Bug 1055066

Summary: No sound in KDE: SPDIF digital output of NVIDIA MCP51 AC97 (Intel ICH with ALC655)
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Fdor <fdor6>
Component: pulseaudioAssignee: Lennart Poettering <lpoetter>
Status: CLOSED EOL QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 19CC: brendan.jones.it, jreznik, kevin, lkundrak, lpoetter, ltinkl, rdieter, smparrish, tdfischer, than, wtaymans
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Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Linux   
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Last Closed: 2015-02-17 19:54:25 UTC Type: Bug
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alsa-info.txt none

Description Fdor 2014-01-18 14:57:48 UTC
Created attachment 852014 [details]
alsa-info.txt

I'm trying to use the audio digital output (SPDIF IEC958) of my computer. After many hours of try-and-error, and a lot of searching in the internet, I have gotten it to work, but in a rudimentary and not friendly way: Command "aplay mysong.wav" works, so ALSA works, but KDE sound (for example, amarok) doesn't work.

Why? Well, to get ALSA to work, I had to uninstall "alsa-plugins-pulseaudio" package, so "kde-settings-pulseaudio" too. If I re-install both packages, then ALSA doesn't work any more ("aplay" command doesn't work, and KDE sound doesn't work). So the only way to get a bit of sound through SPDIF is by uninstalling both packages.

The thing is even more strange: For the "aplay" command to work, I had to run "alsamixer" command, and, after playing a lot with the controls, set the "S/PDIF Playback AC97-SPSA" item to zero. I don't know why. Additionally (it is probably normal), "S/PDIF Playback Source" item has to be set to "PCM", and "S/PDIF" item has to be enabled. Another strange thing: "Master" volume item has no effect in the volume, so the only way I can change the volume is by using my speakers' volume control. Volume can't be changed by software.

As I said, I can get sound only by using the "aplay" command (it seems to be a command from ALSA). No sound in KDE apps. I would like to use Amarok, and use the KDE volume control.

Phonon (the KDE sound system) seems to be well configured:
- Audio hardware setup:
    - Sound card: Internal audio. (the only card in the list)
    - Profile: Stereo digital output (IEC958).
    - Sound device: Playback (Internal Stereo digital audio(IEC958)). (the only device in the list)
    - Connector: Digital Output (S/PDIF). (the only connector in the list)
- Engine: GStreamer. (the only engine in the list)
    
Perhaps the problem could be in pulseaudio or in gstreamer, or perhaps in ALSA, or perhaps in the communication between all of those components... I don't know. Is it me, or there are too many components? I mean: ALSA, Pulseaudio, Phonon, Gstreamer... It is a mess, too much complexity, an invocation to problems. Shouldn't it be more easy?

Well, that was a philosophical question. Back to my problem... To help you to help me :), I have run the "alsa-info" command, that seems to generate a lot of information, and I'm attaching the output file to this thread. I will thank you for any clue on how to make sound (digital output) run on KDE.

(I didn't know which Fedora component assign this thread to. I have assigned "phonon", but be free to re-assign to the correct one (perhaps alsa or pulseaudio or gstreamer or ...))

Comment 1 Rex Dieter 2014-01-18 17:09:54 UTC
Most likely pulseaudio, reassigning.

I dont know how to help diagnose what's going wrong here though...

Comment 2 Fdor 2014-01-19 20:29:21 UTC
Interesting: Analog output works correctly with all components (ALSA, Pulseaudio, Phonon, KDE volume control, Amarok, etc).

The problem seems to be centered in the digital output.

Comment 3 Fedora End Of Life 2015-01-09 21:07:15 UTC
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Comment 4 Fedora End Of Life 2015-02-17 19:54:25 UTC
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