Bug 261097

Summary: Multimedia device has failed...falling back back to hdmi device
Product: [Frameworks and Libraries] Phonon Reporter: Thomas Rehill <etech97>
Component: kded module for audio device listingAssignee: Harald Sitter <sitter>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: normal CC: frederic.coiffier, ggrabler, martin.sandsmark, myriam, pete_herworth, psychonaut, weigelt.bernd, wstephenson
Priority: NOR    
Version: 4.4.4 (KDE 4.6.x)   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In: 4.5
Sentry Crash Report:
Attachments: Console output when attempting to play sound using phonon enabled application

Description Thomas Rehill 2010-12-23 20:02:06 UTC
Version:           unspecified (using Devel) 
OS:                Linux

On startup the main multimedia device fails and falls back to secondary device.....even if you change the order the main device still fails.

Reproducible: Didn't try

Steps to Reproduce:
Just log into KDE 4.6RC1

Actual Results:  
No Sound!!!

Expected Results:  
Sound

I found a workaround; albeit not a perfect one. Go into Yast --->Sound --->edit ----> reset all --->next all the way through. This will create Alsa and OSS Sound devices in Multimedia in Configure Desktop. They both work for me for playing music. I use Clementine. It's not perfect, but it works.

This works for openSUSE.
Comment 1 Thomas Rehill 2010-12-24 05:57:50 UTC
This is happening for me in openSUSE 11.4 M5, but has also been reported to be hsppening in openSUSE 11,3.
Comment 2 pete_herworth 2010-12-24 20:54:28 UTC
This happened to me from KDE4 4.5.86svn ... and now with 4.90. I also tried it in 11.3 and it had exactly the same affect.
The workaround from Thomas works for me but it's not ideal.
I see the message that hda-intel module may not be loaded but it shows in Yast.
Comment 3 Thomas Rehill 2010-12-25 00:41:46 UTC
This workaround has to be done after each reboot...just a note :(
Comment 4 Bernd Weigelt 2010-12-25 19:32:40 UTC
On opensuse you can make 'rcalsasound restart'. but then you have the fallback.entries in the multimedia-config. till next logout or user-change :(
Comment 5 Georg Grabler 2011-01-03 13:26:57 UTC
I today updated on Chakra to 4.6 RC1. This problem occurs for me as well on a intel snd_hda_intel card.

The HDA Intel (STAC92xx Analog) is the one which gets in an unusable state. The fallback goes to the HDMI Output .. where I don't have a device connected of course.

aplay works perfectly well. So most likely solid / phonon giving me headaches there. Haven't got a workaround for chakra yet though.
Comment 6 Georg Grabler 2011-01-03 14:56:02 UTC
It magically works when switching to the backend phonon-vlc... probably that's a workaround as well.
I used phonon-xine before, which did not work properly.
Comment 7 Thomas Rehill 2011-01-03 15:15:37 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)
> It magically works when switching to the backend phonon-vlc... probably that's
> a workaround as well.
> I used phonon-xine before, which did not work properly.

With phonon-vlc .ogg files skip whenbeing played in either Clementine or Amarok :(
Comment 8 Frédéric COIFFIER 2011-01-03 15:21:36 UTC
For Gentoo users, using last git version of Phonon and Phonon-xine solves the problem.
These versions can be found as phonon-9999 and phonon-xine-9999 ebuilds in kde overlay.
Comment 9 Myriam Schweingruber 2011-01-05 11:37:15 UTC
So apparently this is already solved in git
Comment 10 Will Stephenson 2011-02-10 22:35:39 UTC
@Myriam do you have a reference to the fix in git?  I am still seeing this with Phonon 4.4.4 and KDE 4.6.0.
Comment 11 Tristan Miller 2011-03-07 14:10:54 UTC
I just upgraded from KDE 4.5 to KDE 4.6 on openSUSE 11.3 and am experiencing this problem.  So I dispute the fact that it's been "fixed" in 4.5, as the header summary claims...
Comment 12 Myriam Schweingruber 2011-03-07 15:04:00 UTC
Will, I closed this based on the comments, reopening.
Comment 13 Harald Sitter 2011-03-07 21:04:27 UTC
Please define what you mean by "this problem".
Comment 14 Tristan Miller 2011-03-09 12:44:02 UTC
After upgrading from KDE 4.5 to KDE 4.6 on openSUSE, upon logging into my usual account I got a notification indicating that the main sound device had failed and that it was falling back to some other device.  (After a few logins with me attempting to troubleshoot, this message no longer appears for me.)  Sound does not work in any KDE application, though it does work from command line applications like mplayer and from non-KDE applications SeaMonkey and Skype.   I am using the ALSA sound driver.

If I create an entirely new user account and log in with that, the sound works perfectly, so I guess there's something about my KDE 4.5 configuration files that KDE 4.6 doesn't like.  It's not ~/.kde4/share/config/phonondevicesrc, since the contents of that file are identical in both accounts.  Also, the devices shown in System Settings->Multimedia->Phonon are identical for both accounts.  The Backend is GStreamer for both accounts.  The contents of ~/.config/kde.org/libphonon.conf are identical in both accounts.

I tried included deleting the contents of my /tmp directory (in case it was a problem with my kde cache), but this didn't fix things.
Comment 15 Tristan Miller 2011-03-09 12:54:12 UTC
As per comment #6, I just tried changing the System Settings->Multimedia->Phonon->Backend.  The sound works with VLC or Xine, but not Gstreamer.
Comment 16 Harald Sitter 2011-03-09 13:22:11 UTC
please export the following env variables and try to play sound using a phonon enabled application, then attach the output produced to the bug report.

thanks.

export PHONON_PULSEAUDIO_DEBUG=5
export PHONON_VLC_DEBUG=5
export PHONON_GST_DEBUG=5
export PHONON_GST_GST_DEBUG=3
export PHONON_XINE_DEBUG=5
export PHONON_DEBUG=5
Comment 17 Tristan Miller 2011-03-09 13:43:29 UTC
Created attachment 57800 [details]
Console output when attempting to play sound using phonon enabled application

This attachment was requested in Comment 16.  It shows the console output of systemsettings when performing the following:
1. Click on Multimedia
2. Click on Phonon
3. Click on the first output device listed in the right-hand pane
4. Click on Test
5. Close the application
Comment 18 Tristan Miller 2011-03-09 14:27:21 UTC
I should add that the log was made when the Phonon Backend was set to Gstreamer.
Comment 19 Harald Sitter 2011-03-09 15:06:47 UTC
Ok, you are not experiencing the issue originally reported but your gstreamer is defunct. Bug #264428 has additional information on this.

Also, unless your Qt is built without glib (which is terribly unlikely) you have the env var QT_NO_GLIB set, preventing the use of PulseAudio, which might or might not be the cause of one account not having sound (i.e. if PulseAudio is locking the audio device it can be that Phonon without PulseAudio is unable to play anything).

Closing bug again as the issue originally reported was resolved by a change in the KDE device list plugin thing, which had HAL dependent device detection code up until 4.6rc1 or something like that (at any rated fixed in 4.6.0).