost.

Thanks very much if you or a colleague are able to help in this way.

18

The first thing I’d do is try booting a LiveUSB/LiveCD and check if the problem is still there.

19

I’m afraid I can’t do the boot you suggest at the moment.

In the ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc file I have found :-

Left (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-left=0

Center (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-center=1

Right (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-right=2

Rear left (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-rearleft=3

Rear center (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-rearcenter=4

Rear right (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-rearright=5

Side left (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-middleleft=6

Side right (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-middleright=7

Low-frequency effects (integer)

#aout-remap-channel-lfe=8

Normalize channels (boolean)

#aout-remap-normalize=1

Audio output module (string)

aout=pulse

Would it be a good idea to change aout=pulse to aout=alsa

to see if vlc will work properly ?

20

Well you can certainly try it, it won’t hurt anything.

But of the two I’d expect ALSA to be more liable to give full control of the soundcard than Pulse.

Which web browser are you using ? … and does VLC audio work if you boot the system then use VLC without ever having started your web browser ?