Re: sound mixer cannot find audio devices after rebooting with USB headset

["H.S." <hs.samix@gmail.com>]

Nigel Henry wrote:
> 
> Hi.
> 
> Try adding the following line to /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
> 
> options snd-usb-audio index=1
> 
> That assumes that your soundcard is card0, and no other cards are using slot1.

Sorry, but what is slot 1? Is it the same as card 0. In other words, is
'card n' in 'slot n+1'?


> The USB starts early in the boot process, and from personal experience with my 
> usb midi keyboard, which was wrongly read as an audio device, and set as 
> card0, resulting in the actual soundcard not being able to use slot0, which 
> it was asigned to.

Interesting.


> Adding the line above fixes it for me, and maybe for you too.

hmm ... I will give it a shot before the next reboot.


> Before doing that, and just for a test, try running the command below.
> 
> cat /proc/asound/cards
> 
> You may well see your headset there as card0, but as your soundcard needs to 
> be set as card0, this explains why you have no sounds.

My internal card is actually card 0 (it always is, with or without the
USB headset connected during the reboot process):
$> cat /proc/asound/cards
 0 [AudioPCI       ]: ENS1371 - Ensoniq AudioPCI
                      Ensoniq AudioPCI ENS1371 at 0xd400, irq 20

or, as the following command shows:
$> aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 0: ES1371/1 [ES1371 DAC2/ADC]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: AudioPCI [Ensoniq AudioPCI], device 1: ES1371/2 [ES1371 DAC1]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0



> You may also find that running alsamixer on the CLI (Konsole) shows a control, 
> but just for the headset.

Yes, I noticed that. To control my audio card, I have to use:
$> alsamixer -c 0


Which brings a question to my mind, what card number is my USB headset
then? Apparently, 'alsamixer' has a default card number when -c is not used.

> 
> This has been a long standing problem with USB devices. Some distro's handle 
> it better than others, but I've had to deal with it since Fedora core 1 in 
> 2003.
> 
> All the best, and I hope the suggestion fixes your problem.

I should also mention that I am using pulseaudio. Other than this
problem of sound mixer applet getting mixed up about card and no seeing
any, pulseaudio works quite satisfactorily. pa (un)detects the USB
headset upon its (dis)connection.


> Nigel.
> 
> 


Thanks,
->HS
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