[Antioch]

Hi, everyone. I have nettop Ion2 box I've been using for XBMC. I got the HDMI audio working using Dharma RC1 XBMC Live on it somehow and haven't installed any updates on it since for fear of breaking it. I recently installed XBMCbuntu Eden 11.0 thinking that the audio problem would have been fixed by now, but it isn't. I don't have HDMI audio and I can't figure out how to get it to work.

Here is some relevant information:

Code:

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC662 rev1 Analog [ALC662 rev1 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC662 rev1 Digital [ALC662 rev1 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I created an .asoundrc with the following content:

Code:

defaults.pcm.device 3

and created a custom device setting in xbmc of: plughw:1,3 -- this didn't work.

I went into alsamixer, switched to device "HDA Nvidia" and unmuted device S/PDIF (the only device) -- this didn't work.

I attempted to boot into the LXDE desktop and try to unmute the device using the audio settings GUI like I did in Dharma. There's no audio settings in LXDE so I installed xfce4-mixer and gstreamer -- this didn't work.
(Note: now the little volume icon in the system tray is gone, but it didn't work at all before - there desktop didn't play sound either)

There are no more things I've found on the forum left to try. Can someone please help me with this very old, very annoying bug?

Thank you,
Antioch

[Plaguester]

Temporarily rename the .asoundrc file to something else and run through these questions:

• Can you list the settings you have in XBMC > Settings > System > Audio Output?
  
• To what device is the system connected (TV Model, AV receiver... etc.)?
  
• Do you get a "Failed to initialize audio device" error when playing a media file?
  
• You appear to have two audio cards. Have you tried disabling the onboard audio in the BIOS?
  
• Lastly, what options are in the device list in XBMC?
  

[Antioch]

Alright, I've removed the .asoundrc.

Disabling the onboard sound in the BIOS gives the following aplay -l:

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

I went through alsamixer and unmuted all of these new s/pdif devices.

Answering your questions:
- Connected to a TV via HDMI (Philips LCD HDTV, don't know the model number off hand)

- Yes, I get the "failed to initialize audio device" error when trying to play a media file. I also do not get the navigation sounds in the menus.

- These are the devices listed under XBMC > Settings > System > Audio Output (after disabling onboard sound in the BIOS):

Audio Output Device:
hdmi (ALSA)
iec958 (ALSA)
Defaults (ALSA)
Custom
HDA NVidia - hdmi - 9 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - iec958 - 9 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - default - 9 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - hdmi - 8 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - iec958 - 8 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - default - 8 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - hdmi - 7 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - iec958 - 7 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - default - 7 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - hdmi - 3 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - iec958 - 3 (ALSA)
HDA NVidia - default - 7 (ALSA)
(The same settings are available for Passthrough output device).

I've tried a bunch of these settings and none seem to work.

Oh, and Audio output has the following settings available: Analog, HDMI, Optical/Coax (I have it set to HDMI).

Thanks for your help.

Antioch

[Plaguester]

Code:

# replace X with 3, 7, 8, and 9 until you get fuzz out of the speakers
$ speaker-test -D plughw:0,X

Ctrl-C to quit

Use "NVidia - HDMI - X" in the XBMC settings for both the audio and passthrough device. If that doesn't work, disable the "* capable receiver settings and try again. If that doesn't work, switch the Audio Output type to Optical/COAX and repeat. If that doesn't work, switch it to Analog.

This should enable sound for all media files. Menu sounds may be another issue depending on your hardware.

[Antioch]

disable the "* capable receiver settings and try again.

What does this mean? I don't think I follow.

Thanks,
Antioch

[Plaguester]

DTS Capable Receiver and Dolby Digital Capable Receiver off the top of my head.

[Antioch]

DTS Capable Receiver and Dolby Digital Capable Receiver off the top of my head.

Ah, that brings back a faint memory of disabling them years ago.

Ok, I tried those steps, this made lots of irritating (but good!) static:

Code:

$ speaker-test -D plughw:0,9

I disabled the Dolby Digital and DTS receiver settings, set XBMC to "HDA NVidia - hdmi - 9 (ALSA)" for both audio and passthrough device, and rotated through analog, hdmi, and optical/coax settings -- none of them produced any menu sounds and all of them resulted in "error initializing device" messages.

Hmmm. At least we know that sound fundamentally works. A question: do you know how to enable the audio in LXDE? If it starts working there I feel like that'll get it working in XBMC.

Thanks for the help thus far, I appreciate it!
Antioch

[Plaguester]

If none of those worked, then choose "Custom" and type in "plughw:0,9" for both devices and start over at HDMI. The "HDMI (ALSA)" device may also work (that's the one I use).

Unfortunately I'm not using XBMCbuntu, so I don't know exactly what is available in the LXDE. You could try using "sudo apt-get install padevchooser" and run through the mixer and device chooser that it installs.

[Antioch]

I'll give those settings a try tomorrow. I suppose XBMC is using PulseAudio now hence padevchooser? I'll install that and poke around in there. I recall that I had to do some fiddling around in the graphics settings manager to get audio working before. I'll probably reinstall XBMCbuntu incase installing gstreamer messed things up.

What distro are you running? Ubuntu 11.10?

Thanks for the pointers thus far, I appreciate it.
Antioch

[Antioch]

Success!

I had to create an .asoundrc with the following:

Code:

defaults.pcm.device 3

and reboot!

That gave me menu sounds and youtube audio, but when launching videos I got the old "failed to initialize audio device" error. To fix this I had to go to audio settings, select custom, and enter "plughw:0,9" and then videos had audio!

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it!

Antioch