Ubuntu
pulseaudio package

PulseAudio does not detect ThinkPad R61 correctly

Bug #242103 reported by Kamil Páral
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
pulseaudio (Ubuntu)
New
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I have ThinkPad R61 and Ubuntu 8.04. In default installation there is a problem in simultaneous playing many audio sources:

 * Totem and Rhythmbox plays simultaneously (as any GStream applications)
 * Rhythmbox and most games (Extreme Tux Racer, Frozen Bubble) does not play simultaneously
 * Rhythmbox and flash videos does not play simultaneously

This is a sample error which displays frozen-bubble on start (similar errors show most games):

[SDL Init] ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:874:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Warning: can't initialize sound (reason: No available audio device).

If I kill and restart pulseaudio, this error is shown in the terminal:

$ killall pulseaudio
$ pulseaudio
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0

== Solution ==

I have edited /etc/pulse/default.pa and changed these lines:

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-hal-detect.so
load-module module-hal-detect
.else

to these lines:

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-hal-detect.so
#load-module module-hal-detect
load-module module-alsa-sink
load-module module-alsa-source
.else

After relogin problem is solved, rhythmbox, totem, games, flash videos, all play simultaneously. When pulseaudio is run in the terminal, there are no errors, only warnings:

$ killall pulseaudio
$ pulseaudio
W: alsa-util.c: Device default doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz.
W: alsa-util.c: Device default doesn't support 44100 Hz, changed to 48000 Hz.

There is clearly some problem when autodetecting ThinkPad R61 hardware. Please fix this. I can provide you with outputs of other commands, just tell me what you need.

Revision history for this message
Kamil Páral (kamil.paral) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Kamil Páral (kamil.paral) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Kamil Páral (kamil.paral) wrote :
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Charles Profitt (cprofitt) wrote :

I tested the default install on my T61p laptop and did not have the same issue. I have attached the output of lspci. I am not sure what the chipset differences are between the T61 and the R61 but hope this could help determine if it is a hardware detection issue as was suggested by the OP.

Revision history for this message
Charles Profitt (cprofitt) wrote :

I just checked the Lenovo web site (http://tinyurl.com/5gj4yv) and the driver package for Windows is the same. Again I hope this helps.

Revision history for this message
Kamil Páral (kamil.paral) wrote :

I have found out that with my modified default.pa sometimes the pulseaudio does not start after login (maybe some pulseaudio error not related with this, who knows). Moving the two lines

load-module module-alsa-sink
load-module module-alsa-source

to the end of the file seems not to trigger this problem. I attach this modified file again.

Revision history for this message
Kamil Páral (kamil.paral) wrote :

Forget previous post, it's just some bug in pulseaudio, doesn't really matter how the configuration file looks like.

Revision history for this message
Charles Profitt (cprofitt) wrote :

I tested this on a new R61 and could not replicate the problem. I am converting this to a question so the user can get a resolution, but this no longer appears to be a bug.

Changed in pulseaudio:
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Kamil Páral (kamil.paral) wrote :

I have just tried Ubuntu 8.04 from LiveCD and the problem is still the same:

$ killall pulseaudio
$ pulseaudio
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0

Since it is livecd, it is all really in the default state. I strongly insist that this is a bug and should be solved. It may not be a problem on all R61 since there are a lot of versions, but on my R61 8919-DEG it is a problem. I have converted this question back to a bug.

Changed in pulseaudio:
status: Invalid → New
Revision history for this message
flynn (flynn) wrote :

I have got the same error messages above on a notebook Siemens Amilo xi1546 since i installed Ubuntu Hardy.

With these lines from Kamil I can play sounds from multiple sources. Now i don't have any problems while playing music with banshee and playing games with sounds. Thanks for your fix Kamil.

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-hal-detect.so
#load-module module-hal-detect
load-module module-alsa-sink
load-module module-alsa-source
.else

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