MX-23 losing sound configuration

[Joerg]

Whenever I reboot MX-23 AHS it has the sound messed up, as in no sound whatsoever. I then have to switch the sound card to AMD Family 17h/19h. In MX Tools the selection just says HDA-Intel generic, twice, whatever that means, and it seems to have no effect. Also, according to that tool sound output tests ok even when in real life there is no sound from sources such as Youtube or Zoom.

The microphone is even iffier. Right now the mixer points (correctly) to the Logitech C170 webcam microphone but no audio from it is heard nor visible in the level bar of the mixer. That will be a real problem tomorrow night when we have a ham radio class.

Assuming I can make the microphone work again (not sure how yet), how can I freeze all those sound settings in place so they won't get nuked everytime I boot?

joerg@Lab:~
$ inxi -A
Audio:
Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-2: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Device-3: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
Device-4: Texas Instruments PCM2901 Audio Codec type: USB
driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
API: ALSA v: k6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active

System Info:

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 [6.5.3-1~mx23ahs] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23.1_ahs_x64 Libretto October 15  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux
    12 (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: HP product: HP Slim Desktop S01-aF0xxx v: N/A serial: <superuser required>
    Chassis: type: 3 serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 876C v: SMVB serial: <superuser required> UEFI: AMI v: F.21 date: 03/25/2021
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Athlon Silver 3050U with Radeon Graphics bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Zen/Zen+
    note: check gen: 1 level: v3 note: check built: 2019 process: GF 12nm family: 0x17 (23)
    model-id: 0x18 (24) stepping: 1 microcode: 0x8108109
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 192 KiB desc: d-2x32 KiB; i-2x64 KiB
    L2: 1024 KiB desc: 2x512 KiB L3: 4 MiB desc: 1x4 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2863 high: 3171 min/max: 1400/2300 boost: enabled scaling:
    driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: ondemand cores: 1: 3171 2: 2555 bogomips: 9182
  Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT disabled
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow mitigation: SMT disabled
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling,
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Mobile Series] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: GCN-5 code: Vega process: GF 14nm built: 2017-20 pcie: gen: 3
    speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: none bus-ID: 04:00.0
    chip-ID: 1002:15d8 class-ID: 0300 temp: 64.0 C
  Device-2: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-6.1:6
    chip-ID: 046d:0825 class-ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu
    unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1024x1536 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 271x406mm (10.67x15.98") s-diag: 488mm (19.22")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 mapped: DisplayPort-0 pos: primary,top model: HP vs15 serial: <filter>
    built: 2005 res: 1024x768 hz: 60 dpi: 87 gamma: 1.4 size: 300x220mm (11.81x8.66")
    diag: 372mm (14.6") ratio: 4:3 modes: max: 1024x768 min: 720x400
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-A-0 pos: bottom model: XGA serial: <filter> built: 2003
    res: 1024x768 hz: 60 dpi: 86 gamma: 1.86 size: 304x228mm (11.97x8.98") diag: 50mm (2") modes:
    max: 1024x768 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.2-1~mx23ahs renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (raven2 LLVM 15.0.6 DRM
    3.54 6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64) direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel bus-ID: 1-6.1:6 chip-ID: 046d:0825 pcie: gen: 3 class-ID: 0102 speed: 8 GT/s
    serial: <filter> lanes: 16 bus-ID: 04:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:15de class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 04:00.6 chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  Device-3: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
  Device-4: Texas Instruments PCM2901 Audio Codec type: USB
    driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 1-6.2.2.2:12 chip-ID: 08bb:2901 class-ID: 0300
  API: ALSA v: k6.5.0-1mx-ahs-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11ac PCIe Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: rtw_8821ce v: N/A modules: rtw88_8821ce,wl,rtl8821ce pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: f000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:c821 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 03:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Realtek Bluetooth 4.2 Adapter type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 1-4.2:4
    chip-ID: 0bda:b00a class-ID: e001 serial: <filter>
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: <filter> bt-v: 2.1 lmp-v: 4.2
    sub-v: f098 hci-v: 4.2 rev: 75b8
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 255:12 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept service-classes: rendering, capturing, audio, telephony
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 462.05 GiB used: 121.02 GiB (26.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: KIOXIA model: N/A size: 238.47 GiB block-size:
    physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: AGHA4101
    temp: 40.9 C scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 model: SATA SSD size: 223.57 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 61.3 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 48.83 GiB size: 47.76 GiB (97.81%) used: 7.37 GiB (15.4%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p5 maj-min: 259:5
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 499 MiB size: 495 MiB (99.20%) used: 25.7 MiB (5.2%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
  ID-3: /home raw-size: 128.05 GiB size: 124.99 GiB (97.60%) used: 8.57 GiB (6.9%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p7 maj-min: 259:7
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 9.77 GiB used: 869 MiB (8.7%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 maj-min: 259:6
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 65.1 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 65.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2159 libs: 1134 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
    2: deb http://la.mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bookworm ahs
Info:
  Processes: 232 Uptime: 44m wakeups: 1 Memory: 5.7 GiB used: 5.28 GiB (92.6%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: UEFI

MX-19 had some issues with sound as well but not as hardcore as now.

Regards,

Joerg

[CharlesV]

Your using MX Sound Select to choose the default sound controller ?

You might try going into the volume mixer, output devices and then select the fallback (the check mark) on the device you want to default too.

Also, in MX Package Installer there is indicator-sound-selector which could help you quickly change to a different IN or out device.
( MX Package Installer | search for indicator-sound-selector and on the Enabled tab check it and install. )

[ghunter]

If mic is not active or you are unable to set input volumes thru a GUI use command alsamixer to do it.

in image the left image is webcam muted....in right image I pressed the space bar to unmute....then raised the volumes with either the up key or page up keys

https://imgur.com/XrCBjXZ

If you run

Code: Select all

arecord -l

if will give you your card number for inputs eg

arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC892 Analog [ALC892 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 2: ALC892 Alt Analog [ALC892 Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Q9000 [QuickCam Pro 9000], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

so to go directly to alsamixer for my webcam I note its card 1 so the command is

Code: Select all

alsamixer -c1 -Vall

alternatively run alsamixer then press F6 to choose and select webcam, using arrow keys....it will default to playback....then press F4 to show inputs

[dolphin_oracle]

does the HDMI part that is taking over audio show up in the PulseAudio Control Configuration Tab?

[Joerg]

Charles, yes, I am using Sound Select but the selection is not clear. Shows one entry Generic and another called Generic-1. Neither makes it work.

Fallback in the volume mixer is set but the level indicator for the C270 microphone is not moving when speaking into it. Occasionally it goes to 100% but no sound into any software is produced. Then a while ago I got another error message "Card callback failure: Timeout" but that happened only once.

I installed indicator-sound-switch but it does not show in the "All Applications" list and calling it in the terminal just causes the cursor to move to a new line and stay there. Nothing happens.

ghunter, alsamixer does not show the C270 web cam mike, pulse audio mixer does. arecord produces only this:

joerg@Lab:~
$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC671 Analog [ALC671 Analog]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic_1 [HD-Audio Generic], device 2: ALC671 Alt Analog [ALC671 Alt Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: U0x46d0x825 [USB Device 0x46d:0x825], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
Subdevices: 0/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

dolphin_oracle, yes, the HDMI device does show in the configuration and I turn it off. Though after reboot MX-23 seems to almways have forgotten all of those selections. After numerous reboots I now can get sound from YouTube, that's at least something. However, the Logitech Web Cam C270 microphone will not work. Could it be that MX-19 supported it and MX-23 no longer does?

It's quite frustrating, so many important things broke after going from MX-19 to MX-23. Audio, networking and other things are now kaputt. Would it be better to give up and go back to MX-21, hoping it is easier there? I can't go back to MX-19 because one software package will not run with its old Debian and if I'd revert to MX-21 it would only be a matter of time until that happens again.

Regards, Joerg

[Joerg]

Charles, found it now, it lists as "Sound Switcher Indicator", just its words flipped around. That correctly shows the C270 webcam microphone just like the volume mixer does. But it doesn't produce any sound. Under MX-19 it does. Picture works so the webcam is recognizezd even under MX-23, just not its audio.

Also, I connected an external USB sound adapter and a handheld microphone. This has always worked in MX-19 when I needed voice input far away from the PC. In MX-23 it is recognized correctly but ... no sound. Something seems seriously fritzed.

[dolphin_oracle]

my c270 works fine, so I'm not sure what the problem would be, unless the alsa channel volume pikcup on the thing is set far too low.

I disable my HDMI like this. Is this where you tried?

[CharlesV]

I decided to stay on MX21 for a while, simply because I like it and 23 was JUST different enough that I didnt care for it as much. (I will go there eventually.. but I like to be behind the curve :-)

I would suggest that you load a liveusb with MX21.3, boot it up and see how it works. You may find it works better at somethings.

Your machine IS new enough that I would try loading the latest linux-firmware, that has helped me on my 2019 ~ 2023 machines, and also fixed some issues on my testers too (2018 ~ 2022)

And if you have already worked out the other issues, then it is possible to remove pipewire and run pulse audio (there is a topic in here about doing just that.)

For the latest firmware:
Save a copy of your current /lib/firmware/ just in case.. and then

wget https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/ke ... 211.tar.gz ; tar -xf linux-firmware-20231211.tar.gz ; cd linux-firmware-20231211 ; sudo cp -R * /lib/firmware/ ; sudo update-initramfs -uk all


For the sound...
1) try reinstalling pipewire-setup-mx

I will try to find the 'how to remove pipewire and install pulse audio topic.

[Joerg]

dolphin_oracle, yes, that's where I turned it off.

Charles, looks like I'll have to go the downgrade route then. Samba not working and audio not working are major problems for me and I can't live with those.

Regards, Joerg

[Joerg]

It's getting weirder. The C270 webcam microphone just worked in a Jitsi group despite the volume mixer showing it's not working (no deflections at all on the amplitude indicator). Also, software such as Audacity will not start recording with this microphone selected, so must also be thinking it's dead even though Firefox can use it.

The MX-23 machine then became sluggish and I noticed it was using up nearly all of the 8GB memory and heading into swap. At least per system load monitor it ate into 1.7GB of swap memory. That certainly isn't normal. MX-19 never used more than 3-4GB with Firefox open and swap never came on. Even Firefox itself says it should not be that much, see attached screen shot. Top shows this:

$ top

top - 20:07:46 up 1 day, 6:35, 1 user, load average: 0.21, 0.21, 0.16
Tasks: 226 total, 1 running, 225 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 1.7 us, 1.5 sy, 0.0 ni, 96.8 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
MiB Mem : 5838.9 total, 161.9 free, 5271.2 used, 666.7 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 10000.0 total, 8438.5 free, 1561.5 used. 567.7 avail Mem

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
27599 joerg 20 0 3446660 489400 203496 S 2.0 8.2 0:27.10 firefox-bin
2440 root 20 0 831984 33788 9716 S 1.3 0.6 6:10.36 Xorg
2504 root 20 0 17384 2208 1736 S 1.3 0.0 0:18.86 wpa_supplicant
28196 joerg 20 0 81252 5120 3072 R 0.7 0.1 0:00.07 top
2093 message+ 20 0 9456 2672 1188 S 0.3 0.0 0:04.11 dbus-daemon
2364 root 20 0 255720 5168 3380 S 0.3 0.1 0:12.85 NetworkManager
2799 joerg 20 0 547404 14488 8832 S 0.3 0.2 0:27.39 xfce4-panel
2808 joerg 20 0 691756 14664 7280 S 0.3 0.2 0:05.91 xfdesktop
2819 joerg 20 0 537240 28560 22468 S 0.3 0.5 0:28.88 panel-8-systeml
26024 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0.3 0.0 0:01.14 kworker/0:1-events
27747 joerg 20 0 6867808 180228 93976 S 0.3 3.0 0:05.42 WebExtensions
1 root 20 0 3296 768 708 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.89 init
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0.0 0.0 0:00.01 kthreadd
3 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 rcu_gp
4 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 rcu_par_gp
5 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 slub_flushwq
6 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0.0 0.0 0:00.00 netns

Swap is risky on modern systems with SSD, it can wear them out. What could be wrong here?

Regards, Joerg