Guix System 1.0: No audio

Guix System 1.0: No audio

[sirgazil]

Hello,

I installed the GNU system with GNOME using the ISO installer (https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-install-1.0.0.x86_64-linux.iso.xz).

When I play video or audio in the browser or in the desktop, I get no audio. The volume controls in the browser and desktop show the sound is not disabled. There are no errors about missing codecs or anything like that. The media plays, but there is no audio coming out from the speakers (which are on). Audio and speakers worked fine in the distro I was using before installing GNU with Guix.

Maybe I need additional packages or services?

---
https://sirgazil.bitbucket.io/

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

On Sat, May 04, 2019 at 05:00:04PM -0500, sirgazil wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I installed the GNU system with GNOME using the ISO installer (https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-install-1.0.0.x86_64-linux.iso.xz).
> 
> When I play video or audio in the browser or in the desktop, I get no audio. The volume controls in the browser and desktop show the sound is not disabled. There are no errors about missing codecs or anything like that. The media plays, but there is no audio coming out from the speakers (which are on). Audio and speakers worked fine in the distro I was using before installing GNU with Guix.
> 
> Maybe I need additional packages or services?
> 

I do *not* experience this issue on GNOME.

I presume you are using %desktop-services in your configuration.

When you run:

guix environment --ad-hoc alsa-utils
alsamixer

Is the volume turned off or is the sound card muted?  You can mute and
unmute with the M key and select your sound card with the F6 key.

There also is a program `speaker-test` in alsa-utils for basic testing.

Regards,
Florian

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[sirgazil]

Hi, Florian:


---- On Sat, 04 May 2019 17:29:01 -0500 pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de> wrote ----

 > On Sat, May 04, 2019 at 05:00:04PM -0500, sirgazil wrote: 
 > > Hello, 
 > > 
 > > I installed the GNU system with GNOME using the ISO installer (https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-install-1.0.0.x86_64-linux.iso.xz). 
 > > 
 > > When I play video or audio in the browser or in the desktop, I get no audio. The volume controls in the browser and desktop show the sound is not disabled. There are no errors about missing codecs or anything like that. The media plays, but there is no audio coming out from the speakers (which are on). Audio and speakers worked fine in the distro I was using before installing GNU with Guix. 
 > > 
 > > Maybe I need additional packages or services? 
 > > 
 >  
 > I do *not* experience this issue on GNOME. 
 >  
 > I presume you are using %desktop-services in your configuration. 


Yes.


 > When you run: 
 >  
 > guix environment --ad-hoc alsa-utils 
 > alsamixer 
 >  
 > Is the volume turned off or is the sound card muted?  You can mute and 
 > unmute with the M key and select your sound card with the F6 key. 

The volume seems on and the card seems not muted:

https://multimedialib.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/alsamixer-guix-system-1.0.png

When I press F6 I see "(default)" selected, and there are no more options, except for an "enter device name..." option.


 > There also is a program `speaker-test` in alsa-utils for basic testing. 


I didn't try this, maybe tomorrow.

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

On Sat, May 04, 2019 at 06:24:04PM -0500, sirgazil wrote:
> The volume seems on and the card seems not muted:
> 
> https://multimedialib.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/alsamixer-guix-system-1.0.png
>

This looks like it does for me.


> When I press F6 I see "(default)" selected, and there are no more options, except for an "enter device name..." option.
> 
>

But this is very strange.  For me pressing F6 shows

------Sound Card----------
-  default
0  HDA Nvidia
   enter device name
--------------------------

and changing the volume for default changes the volume for HDA Nvidia
and vice versa.

In the top left corner of ALSA Mixer when selecting HDA Nvidia, I see
that I have a Cirrus Logic CS4206 chip.  When I enter `dmesg` I see
snd_hda_codec_cirrus.  I suppose your snd_ chip does not get loaded.
If so, why would that be?  I don’t know. Did the other distro use
Linux-libre as its kernel?  I see the prefix snd_ occurring in
https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/
and
https://www.fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/deblob-check

Regards,
Florian

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[sirgazil]

---- On Sun, 05 May 2019 01:33:24 -0500 pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de> wrote ----

 > On Sat, May 04, 2019 at 06:24:04PM -0500, sirgazil wrote: 
 > > The volume seems on and the card seems not muted: 
 > > 
 > > https://multimedialib.files.wordpress.com/2019/05/alsamixer-guix-system-1.0.png 
 > > 
 >  
 > This looks like it does for me. 
 >  
 >  
 > > When I press F6 I see "(default)" selected, and there are no more options, except for an "enter device name..." option. 
 > > 
 > > 
 >  
 > But this is very strange.  For me pressing F6 shows 
 >  
 > ------Sound Card---------- 
 > -  default 
 > 0  HDA Nvidia 
 >  enter device name 
 > -------------------------- 
 >  
 > and changing the volume for default changes the volume for HDA Nvidia 
 > and vice versa. 
 >  
 > In the top left corner of ALSA Mixer when selecting HDA Nvidia, I see 
 > that I have a Cirrus Logic CS4206 chip.  When I enter `dmesg` I see 
 > snd_hda_codec_cirrus.  I suppose your snd_ chip does not get loaded. 
 > If so, why would that be?  I don’t know. Did the other distro use 
 > Linux-libre as its kernel?  I see the prefix snd_ occurring in 
 > https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/ 
 > and 
 > https://www.fsfla.org/svn/fsfla/software/linux-libre/scripts/deblob-check 


Florian, for some reason, the speakers worked today. I'm not sure if running alsamixer yesterday after your instructions had anything to do with it or booting without the headphones plugged. Those are the only different things (related to sound) that I've done before starting the machine today. GNOME even displays some information when I plug the headphones. It didn't do this before.

One thing I noticed when booting is an error that says something like this:

   Error: "pcspkr" is already registered, aborting.

I wonder if that is related. Although the speakers worked anyways.

Thank you, Florian.

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[pelzflorian (Florian Pelz)]

On Sun, May 05, 2019 at 06:52:39AM -0500, sirgazil wrote:
> Florian, for some reason, the speakers worked today. I'm not sure if running alsamixer yesterday after your instructions had anything to do with it or booting without the headphones plugged. Those are the only different things (related to sound) that I've done before starting the machine today. GNOME even displays some information when I plug the headphones. It didn't do this before.
>

On my father’s PC booting with or without audio 3.5mm plug headphones
makes a difference.


> One thing I noticed when booting is an error that says something like this:
> 
>    Error: "pcspkr" is already registered, aborting.
> 

I see this too.

> I wonder if that is related. Although the speakers worked anyways.
> 
> Thank you, Florian.
> 

I am happy to help (and happy that Linux-libre is unrelated). :)

Regards,
Florian

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[Mark H Weaver]

Hi sirgazil,

sirgazil <sirgazil@zoho.com> writes:

> I installed the GNU system with GNOME using the ISO installer (https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-install-1.0.0.x86_64-linux.iso.xz).
>
> When I play video or audio in the browser or in the desktop, I get no
> audio. The volume controls in the browser and desktop show the sound
> is not disabled.

Have you been able to get any sound to come out of the speakers at all
in Guix?  For example, when you change the volume using the slider in
the menu from the top-right corner in GNOME Shell, do you hear the sound
effects when you let go of the slider at a high volume level?

Which browser(s) did you try?

> There are no errors about missing codecs or anything
> like that. The media plays, but there is no audio coming out from the
> speakers (which are on). Audio and speakers worked fine in the distro
> I was using before installing GNU with Guix.
>
> Maybe I need additional packages or services?

Quite possibly.  I include the following packages in my user profile:

       gstreamer
       gst-plugins-base
       gst-plugins-good
       gst-libav

Specifically, the addition of 'gst-libav' adds plugins for many popular
codecs that would otherwise be unavailable.  The 'gstreamer' package
needs to be in the same profile as the 'gst-*' packages, or else
GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH might not be set appropriately to find the
plugins.

These codecs are needed by Epiphany (a.k.a. GNOME Web) and many other
GNOME applications.  However, they shouldn't be needed by IceCat, which
links directly with ffmpeg and doesn't use gstreamer.

       Mark

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[sirgazil]

Hi Mark,


---- On Sun, 05 May 2019 16:26:25 -0500 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> wrote ----

 > Hi sirgazil, 
 >  
 > sirgazil <sirgazil@zoho.com> writes: 
 >  
 > > I installed the GNU system with GNOME using the ISO installer (https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/guix/guix-system-install-1.0.0.x86_64-linux.iso.xz). 
 > > 
 > > When I play video or audio in the browser or in the desktop, I get no 
 > > audio. The volume controls in the browser and desktop show the sound 
 > > is not disabled. 
 >  
 > Have you been able to get any sound to come out of the speakers at all 
 > in Guix?  For example, when you change the volume using the slider in 
 > the menu from the top-right corner in GNOME Shell, do you hear the sound 
 > effects when you let go of the slider at a high volume level? 
 >  
 > Which browser(s) did you try? 


Unfortunately, not all of my messages to the lists are being delivered on time. I'm getting "Mail Delivery Status Notification (Delay)" with this kind of error:

 [Status: Error, Address: <bug-guix@gnu.org>, ResponseCode 421, Host not reachable.] 

In a previous message that Florian responded to (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/help-guix/2019-05/msg00116.html), I added a bit more information about the problem. I also reported a bug that has been delayed as well.

In summary, most of the time, when I start the machine (a real machine), "GNOME Setting → Sound" shows a "Dummy output" as the output device, not the real device. Only once, I started the machine and sound worked fine, both in desktop applications and in the IceCat browser. GNOME even displayed information when I plugged some headphones and "GNOME Setting → Sound" displayed the real device and headphones as output devices (no "Dummy output" any more). That time, I started the machine with the headphones unplugged. So I thought that could be related to the problem, but then I tried to reproduce it and couldn't. And I lost sound again.

Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[Tobias Geerinckx-Rice]

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Sirgazil, Florian,

pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) wrote:
> On Sun, May 05, 2019 at 06:52:39AM -0500, sirgazil wrote:
>> Florian, for some reason, the speakers worked today. I'm not 
>> sure if running alsamixer yesterday after your instructions had 
>> anything to do with it or booting without the headphones 
>> plugged. Those are the only different things (related to sound) 
>> that I've done before starting the machine today. GNOME even 
>> displays some information when I plug the headphones. It didn't 
>> do this before.
>>
>
> On my father’s PC booting with or without audio 3.5mm plug 
> headphones
> makes a difference.
>
>
>> One thing I noticed when booting is an error that says 
>> something like this:
>> 
>>    Error: "pcspkr" is already registered, aborting.
>> 
>
> I see this too.
>
>> I wonder if that is related. Although the speakers worked 
>> anyways.

This is the driver for the vestigial ‘PC speaker’ that mainly[0] 
beeps and is completely missing on some modern systems, it (rather 
misleadingly) has nothing to do with speakers as you intend to 
enjoy them.


Kind regards,

T G-R

[0]: https://www.tobias.gr/monkeez.mp4

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Re: Guix System 1.0: No audio

[sirgazil]

---- On Sun, 05 May 2019 07:07:48 -0500 pelzflorian (Florian Pelz) <pelzflorian@pelzflorian.de> wrote ----

 > On Sun, May 05, 2019 at 06:52:39AM -0500, sirgazil wrote: 
 > > Florian, for some reason, the speakers worked today. I'm not sure if running alsamixer yesterday after your instructions had anything to do with it or booting without the headphones plugged. Those are the only different things (related to sound) that I've done before starting the machine today. GNOME even displays some information when I plug the headphones. It didn't do this before. 
 > > 
 >  
 > On my father’s PC booting with or without audio 3.5mm plug headphones 
 > makes a difference. 
 >  
 >  
 > > One thing I noticed when booting is an error that says something like this: 
 > > 
 > >    Error: "pcspkr" is already registered, aborting. 
 > > 
 >  
 > I see this too. 
 >  
 > > I wonder if that is related. Although the speakers worked anyways. 
 > > 
 > > Thank you, Florian. 
 > > 
 >  
 > I am happy to help (and happy that Linux-libre is unrelated). :) 
 >  
 > Regards, 
 > Florian 
 > 

I reported a bug about the sound issue (https://issues.guix.info/issue/35599). However, it seems the problem was related to a bug with the installer (https://issues.guix.info/issue/35541). After working around the installer issue as described in the manual (https://www.gnu.org/software/guix/manual/en/html_node/Guided-Graphical-Installation.html#Guided-Graphical-Installation), I get sound every time I restart the machine. I will try for a few more days, and see if I can close the bug I reported.