Linux - No sound with pulse on Arch Linux

SirCmpwn

Hi there! I'm using a fully updated install of Arch Linux to play NS2 via Steam. I'm using pulse for audio. When I launch NS2, I hear no sound, and the log file (with irrelevant things removed) shows:

Date: 10/31/2013
Time: 01:28:53 AM:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Build 259
Arch Linux x86_64
Steam initialized
Num displays: 2
OpenGL 4.3.0 NVIDIA 325.15 initialized (NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 670/PCIe/SSE2)
GLSL version 4.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
ARB_texture_storage extension present
Error: eventSystem->init (Error initializing output device. )
Error: SoundSystem::Initialize - Failed to initialize FMOD event system
Sound disabled
Loading config://ConsoleBindings.json
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev'
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev/alien/infestation/build' (project didn't exist)
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPActive:setBypass() (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev'
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev/alien/infestation/build' (project didn't exist)

My sound card is an Asus Xonar DX, set up for 5.1 surround. Sound works great in other apps. Additionally, in the in-game settings, I am unable to select a sound device and I see no microphone output.



Some extra details:

PulseAudio/libpulse 4.0-6
Nvidia GTX 670
i3 window manager
64-bit system

Turbine

Have you tried installing Alsa and using that instead?

I'm going to be trying NS2 under Pulse and Alsa in a few hrs, I too am interested in knowing what's going wrong.

[Edit]
Have you tried manually selecting the correct output device?

Confused

the log lines:
Error: eventSystem->init (Error initializing output device. )
And
Sound disabled

Seem a lot like the game is unable to communicate with your sound card. Since sound is pretty important you are probably going to tweek your sound settings.

you can also try running steam with:

SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa steam

rkfg

I played NS2 with pulseaudio to stream the gameplay to twitch (it was a slideshow if you're interested, though I used just ffmpeg and not some OpenGL intercepting streamer). It worked 50/50, all the sound works but voice is echoed (doubled) and stutters a lot. I used

SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulse steam

and it was ok.

IronHorse

Oh SDL..

SirCmpwn

I tried running with with SDL_AUDIODRIVER set to both alsa and pulse, neither worked. For what it's worth, I'm running pulse as an alsa device. I don't want to disable pulse entirely because my system sound as a whole is a lot crappier without pulse.

Confused

Well dang.

I would also try pulseaudio and not just pulse

I am not entirely sure how to proceed from here. My linux sound foo is not what it should be here.

However, to aid you in your quest I can tell you that ns2 is using libsdl2, this means that you may have success with fixes for stuff like tf2.

rkfg

I don't fully understand what's your config like and what's "running pulse as an alsa device". I guess you did something with ~/.asoundrc so pulse has its own pcm device. Well, selecting the proper alsa output is quirky. For aplay/arec you can use -D switch but generally there's no such way for every app. Here's an example of hacking the config to make apps use the device you want: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17105845/select-a-default-alsa-pcm-not-card-via-environment-variable

Hope it helps. Didn't try it myself, I only used pulse in its default configuration so it was the default alsa device.

luieburger

EDIT:

Removed my long rant and now I have more valuable info to put here.

I used the "ALSA/dmix without grabbing hardware device" instructions here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#ALSA.2Fdmix_without_grabbing_hardware_device

Now I'm able to run both Mangler and Natural Selection 2 with sound working. However, I cannot run them at the same time without ALSA and Pulse fighting over who gets to put sound out through the device.

Really what needs to happen here is I need a way to make Natural Selection 2 work on pulseaudio. So far, I've been completely unsuccessful. Any hints?

rkfg

Anything in your log.txt about sound when NS2 doesn't play any?

luieburger

rkfg wrote: »

Anything in your log.txt about sound when NS2 doesn't play any?

Yes it looks like I'm getting the same type of thing as the OP. "Sound disabled"

Date: 11/02/13
Time: 14:32:03:

---

Build 259
Arch Linux x86_64
Steam initialized
Num displays: 1
OpenGL 4.3.0 NVIDIA 325.15 initialized (NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 550 Ti/PCIe/SSE2)
GLSL version 4.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
ARB_texture_storage extension present
Error: eventSystem->init (Error initializing output device. )
Error: SoundSystem::Initialize - Failed to initialize FMOD event system
Sound disabled
Loading config://ConsoleBindings.json
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev'
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev/alien/infestation/build' (project didn't exist)
Loading config://FavoriteServers.json
Loading config://HistoryServers.json
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:createDSPByType (This command failed because System::init or System::setDriver was not called. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: CreateDSP:addDSP (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPActive:setBypass() (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: SetDSPFloatParameter(getParameterInfo) (An invalid object handle was used. )
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev'
Error: Couldn't load 'sound/NS2.fev/alien/infestation/build' (project didn't exist)
Cooked mesh with 4794 faces, 3566 vertices

It's worth noting that, just like the OP, I have also tried running Steam with SDL_AUDIODRIVER set to both alsa and pulse.

I'm also back to running under Gnome 3 with Pulse and ALSA installed, using the pulseaudio-alsa package that is a dependency of Gnome 3. I'm no longer using the dmix option. Either I'll get NS2 to work with Pulse, or I'll keep switching over to my Windows install to play the game.

spezifanta

Same here.
Running Arch and stopped having sound since a few days. TF2 or Dota 2 work perfectly. So I blamed NS2, at first. But there is more.

...
Setting breakpad minidump AppID = 4920
Steam_SetMinidumpSteamID:  Caching Steam ID:  765611979603xxxxx [API loaded no]
ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '$CARD'
ALSA lib conf.c:4241:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such device
....
ALSA lib conf.c:4687:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters CARD=Headset
ALSA lib dlmisc.c:252:(snd1_dlobj_cache_get) Cannot open shared library /usr/lib32/alsa-lib/libasound_module_pcm_pulse.so
...
Build 259
Arch Linux x86_64
Steam initialized
Num displays: 1
OpenGL 4.3.0 NVIDIA 325.15 initialized (NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2)
GLSL version 4.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
ARB_texture_storage extension present
Error: eventSystem->init (Error initializing output device. )
Error: SoundSystem::Initialize - Failed to initialize FMOD event system
Sound disabled
....

Didn't do anything special other then running periodically updates (pacman -Syu).

spezifanta

Sorry, double post.

rkfg

@spezifanta It seems that you misconfigured ALSA. Maybe set single quotes instead of double or something like that. Show your ~/.asoundrc please.

spezifanta

$ ls ~/.asoundrc
ls: cannot access /home/fanta/.asoundrc: No such file or directory

As I said, sound worked before in NS2.

Forgotten_Path

I had the same problem - no sound, setting SDL_AUDIODRIVER to pulse, alsa, or pulseaudio had no effect. Turns out I needed to install lib32-alsa-plugins.

luieburger

Forgotten_Path wrote: »

Turns out I needed to install lib32-alsa-plugins.

Hey! That worked for me too! Thanks!

Confused

Good work guys, will make sure that gets added to the linux guide.


... Once i remember my login details again

mva

Hi, guys!
Unfortunately, I've the same problem of missing sound.
Neither SDL_AUDIODRIVER=alsa/pulse/pulseaudio helps
I also tried to put that into ~/.asoundrc:

pcm.!default {
    type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
    type pulse
}

But it is no effect.

I also (as authors above) noticed

Error: eventSystem->init (Error initializing output device. )
Error: SoundSystem::Initialize - Failed to initialize FMOD event system
Sound disabled

In steam log, but I also noticed that strange thing a bit earlier in the log:

(see attach. Forum forbids me to post entire cut of the log)

So, I bet, NS2 is totally doesn't want to work with pulseaudio...

Is it any chance developers reading this thread and hear our pry to add PA support?

mva

and, yes, I have alsa 32bit pugins installed...