Q4OS Forum

javhp

Member

Registered: 2016-12-06

Posts: 7

Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

Hi,

I've been fighting for a long time with my sound card, sometimes it works and sometimes just stops doing it. Is there any way to completely remove drivers, app files and config files related with the sound subsystem so that I can reinstall it as they were the first time?

Thanks!

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

Perhaps a better solution would be to try to understand what is going in now. The linux sound system has always been a weakness with various technologies over the years.
So, first off, please install inxi - sudo apt-get install inxi
Then do inxi -F
Copy and paste results back here so we can learn more about your machine.

You say that operation is erratic. Can you identify if this is particular applications, what circumstances can cause it to fail?
What sound/audio applications have you installed?
Have you added repos to the standard set - you haven't added Ubuntu PPA'a have you?
Have you added debian Multimedia repo by any chance?

q4osteam

Q4OS Team

Registered: 2015-12-06

Posts: 4,501

Website

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

... sometimes it works and sometimes just stops doing it.

Please first check cables and try to exclude a hardware issue. Next, follow bin's advice #2 above, thanks bin. You should also check these recommendations https://www.q4os.org/dqa011.html#install.3

Is there any way to completely remove drivers, app files and config files related with the sound subsystem so that I can reinstall it as they were the first time?

No, it's not actually possible, there could always remain a forgotten configuration. The only definite way is a fresh installation.

javhp

Member

Registered: 2016-12-06

Posts: 7

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

System:    Host: q4os-desktop Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE 3 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8
Machine:   System: Acer product: Aspire 6530
           Mobo: Acer model: Mantasta Bios: Acer v: v0.3223 date: 02/18/2009
CPU:       Dual core AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000 MHz 2: 2000 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS780M [Mobility Radeon HD 3200]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS780 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS780 HDMI Audio [Radeon (HD) 3000 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.16.0-4-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver: ath9k
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:26:5e:08:3b:74
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet driver: ATL1E
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:23:8b:ec:74:a2
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (10.7% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54161 size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 106G used: 7.7G (8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.90GB used: 0.01GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 53.5C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 155 Uptime: 12:53 Memory: 728.8/2765.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28

JimW

Member

Registered: 2015-12-08

Posts: 400

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

I admit that I'm far from being the brightest person here, but I'm curious if it works if you are running from the live cd?

javhp

Member

Registered: 2016-12-06

Posts: 7

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

Perhaps a better solution would be to try to understand what is going in now. The linux sound system has always been a weakness with various technologies over the years.
So, first off, please install inxi - sudo apt-get install inxi
Then do inxi -F
Copy and paste results back here so we can learn more about your machine.

You say that operation is erratic. Can you identify if this is particular applications, what circumstances can cause it to fail?

After installing software it stops, then I try some troubleshooting and it works for a time but after a system update if fails again

What sound/audio applications have you installed?

pulseaudio and alsamixer

Have you added repos to the standard set - you haven't added Ubuntu PPA'a have you?

I have not

Have you added debian Multimedia repo by any chance?

I have not

System:    Host: q4os-desktop Kernel: 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: KDE 3 Distro: Debian GNU/Linux 8
Machine:   System: Acer product: Aspire 6530
           Mobo: Acer model: Mantasta Bios: Acer v: v0.3223 date: 02/18/2009
CPU:       Dual core AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1000 MHz 2: 2000 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS780M [Mobility Radeon HD 3200]
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: ati,radeon (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on AMD RS780 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.3.2
Audio:     Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] RS780 HDMI Audio [Radeon (HD) 3000 Series]
           driver: snd_hda_intel
           Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) driver: snd_hda_intel
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k3.16.0-4-amd64
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver: ath9k
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:26:5e:08:3b:74
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros AR8121/AR8113/AR8114 Gigabit or Fast Ethernet driver: ATL1E
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:23:8b:ec:74:a2
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (10.7% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54161 size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 106G used: 7.7G (8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.90GB used: 0.01GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 53.5C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 155 Uptime: 12:53 Memory: 728.8/2765.1MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.1.28

javhp

Member

Registered: 2016-12-06

Posts: 7

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

Not running from live cd

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

Well, as you've probably found from your research so far, you're not alone.
If you have installed pulseaudio it could be because you have an app that demands it. Having played with this issue myself I found that the simplest method of removing pulse from the equation was to uninstall pulseaudio-module-x11
Others may suggest alternative methods of controlling the beast, blacklisting etc, but that is what I found works.
Reboot
After reboot click the volume icon and open mixer. Bottom right it should show (probably) HDA ATI SB. Check that none of the Output sliders is muted.
Open konsole and run alsamixer. Press f6 and select HDA ATI SB (it may be slightly different but its the named card rather than default)
Q4OS Control Centre>Sound & Multimedia>Sound System
Make sure it shows Enabled and on the Hardware tab it should be Autodetect and no other boxes checked.

After all that please try the apps that you expect to deliver audio and let us know what happens.

javhp

Member

Registered: 2016-12-06

Posts: 7

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

After removing pulseaudio and checked everything I found the follwing:

aplay -D sysdefault:CARD=SB /opt/trinity/share/sounds/KDE_Startup.wav   ---> This works but

aplay /opt/trinity/share/sounds/KDE_Startup.wav  ---> this not

ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4259:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:4259:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:4259:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4738:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2239:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:722: audio open error: No such file or directory

Not sure if this helps to find the issue? Please let me know...

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

So, the simple option is to tell your machine to default to a specific card. It recognises SB as default so, create a file /etc/asound.conf as below. That needs root access to /etc for example sudo kwrite and Save as /etc/asound.conf

pcm.!default {
    type hw
    SB
}

ctl.!default {
    type hw           
    SB
}

See if that helps, it depends on whether it locks the default in place or whether some progs start looking for a different card.

There is a more complex solution in this debian bug https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo … =614113#40

javhp

Member

Registered: 2016-12-06

Posts: 7

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

None of the solutions worked, I am thinking to reinstall once more or buy another computer with Windows while I figure out how to fix this. Is there any way to do an image backup of q4os so that I could go back to any point in time?

Thanks!

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,333

Re: Any way to make a bare metal reinstall of the sound subsystem?

You'll find a link to a Systemback install here https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1179

It's my favourite tool for the os side of being able to return to an earlier file version - I use backintime for user/home folder. My guess is that you'll be focussing on the audio side before worrying too much about putting data on the machine.

With Systemback you have to manually back up the folder /program-files as it is a non-standard folder which is not recognised by systemback. Other than that it is the ideal tool (IMHO).