HDMI audio...(again!)

[gtsupport]

I could use a little help 

After failing for months to get my audio over hdmi with 08.10 I have installed 10.04 on a second partition.  After the usual apt-get updates etc. I downloaded the latest Nvidia drivers, and also the latest Alsa driver.  With all this in place, even before installing the LinuxMCE application, I tried the audio over hdmi.  What this kubuntu version gives me that 08.10 didn't is that in alsamixer I get a second device with 4 channels.  After unmuting them I still get no audio over hdmi....however if I type
aplay -D hw:1,9 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav then a lady says "Front Center" through my hdmi connected tv.  Great!  Now how do I use this information to tell the system that I want to use this device/channel as my sound output??

After loads of googling, and even a brief trip to the IRC, I gave up and continued with installing LinuxMCE.  All went well (ish) and at the AV wizard I chose HDMI as the audio option.  Problem is there's still no audio over hdmi so there must be a setting or file I have to update to tell Linux that I want my audio sent through the channel mentioned previously...any suggestions??

[gtsupport]

Been away for a while, going back home tomorrow and will have some time to play with the system again.  Somebody must have an idea on how to set the parameters for the audio playback so that I can get it working....

[Murdock]

gtsupport, both hdmi audio and video should be working for md builds at this point for 1004. I've made multiple changes to the installation process (core and MD) over the last month, please retest.

[Murdock]

before retesting, please make sure to do an apt-get update; apt-get upgrade to get the latest scripts from the repository

[gtsupport]

OK, was up most of the night playing with 10.04 and trying to get the sound working over HDMI.  I installed a fresh Kubuntu 10.04, and then went through the usual process of updating the alsa drivers to 1.0.24, and loading the latest Nvidia drivers.  I followed this thread to load something about ppa, which I don't really know much about:-
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1668173

The good news was that when I finished all this, and blacklisted the Nouveau drivers, I managed to get sound through the hdmi in Kubuntu.  Even the test button worked in the multimedia settings which is more than has ever worked before.  With my new-found luck I then went ahead with the new install script from the repository and installed LinuxMCE.  The luck ran out there though, as when the AVWizard started, the sound through HDMI had stopped working.  I followed the wizard through to the end, and jumped back into the kde desktop.  The sound through HDMI has stopped working in kubuntu now, so it must be something thats loaded with LinuxMCE.  Any suggestions as to what I can try next??

Cheers.

Matt.

[Murdock]

hi gtsupport - i've made many updates to the installation process within the last 3 weeks, hdmi audio should now work by default, hdmi video for the avwizard should now work by default, nouveau drivers are blacklisted by default, the alsa version installed with kubuntu works by default. I've used the process multiple times in the last week testing and it has been successful on my hardware. In your hours of testing last night did you try an install just following the wiki?

[gtsupport]

Hi Murdock, I had another play this afternoon, and started with a fresh install again. I followed the wiki instructions, and yes the hdmi video works as default, a great improvement, however I still can't get audio through hdmi. When I go to the kde desktop and view the settings for the sound card, I can see all the different outputs, but when I try to test the one that always worked in the past, 1,9 a little box pops up to say that its not working. The same happens for all 4 different Nvidia outputs. I have given up for now, whilst the Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh runs, but once thats finished I'm happy to try anything. I still have my 8.10 install on another partition to keep the family happy, but I know I'm close to audio over hdmi, it must just be a setting or something somewhere.  Could it be the video driver?

Cheers.

[Murdock]

Odd, I don't *think* it would be a driver issue, but I could be wrong. Before you start upgrading any of the packages, would you run the following two commands and paste the output for me?

lspci

and

amixer scontrols

My HDMI controls are IEC958* and that's what's started for the AVWizard, other folks match this though it's entirely possible yours is named something else. Or you're right and it's a driver issue.

[gtsupport]

Sure thing..

http://pastebin.com/CeRdhNvQ

http://pastebin.com/sR3QH7M3

The odd thing is that I can see the 4 Nvidia outputs in alsamixer by selecting the other card (F6), and I can see all the sound outputs from the KDE desktop in the mixer controls.  Nothing is muted.  One strange thing is that it sets the "capture" as the default master control.  I have tried changing this to other options.  Once LinuxMCE has installed I don't get a volume and mixer control on the taskbar, which is no great loss.  At this stage I have now updated all the Nvidia and alsa drivers to the latest versions, is it worth going back to a fresh Kubuntu again and just installing only LinuxMCE, then running the lspci and amixer controls commands again?

[Murdock]

whoop, not amixer controls, amixer scontrols, you should get output similar to this:

Code: [Select]

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic',0
Simple mixer control 'Front Mic Boost',0
Simple mixer control 'Surround',0
Simple mixer control 'Center',0
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
Simple mixer control 'Side',0
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1


[gtsupport]

OK, because I have been playing around with it for a while, I have formatted the partition, and started again. (again)
After a new install of Kubuntu 10.04 and running the following:-
apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade
apt-get install subversion
I have the following response for lspci
http://pastebin.com/eX7zqcki
and this for amixer scontrols
http://pastebin.com/DyRfiz6W  (very little there)

There is no support for my Nvidia sound channels anywhere, and alsamixer doesn't even show the Nvidia channels when I press F6.

So now I follow the advice in the wiki and run:-
wget -q http://svn.linuxmce.org/svn/branches/LinuxMCE-1004/src/new-installer/mce-install.sh && chmod +x mce-install.sh
and run the script.

I'm doing this live, and typically, the install has failed this time with the following error:-
An error (Exit code 100) occured during the last action
apt-get update
So I'm going to reboot, and see if it will work.  Will post the results of the two commands you asked for once linuxmce has installed without failing, and see the differences.
**Looks like the server is down (deb.linuxmce.org), will try again tomorrow**

[Murdock]

Unfortunately I believe there is an issue with deb.linuxmce.org which has nothing to do with your config which should be fixed soon.


Regarding the mixer channels, you're 100% correct in that either alsa or the drivers aren't picking them up.

One more command if you don't mind:

Code: [Select]

lshwd  | grep VGA | grep controller


[gtsupport]

Got the mce-install.sh script to run ok this morning, installed linuxmce, went through the setup wizard, then exited straight into kde.
No hdmi audio, and the 2 commands you asked for before yielded:-
http://pastebin.com/EqSsGPrG

The last command returned:-
07:00.0 VGA compatible controller:  (nv)

This is without installing any drivers for the graphics card, or the latest alsa version.

**update**
With the version of alsa that gets installed when following the wiki, I have only 2 channels in alsamixer.  There are no other cards listed either.
With the latest version of alsa installed (1.0.24) suddenly all the channels appear for the onboard sound, along with the 2nd card.
I have unmuted everything, and set all levels to the max.
lspci now shows
http://pastebin.com/nwH6ZcLE
and amixer scontrols
http://pastebin.com/1ZnNpn91
the last command shows
shwd  | grep VGA | grep controller
07:00.0 VGA compatible controller:  (nv)

I do seem to be going backwards slightly here, because now I can't get any of the hdmi channels to work from the multimedia setting on the kde desktop, where I once had 1,9 working with the test button.

I'm thinking about the thread I followed in my first post, this tells me to load a ppa something-or-other which seemed to get other users around the problem.  How is this effecting LMCE?  This helped with getting the sound over hdmi working pre-LMCE install with only kubuntu running.

I don't really know what happens when LMCE installs, which config files are altered that could affect the sound channeling?? Any ideas people?

The main reason I started playing with 10.04 is because I just couldn't get it working with 8.10 so when it was working in Kubuntu pre-LMCE install I thought I'd cracked it.  Grrr. 

[Murdock]

Mce completely takes control of alsa and the xorg file. If you have mce installed, then update alsa, then relaunch the av wizard, does the hdme audio work?

[gtsupport]

Tried loads of things to get it working back to the point where I started this thread, but have had no luck.  Did a clean install of 10.04 again, installed mce, updated to the latest alsa drivers, rebooted and tried the avwizard again.  Still no luck with audio over hdmi.  The optical output from the onboard sound is working, and this is how I was using my 8.10 install, but I'm convinced that there must be a way to get the hdmi audio working.  I actually had it working at one point by typing the aplay command in the konsole, so physically it is possible.

I appreciate all the help you've given me so far, and from what you've said it seems that LMCE takes control of the system to a much greater extent than I thought.  It was my belief that it was sitting on top of the KDE environment, but appears to be running beside that.  This makes all the other threads on the ubuntu forums slightly less helpful, as all the fixes I've found are not applicable to LMCE.

Are there any other logs etc I can show you to dig a bit deeper with this??

Cheers.

Matt.