[Techtalk] Sound problem

[David Sumbler]

On Sat, 2016-12-03 at 23:21 +1000, Miriam English wrote:
> David,
> 
> Did you get any responses about your sound problem? Have you solved
> it?

None, I'm afraid.

But during yet another Google search for something relevant I found
this:
https://itsfoss.com/fix-sound-ubuntu-1404/#comment-277268

The article is a couple of years old, but it describes exactly the
problem I was getting.  Without much optimism I tried creating the 2-
line file it suggests, rebooted and to my surprise I had sound working
normally.  I spent a happy hour listening to Ted talks and suchlike.

Everything still works with jack when I need it.

I already get the "It's F.O.S.S." mailings each week, and find them
informative and sometimes useful.

Thanks for your suggestions - most of them (but not all) I had already
tried, but the information wasn't helping me to fix the problem.
 Still, it's all OK now.

Except for one thing: I don't seem to have any sound setting option in
the panel or in the "All settings" window.  I don't know whether that
is normal: nobody who uses Ubuntu Studio has said it is, and nobody has
said it isn't.

David

> Sorry I didn't respond earlier. I'm not terribly knowledgeable about 
> sound systems and put off replying because I figured somebody knew 
> better than me.
> 
> If you run hardinfo and under Computer > Kernel Modules look for
> entries 
> that begin with "snd_" you should find several entries that give
> clues 
> to your audio system.
> 
> I've noticed sometimes VLC didn't correctly find my audio output and 
> needed to be told in its settings.
> 
> If you have alsamixer I believe that sets the audio system output.
> 
> Maybe jack is taking over the sound and not letting other programs
> get a 
> look in. Try shutting down jack to see.
> 
> What about low-level programs? Do you have sox installed? It has the 
> "play" program that lets you play sounds from the commandline. It
> also 
> gives some diagnostic messages too.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
>      - Miriam
> 
> 
> David Sumbler wrote:
> > 
> > I have an HP laptop which came with Ubuntu 14.04 installed, but
> > some
> > weeks ago I did a new install of Ubuntu Studio 16.04.  The reason I
> > chose this is because one of my projects involves recording and
> > editing
> > MIDI, and I thought that Ubuntu Studio would perhaps make things
> > easier.
> > 
> > I can get sound from the speakers or earphones when I use QjackCtl
> > and
> > programs such as Qtractor, because I can choose the output
> > device.  So
> > I can get on with my MIDI project.
> > 
> > But for programs which don't naturally interface with Jack I can
> > get no
> > sound at all.  When I use Chrome, VNC etc. I have no sound
> > available.
> >   And I do want to use this laptop as a general-use computer when I
> > am
> > away from home.
> > 
> > I have asked on the ubuntu-studio-users list and received some
> > advice
> > from one person, but to no avail.  I have also asked on the Ubuntu
> > forums, but I have had no replies.
> > 
> > I'm wondering whether one of our technical experts on this list can
> > tell me what I need to do to sort out the problem - I dare say it's
> > just a matter of some basic settings.
> > 
> > In QjackCtl I have input and output sources set to hw:Generic which
> > is
> > HD-Audio Generic (hw:1). Using this I can get sound via Jack
> > through
> > the computer speakers or headphones, but not from VLC etc. which
> > don't
> > have an option to direct sound through Jack, so far as I can see.
> > 
> > The other main option is hw:HDMI which says HDA ATI HDMI (hw:0).
> > The computer has an HDMI socket, but when I have tried connecting
> > this to a TV I still get no sound. In any case, I don't generally
> > want to use the HDMI output.
> > 
> > Using alsamixer I have lots of controls for input and output
> > volumes if I select Sound Card 1 (HD-Audio Generic), but if I
> > select Sound Card - (default) or Sound Card 0 (HDA ATI HDMI) I just
> > get a little square in the middle of the screen showing "00" and
> > labelled "S/PDIF", whatever that means.
> > 
> > In fact alsamixer is the only sound control I have (I think): when
> > I
> > click on the "All settings" icon, I see most of the expected items
> > such
> > as Display, Keyboard, Printers etc. etc., but there is no entry for
> > Sound or anything similar. Equally I have no sound icon in the
> > panel at
> > the top of the screen.
> > 
> > Incidentally, I normally have pulseaudio disabled, but I have also
> > tried having pulseaudio running; I still get no sound from VLC etc.
> > 
> > 
> > Can anyone suggest how I can get sound working generally (not just
> > for
> > specialized programs) on this computer?
> > 
> > David
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Techtalk mailing list
> > Techtalk at linuxchix.org
> > http://mailman.linuxchix.org/mailman/listinfo/techtalk