[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#411305: running alsa-utils at boot breaks sound configuration

[Micha Lenk]

Hi Elimar,

you wrote:
> Which sound card?

I can't tell exactly because it's integrated into my notebook. But I can
give you the output of lspci:

# lspci -s 1b.0 -vvv
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: Lenovo Thinkpad R60e model 0657
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 64 bytes
        Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 66
        Region 0: Memory at ee400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=55mA PME(D0+,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-
        Capabilities: [60] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-
                Address: 0000000000000000  Data: 0000
        Capabilities: [70] Express Unknown type IRQ 0
                Device: Supported: MaxPayload 128 bytes, PhantFunc 0, ExtTag-
                Device: Latency L0s <64ns, L1 <1us
                Device: Errors: Correctable- Non-Fatal- Fatal- Unsupported-
                Device: RlxdOrd- ExtTag- PhantFunc- AuxPwr- NoSnoop+
                Device: MaxPayload 128 bytes, MaxReadReq 128 bytes
                Link: Supported Speed unknown, Width x0, ASPM unknown, Port 0
                Link: Latency L0s <64ns, L1 <1us
                Link: ASPM Disabled CommClk- ExtSynch-
                Link: Speed unknown, Width x0
        Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
        Capabilities: [130] Unknown (5)

> Which ALSA version?

I'm using Debian Etch, so this should be the versions available in
Debian Etch:

$ dpkg -l | egrep "(alsa|sound)"
ii  alsa-base                            1.0.13-5
ii  alsa-tools                           1.0.13-1
ii  alsa-utils                           1.0.13-2
ii  arts                                 1.5.5-1
ii  esound                               0.2.36-3
ii  esound-clients                       0.2.36-3
ii  esound-common                        0.2.36-3
ii  gamix                                1.99.p14.debian1-4
ii  kmix                                 3.5.5-2
ii  krec                                 3.5.5-2
ii  libarts1-dev                         1.5.5-1
ii  libarts1c2a                          1.5.5-1
ii  libartsc0                            1.5.5-1
ii  libartsc0-dev                        1.5.5-1
ii  libasound2                           1.0.13-2
ii  libasound2-dev                       1.0.13-2
ii  libasound2-plugins                   1.0.13-3
ii  libmikmod2                           3.1.11-a-6
ii  libsdl1.2debian-alsa                 1.2.11-8
ii  linux-sound-base                     1.0.13-5
ii  sox                                  12.17.9-1
ii  xmms2-plugin-alsa                    0.2DrGonzo-4.1

> How did you configured your soundcard?

AFAIR I never explicitly configured my soundcard and the sound card simply
worked (using KDE system sounds and so on). But some days ago I ran into
trouble. Unfortunately I can't reconstruct whether I ran alsaconf or
installed an additional package (i.e. alsa-utils). The initscript then
started to output a lot of syntax messages as described in step 6 of the
initial bug report. I investigated a little and figured out, that the
first error occurs when the (original unpatched) alsa-util's initscript
calls this command (probably in line 115 when calling
unmute_and_set_level() from line 143):

+ amixer -c 0 set Master 80% unmute
Invalid card number.
Usage: amixer <options> [command]

Available options:
  -h,--help       this help
  -c,--card N     select the card
  -D,--device N   select the device, default 'default'
  -d,--debug      debug mode
  -n,--nocheck    do not perform range checking
  -v,--version    print version of this program
  -q,--quiet      be quiet
  -i,--inactive   show also inactive controls
  -a,--abstract L select abstraction level (none or basic)
  -s,--stdin      Read and execute commands from stdin sequentially

Available commands:
  scontrols       show all mixer simple controls
  scontents       show contents of all mixer simple controls (default command)
  sset sID P      set contents for one mixer simple control
  sget sID        get contents for one mixer simple control
  controls        show all controls for given card
  contents        show contents of all controls for given card
  cset cID P      set control contents for one control
  cget cID        get control contents for one control


It might be possible that this observation is the same as reported in bugs
#406738 and #436746. From the [0]reasons given by Michael Rasmussen I
conclude bug #408506 might be related too.

0. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=411305#34

> What tells "lsmod | grep snd" ?

$ lsmod | grep snd
snd_hda_intel          17332  0
snd_hda_codec         137856  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_pcm_oss            38368  0
snd_mixer_oss          15200  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                68676  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_dummy           3844  0
snd_seq_oss            28768  0
snd_seq_midi            8192  0
snd_rawmidi            22560  1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event      7008  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq                45680  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              20996  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          7820  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
snd                    47012  10 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
soundcore               9248  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          9640  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

If you need some further information just ask. I'm happy to answer...

Micha