Ubuntu 8.10, cannot hear audio.

[xc8]

Hi,

i have the 1.3.5.beta (installed via the package manager).

I get this error "Error while opening sound device. Please check the output device settings and the project sample rate."

There is NO way to choose the audio device for playback (ITS empty) !!
It only says "Using Portaufio v19", but there is no way to configure this.

the "audio device info" displays this : (what the heck, is the default playback "-1" ?)

==============================
Default capture device number: 0
Default playback device number: -1
==============================
Device ID: 0
Device name: OSS: /dev/dsp
Input channels: 16
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.011610
Low Output Latency: -0.000000
High Input Latency: 0.046440
High Output Latency: -0.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Device ID: 1
Device name: ALSA: HDA Intel: STAC92xx Analog (hw:0,0)
Input channels: 2
Output channels: 0
Low Input Latency: 0.011610
Low Output Latency: -1.000000
High Input Latency: 0.046440
High Output Latency: -1.000000
Supported Rates:
==============================
Selected capture device: 1 - ALSA: HDA Intel: STAC92xx Analog (hw:0,0)
Selected playback device: 0 -
Supported Rates:


I removed/re-installed the audacity , it seems there is no way to configure the output device.
Is it a bug???

TIA

Chris

[steve]

The problem is with your sound card (Sigmatel STAC9200 (Intel HDA))
Is this a Dell laptop?

It may be related to this:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/277339

I'm not sure how to fix it other than checking that you have the latest ALSA installed.
[Edit] I found this suggestion:

Turn off the power saving feature in kernel (for HDA-Intel).

Sorry I can't help more, but perhaps this will point you in the right direction to look for a solution.

[xc8]

Yes, its a Dell Vostro 1400.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Chris

PS. BTW , any other application that produces audio output, works well...

[steve]

BTW , any other application that produces audio output, works well...

From my quick search of Google, it appears that support for this sound card is somewhat "flaky" and since Audacity has rather more demanding requirements of the audio drivers than many simple playback devices it is more likely to show up any weaknesses.

If you do manage to resolve the issue, please let us know how.

In the mean time, there are several other audio editors available in Ubuntu that you could try (my favourite is Audacity, but perhaps something is better than nothing). Have a look at "rezound" and "sweep". For multi-track recording look at "Ardour".

[xc8]

Hi,

I just managed to resolve this!!

I had on "pause" a flash movie (on the firefox) !

Maybe its a bug, as ANY other application *except* audacity could play audio!!

Now its back to normal (I just closed that firefox window)...


Chris

[steve]

I had on "pause" a flash movie (on the firefox) !

I really must get my crystal ball polished

Glad you've resolved the issue.

[xc8]

thanx too for the help guyz.

[joaocbm]

I can't hear the audio neither.
I have a desktop PC with realtech 5.1 (+headphone) audio device (on board). I took some time to make it work with the Ubuntu 8.10 64bits, now it works with the "HDA Intel (ALSA mixer)" configuration, it's fantastic... except with audacity.

[richardash1981]

In both cases I think the problem is that you don't have the right audio device selected in the Audacity preferences. If you change the device to "ALSA: Default" then the issue should go away. Note that if you start Audacity whilst something else is playing, it may not detect the audio devices on your system correctly, in which case stop whatever was playing and restart.

The other possible problem is if your system is using PulseAudio, because this will tend to
1) Block the sound device
2) Make it much harder for ALSA-based applications (like Audacity) to work correctly.

[guraknugen]

In both cases I think the problem is that you don't have the right audio device selected in the Audacity preferences. If you change the device to "ALSA: Default" then the issue should go away. Note that if you start Audacity whilst something else is playing, it may not detect the audio devices on your system correctly, in which case stop whatever was playing and restart.

The other possible problem is if your system is using PulseAudio, because this will tend to
1) Block the sound device
2) Make it much harder for ALSA-based applications (like Audacity) to work correctly.

I have Ubuntu 8.10 and it use, as most Ubuntu people know, Pulse Audio by default and I never changed that. However, Audacity worked fine for me anyway. I could select ”ALSA: Default” or a few other options, like ”ALSA: HDA Intel: AD198x Analog (hw:0,0)” and there would be sound in my speakers.

After fiddling a bit with my system, like installing new software and things like that, I suddenly noticed, after not having used Audacity for weeks, that there were suddenly no output sound anymore. I checked the preferences and I noticed that ”ALSA: HDA Intel: AD198x Digital (hw:0,1)” was selected. That shouldn't work I guess, since my laptop doesn't have any digital outs (except USB and I don't have a USB DAC anyway), so I thought that I could just select ”ALSA: HDA Intel: AD198x Analog (hw:0,0)” and everything should be fine. No, that was not possible, since it was not in the list, nor was the ”ALSA: Default”. This is what I can select now:

ALSA: HDA Intel: AD198x Digital (hw:0,1)
ALSA: HDA Intel: Si3054 Modem (hw:0,6)
ALSA: iec958
ALSA: spdif
ALSA: modem
ALSA: phoneline

Neither of these gives a sound out.

Weeks before, when everything worked, I had a lot more options.

The only sound related thing I did between when it worked and when it stopped working, was to install Jack. I uninstalled it but still no luck.

So I suspect that my problem is similar to other problems described in this thread. So you say that there could be a problem with Pulse Audio. In my case I have seen (or rather heard) Audacity working correctly with Pulse Audio and now it doesn't anymore. So it should be possible to make it work, even with Pulse Audio, right? If it worked then, it should be able to work again.

Do you have any suggestions? Would uninstalling Pulse Audio help the situation?
Is there a reason NOT to uninstall Pulse Audio?
It would really be nice to get this working without uninstalling Pulse Audio, since I think uninstalling it feels a bit like giving up, and I really don't like that.