DebuggingSoundProblems
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| '''Notes for triagers:''' * General no-sound/low-sound/headphone-no-sound/etc. bugs should be marked against the "linux" source package. * Only assign bugs to the "alsa-driver" source package if the reporter is using the alsa-source binary package with module-assistant OR is requesting a blacklist or slots/index modification. |
= Preliminary checks before filing a bug report = |
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| '''''In other words, if in doubt, the bug should be filed against linux and have the ubuntu-audio team subscribed to the bug report.''''' | Before filing a bug report, please check on the following: 1. Is your sound system plugged in and switched on? I spent an hour trying to diagnose a sound issue when the problem was that I had switched off the speakers to answer a phone call and forgot that I had done so. :-( |
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| 1. Is your speaker or microphone muted? Check here: * [[Audio/CheckForMutedSpeakerVolume|Check for muted speaker]] * [[Audio/CheckForMutedMicrophone|Check for muted microphone]] |
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| = Basic troubleshooting = | = How to report audio bugs = |
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| Running Ubuntu Karmic Koala (9.10)? [[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems/KarmicCaveats|First have a look at this list]] of the most common problems with sound in this release. | Please do not report general problems on this page; use the normal support channels instead. For more on this, please see [[http://www.ubuntu.com/support]]. |
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| == Identifying your hardware == If the output of {{{lspci}}} includes a line similar to {{{00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)}}} (a High Definition Audio device) Please paste the output of the following command at the top of your bug description: {{{ find /proc/asound/card* -type f | grep codec | xargs grep "^Codec\|^Vendor Id\|^Subsystem Id\|^Revision Id" | grep -B2 -A1 $(lspci -nv | grep -A1 0403 | grep Subsystem | sed 's/://g' | awk '{ print $2 }') |
If you have found a software bug, please report it by via the following terminal command: {{{ ubuntu-bug -s audio |
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| You should see output similar to: {{{ /proc/asound/card0/codec#0:Codec: Realtek ALC883 /proc/asound/card0/codec#0:Vendor Id: 0x10ec0883 /proc/asound/card0/codec#0:Subsystem Id: 0x10438284 /proc/asound/card0/codec#0:Revision Id: 0x100002 }}} |
This will submit a detailed bug report with necessary information about your current system. |
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| If you are about to file a driver bug (e.g., absolutely no applications output sound, microphone does not work even after toggling nocap, speakers continue to emit sound after headphones have been inserted), and you think that you see a bug report that matches your symptoms, '''STOP''' and check the bug's attachments to see if these 4 bits of data match. If all four match '''and''' the symptom matches, subscribe to the existing bug. If '''any''' of the 4 data points disagree, you probably have found one of the myriad cases where many different bugs with different root causes that need different patches have the same symptom on the surface. In which case: '''file a new bug.''' | If the above fails for some reason, you may file a bug report, then upload alsa-info information [[Audio/AlsaInfo|according to these instructions]]. |
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| == Things to specify in your bug report == | |
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| == Preliminary checks == 1. Is your sound system plugged in and switched on. I spent an hour trying to diagnose a sound issue when the problem was that I had switched off the speakers to answer a phone call and forgot that I had done so. :-( |
First, should you ever need to do anything in this section for your sound to work in a brand new installation you should report a bug. |
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| == Checking volume levels == Before messing around with uninstalling and installing various sound programs to fix a problem, check your volume levels. It is often the case that a muted channel is the problem, even though the description may not sound immediately relevant. In this regard, muted Surround or Center channels are common culprits. So unmute and raise the volume of one channel at a time and check whether sound is then produced by a running sound application e.g. Rhythmbox. |
1. For mixer problems, you may control the [[Audio/Alsamixer|mixers at ALSA level]]. 1. A hardware enablement or regression bug may have been fixed upstream. Hence, please test the latest snapshot of [[Audio/UpgradingAlsa|upgrading your ALSA drivers]], mention which version specifically you tested, if this resolves your problem. 1. If your problem is audio crackling, glitching, or breaking up, and it is hardware specific, you can try applying a [[Audio/PositionReporting|position fix quirk]]. 1. Using very new hardware? [[Audio/HDAGeneric|Here's how to check]] whether your built-in sound card has driver support. |
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| You can access the volume levels for the various channels from the command line or the GUI. | = Triaging sound bugs = |
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| 1. From command line: Open a terminal window and launch ''alsamixer''. Then unmute as described above. * Note: Often you need to specify the card you want to control, do that by launching ''alsamixer -c0'' or ''alsamixer -c1'' etc, where the number after ''-c'' corresponds to your soundcard's index. To know what indexes your soundcards have, see below (under "Checking sound device assignment"). |
In general, no-sound/low-sound/headphone-no-sound/no auto-mute/etc. bugs should be: * Filed against the '''linux''' source package. * Add the '''kernel-sound''' tag * '''Subscribe''' (do not assign) the '''Ubuntu-audio''' team (not the ubuntu-audio-dev team) |
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| 1. From GUI: This can be done by running something like ''gnome-alsamixer'' from a terminal window or navigating to your your Volume Control. Then unmute as described above. Also check that your switches are set correctly - for instance that if you use the analog output the analog switch is set ON or that the digital or S/PDIF switch is set OFF. You can select which tracks/switches are visible in Volume Control (see above) under Edit->Preferences. * Note: These controls have equivalent functionality to alsamixer but with a graphical interface. Checking or unchecking devices in the these accomplishes the exact same thing as unmuting or muting devices, respectively, in alsamixer. * Starting with Ubuntu 7.04, the sound volume control is also accessible from Menu->Sound&Video->Volume Control. It may be hidden in your menus but can be shown by going to System > Preferences > Main Menu and under Applications > Sound&Video ticking Volume Control. |
Only assign bugs to the "alsa-driver" source package if the reporter is using the alsa-source binary package with module-assistant OR is requesting a blacklist or slots/index modification. |
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| == Checking sound device assignment == 1. Most sound applications output to card0 by default. In some cases, other audio devices (like a USB MIDI Keyboard) might be recognized as a soundcard and take card0, bumping your real soundcard to card1. To see which devices are connected to which cards, do the following: * {{{ cat /proc/asound/cards }}} 1. You can manipulate the device number assignment by adding modifying /etc/modprobe.d/sound.conf (create it if necessary). Next boot, the snd-usb-audio device will get index 1 (by default it will be 2). * {{{ options snd slots=,snd-usb-audio }}} The index numbers (0, 1, ... 7) signify the priority of the device, with the highest priority device being 0, then 1, and so forth. In theory, applications should first attempt to use the highest priority device first, but if for some reason the application is unable to use the device, it will use the next highest priority device. For example, if you have a USB sound card that can get picked up with OSS, which browsers, flash, and skype may not output, if you set your USB card at first priority, it will play when using, say, Rhythmbox, but your other applications will play through your other soundcard. FIXME PLEASE: for more information go to the ALSA-Configuration kernel document. |
* Do not mark bugs as duplicates unless you're 100% sure that both the '''hardware''', '''software''', and '''symptom''' match exactly. Slightly different hardware very often requires slightly different fixes. If in doubt, file a new bug. |
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| == Checking permissions and resources == 1. Make sure that all users needing access to the Sound Device can "Use audio devices" in the "User Privileges" tab of users-admin (System->Administration->Users and Groups). 1. Test different "Sound Servers": Go to System > Preferences > Sound ("Multimedia Systems Selector" in earlier editions of Ubuntu). From there, you can test the different options. In some scenarios several different sound servers may be installed, and only one may work. This is probably the origin of the problem if you cannot play audio with xine or rhythmbox, but you can with xmms or helix/realplayer. 1. If you application sounds works, but your system sounds does not (login, logout, error sounds...) try removing the .asoundrc* files from your own directory (e.g. with 'rm .asoundrc*'). It should make the system sounds work without a reboot. 1. If you can get absolutely no sound and you have an onboard sound chip you can try to disable it in the BIOS. This solves the problem is some cases. 1. If you have no sound and you have a regular sound card type "lsmod | grep snd" in the terminal and see if there is more than one card listed. It's possible that you have a motherboard sound chip that is interfering. Add it to the bottom of the blacklist file. For example, sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist then add "blacklist snd_via82xx" to the bottom. |
[[Audio/SameHardware|Here's an article]] of how to determine whether you have the same hardware as the original bug reporter. |
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| = Further Information = | |
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| = Reporting Sound Bugs = Please do not report problems on this page; use the normal support channels instead. See http://www.ubuntu.com/support If you feel you have encountered a software bug, please report the bug using the following command in a terminal: {{{ ubuntu-bug -p alsa-base }}} This will submit a detailed bug report regarding your current system and will work on any release later than and including 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope). == Automatic Sound Information Collection == In the event that you are not running Jaunty Jackalope (9.04) you can less automatically gather sound information using the following script from the alsa project site: [[http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh|alsa-info.sh]]. By default, the script uploads the information to alsa-project.org . This information can be used by ALSA developers to improve current support for some cards. If you do not wish your information to be uploaded, please use the --no-upload argument when running the script. The script was written to aid the alsa developers, and also to help the people in #alsa to sort out sound issues. Please download the file to your home directory and run the script as follows: {{{ $ sh ./alsa-info.sh }}} or if you put it in your ~/bin and ~/bin is in your path and you make the file executable (chmod +x ~/bin/alsa-info.sh) {{{ $ alsa-info.sh }}} * The script will generate a URL. Please add this URL to your bug report. * If for some reason the script does not generate a URL, please use the --pastebin option (our original upload method) * The alsa-info.sh script can either be run as 'bash alsa-info.sh' _or_ made executable and run as './alsa-info.sh'. = Further sound troubleshooting = After reporting a bug you might want to see the community documentation: * https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Sound * https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshooting * https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingSoundProblemsMisc |
The [[https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev|Ubuntu Audio Developer's team]] maintains a set of Audio relevant wiki pages [[Audio|here]]. |
This page is part of the debugging series — pages with debugging details for a variety of Ubuntu packages. |
Preliminary checks before filing a bug report
- Before filing a bug report, please check on the following:
Is your sound system plugged in and switched on? I spent an hour trying to diagnose a sound issue when the problem was that I had switched off the speakers to answer a phone call and forgot that I had done so.
- Is your speaker or microphone muted? Check here:
How to report audio bugs
Please do not report general problems on this page; use the normal support channels instead. For more on this, please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support.
If you have found a software bug, please report it by via the following terminal command:
ubuntu-bug -s audio
This will submit a detailed bug report with necessary information about your current system.
If the above fails for some reason, you may file a bug report, then upload alsa-info information according to these instructions.
Things to specify in your bug report
First, should you ever need to do anything in this section for your sound to work in a brand new installation you should report a bug.
For mixer problems, you may control the mixers at ALSA level.
A hardware enablement or regression bug may have been fixed upstream. Hence, please test the latest snapshot of upgrading your ALSA drivers, mention which version specifically you tested, if this resolves your problem.
If your problem is audio crackling, glitching, or breaking up, and it is hardware specific, you can try applying a position fix quirk.
Using very new hardware? Here's how to check whether your built-in sound card has driver support.
Triaging sound bugs
In general, no-sound/low-sound/headphone-no-sound/no auto-mute/etc. bugs should be:
Filed against the linux source package.
Add the kernel-sound tag
Subscribe (do not assign) the Ubuntu-audio team (not the ubuntu-audio-dev team)
Only assign bugs to the "alsa-driver" source package if the reporter is using the alsa-source binary package with module-assistant OR is requesting a blacklist or slots/index modification.
Do not mark bugs as duplicates unless you're 100% sure that both the hardware, software, and symptom match exactly. Slightly different hardware very often requires slightly different fixes. If in doubt, file a new bug.
Here's an article of how to determine whether you have the same hardware as the original bug reporter.
Further Information
The Ubuntu Audio Developer's team maintains a set of Audio relevant wiki pages here.
DebuggingSoundProblems (last edited 2014-07-26 11:08:14 by penalvch)