[sandyman]

So the sound was working fine to begin with using an ATI card, but I needed that card elsewhere and had to swap it, after installing the drivers and booting xbmcbuntu I get no sound at all, I've gone into the system settings and changed the sound to an assortment of customs (plug:both/PLUGHW:1,3 {which are the card and device respectively} along with a great deal of other custom options) most anything I do will say "failed to initialize audio device" but I found one that doesn't give that error, and that's just choosing the card in the list that xbmcbuntu provides. I have checked my alsamixer and made sure there was nothing muted (including picking my card out as nvidia, which gave me 4 spdif options).

aplay -l

Code:

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: SB [HDA ATI SB], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 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
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L

Code:

null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=SB
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output
dmix:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=SB,DEV=1
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Digital
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=SB,DEV=1
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Digital
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=SB,DEV=1
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Digital
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=SB,DEV=0
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Analog
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=SB,DEV=1
    HDA ATI SB, ALC888 Digital
    Hardware device with all software conversions
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=1
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=2
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
hdmi:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample mixing device
dmix:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample mixing device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample snooping device
dsnoop:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct sample snooping device
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
hw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Direct hardware device without any conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=3
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=7
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=8
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Hardware device with all software conversions
plughw:CARD=NVidia,DEV=9
    HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
    Hardware device with all software conversions

just to note, I get no sound of any kind since I've put this card in, though video playback will do just fine, does anyone have any ideas I can try?

[Plaguester]

Post the following:

• The path between the PC and the speakers (PC > Receiver > Speakers, PC > TV, PC > TV > Receiver... etc.)
  
• Your current settings in XBMC > Settings > System > Audio
  
• The output of lspci | grep -i audio
  
• Your ~/.asoundrc or /etc/asound.conf file, should either one exist (and whether or not you mucked with it)
  

[abeeson]

On top of that, i would recommend testing the various card interfaces, aplay -d and a sound file will do the trick, /usr/share/sounds/pop.wav is a good one if you have it.

on both of my NVidia devices the correct one to use is :plughw:1,7 and they are totally different boxes.

Once you have that set, put XBMC in debug mode and check the debug log to see what error you are getting, you might be getting a device locked or busy error and then it'll just be a matter of killing whatever is locking the audio devices direct access.

Check this out for some info, this is for my shuttle but the exact same worked on my desktop with a GT520.
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...enu_sounds