[SOLVED] alsamixer ... connection refused

[TabletHater]

I've re-installed Mageia 2 Beta and choosen a custom install based on LXDE. I haven't installed (and if possible don't want) pulse, but afterwards some parts of it have been installed as dependencies. I use a DAC (or sound card?) connected to my S/PDIF out.

I can use DeadBeef and VLC as I've configured them to send audio to the proper alsa device ("HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Digital IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output" for DeadBeef and "Default" for VLC), but I can't use any global volume control. I can't start alsa and sound in MCC and have tried Qasmixer without success as well. When I launch alsamixergui it produces this window:

alsamixer: function snd_ctl_open failed for default: Connection refused.

And in terminal I get this:

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[burak@localhost ~]$ alsamixer
ALSA lib pulse.c:243:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

cannot open mixer: Connection refused
[burak@localhost ~]$

Seeing similar threads thought you might want to see these as well:

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[burak@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep alsa
alsaconf-1.0.25-1.mga2
libalsa-data-1.0.25-1.mga2
alsa-plugins-pulse-config-1.0.25-1.mga2
lib64alsa-oss0-1.0.25-1.mga2
alsa-utils-1.0.25-1.mga2
lib64alsa2-1.0.25-1.mga2
lib64alsa-plugins-1.0.25-1.mga2
lib64alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.25-1.mga2
alsamixergui-0.9.0-1.rc1_5.1.mga2
lib64alsa2-devel-1.0.25-1.mga2
[burak@localhost ~]$

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[burak@localhost ~]$ rpm -qa | grep pulse
lib64pulseaudio-devel-1.98-0.275.1.mga2
pulseaudio-client-config-1.98-0.275.1.mga2
alsa-plugins-pulse-config-1.0.25-1.mga2
lib64pulsecommon1.98-1.98-0.275.1.mga2
lib64pulseglib20-1.98-0.275.1.mga2
vlc-plugin-pulse-2.0.0-4.mga2.tainted
lib64pulseaudio0-1.98-0.275.1.mga2
lib64alsa-plugins-pulseaudio-1.0.25-1.mga2
[burak@localhost ~]$

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[burak@localhost ~]$ cat /proc/asound/modules
 0 snd_hda_intel
[burak@localhost ~]$

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[burak@localhost ~]$ lspcidrake -v
pata_marvell    : Marvell Technology Group Ltd.|88SE6121 SATA II Controller [STORAGE_IDE] (vendor:11ab device:6121 subv:1043 subd:82a2) (rev: b2)
unknown         : ASMedia Technology Inc.|ASM108x PCIe to PCI Bridge Controller [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:1b21 device:1080) (rev: 01)
r8169           : Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.|RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller [NETWORK_ETHERNET] (vendor:10ec device:8168 subv:1043 subd:8432) (rev: 06)
xhci_hcd        : ASMedia Technology Inc.|ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller [SERIAL_USB] (vendor:1b21 device:1042 subv:1043 subd:8488)
firewire_ohci   : VIA Technologies, Inc.|VT6315 Series Firewire Controller [SERIAL_FIREWIRE] (vendor:1106 device:3403 subv:1043 subd:8384) (rev: 01)
ata_piix        : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 2 port SATA IDE Controller [STORAGE_IDE] (vendor:8086 device:1c08 subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 05)
i2c_i801        : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [SERIAL_SMBUS] (vendor:8086 device:1c22 subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 05)
ata_piix        : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 4 port SATA IDE Controller [STORAGE_IDE] (vendor:8086 device:1c00 subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 05)
iTCO_wdt        : Intel Corporation|H67 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller [BRIDGE_ISA] (vendor:8086 device:1c4a subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 05)
ehci_hcd        : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [SERIAL_USB] (vendor:8086 device:1c26 subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 05)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 8 [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:1c1e) (rev: b5)
unknown         : Intel Corporation|82801 PCI Bridge [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:244e) (rev: b5)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 6 [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:1c1a) (rev: b5)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5 [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:1c18) (rev: b5)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:1c16) (rev: b5)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:1c14) (rev: b5)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:1c10) (rev: b5)
snd_hda_intel   : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (vendor:8086 device:1c20 subv:1043 subd:8436) (rev: 05)
ehci_hcd        : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [SERIAL_USB] (vendor:8086 device:1c2d subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 05)
mei             : Intel Corporation|6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [COMMUNICATION_OTHER] (vendor:8086 device:1c3a subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 04)
Card:Intel 810 and later: Intel Corporation|2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [DISPLAY_VGA] (vendor:8086 device:0102 subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 09)
shpchp          : Intel Corporation|Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:8086 device:0101) (rev: 09)
unknown         : Intel Corporation|2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller [BRIDGE_HOST] (vendor:8086 device:0100 subv:1043 subd:844d) (rev: 09)
[burak@localhost ~]$


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[burak@localhost ~]$ /sbin/lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ipt_IFWLOG             12622  2
ipt_psd                57587  1
cls_flow               17035  0
cls_fw                 12904  0
cls_u32                17060  0
sch_tbf                13064  0
sch_prio               13152  0
sch_htb                22098  0
sch_hfsc               22166  0
sch_ingress            12866  0
sch_sfq                17320  0
bridge                 91041  0
stp                    12931  1 bridge
xt_time                12661  0
xt_connlimit           12671  0
xt_realm               12498  0
xt_addrtype            12635  4
ip_set_hash_ip         32025  2
iptable_raw            12678  0
xt_comment             12504  18
xt_recent              18437  0
xt_policy              12582  0
ipt_ULOG               18245  0
ipt_REJECT             12541  4
ipt_REDIRECT           12670  0
ipt_NETMAP             12662  0
ipt_MASQUERADE         12880  0
ipt_ECN                12529  0
ipt_CLUSTERIP          13508  0
ipt_ah                 12806  0
xt_set                 13099  2
ip_set                 36323  2 ip_set_hash_ip,xt_set
nf_nat_tftp            12489  0
nf_nat_snmp_basic      17393  0
nf_conntrack_snmp      12857  1 nf_nat_snmp_basic
nf_nat_sip             17086  0
nf_nat_pptp            13115  0
nf_nat_proto_gre       13050  1 nf_nat_pptp
nf_nat_irc             12723  0
nf_nat_h323            17644  0
nf_nat_ftp             12770  0
nf_nat_amanda          12491  0
ts_kmp                 12605  5
nf_conntrack_amanda    13041  1 nf_nat_amanda
nf_conntrack_sane      13178  0
nf_conntrack_tftp      13156  1 nf_nat_tftp
nf_conntrack_sip       29551  1 nf_nat_sip
nf_conntrack_proto_sctp    18439  0
nf_conntrack_pptp      19245  1 nf_nat_pptp
nf_conntrack_proto_gre    14259  1 nf_conntrack_pptp
nf_conntrack_netlink    26676  0
nf_conntrack_netbios_ns    12665  0
nf_conntrack_broadcast    12589  2 nf_conntrack_snmp,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns
nf_conntrack_irc       13552  1 nf_nat_irc
nf_conntrack_h323      73845  1 nf_nat_h323
nf_conntrack_ftp       14534  1 nf_nat_ftp
xt_TPROXY              17327  0
nf_tproxy_core         12610  1 xt_TPROXY,[permanent]
ip6_tables             27342  1 xt_TPROXY
nf_defrag_ipv6         18151  1 xt_TPROXY
xt_tcpmss              12501  0
xt_pkttype             12504  0
xt_physdev             12587  0
xt_owner               12498  0
xt_NFQUEUE             12694  0
xt_NFLOG               12537  0
nfnetlink_log          17845  1 xt_NFLOG
xt_multiport           12798  4
xt_mark                12563  1
xt_mac                 12492  0
xt_limit               12711  0
xt_length              12536  0
xt_iprange             12783  0
xt_helper              12583  0
xt_hashlimit           17580  0
xt_DSCP                12629  0
xt_dscp                12597  0
xt_dccp                12606  0
xt_conntrack           12760  6
xt_connmark            12755  0
xt_CLASSIFY            12507  0
xt_AUDIT               12678  0
ipt_LOG                12993  5
xt_tcpudp              12884  11
xt_state               12578  1
iptable_nat            13383  0
nf_nat                 25941  12 ipt_REDIRECT,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,nf_nat_tftp,nf_nat_sip,nf_nat_pptp,nf_nat_proto_gre,nf_nat_irc,nf_nat_h323,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat_amanda,iptable_nat
nf_conntrack_ipv4      14733  10 iptable_nat,nf_nat
nf_defrag_ipv4         12729  2 xt_TPROXY,nf_conntrack_ipv4
nf_conntrack           81683  32 xt_connlimit,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_CLUSTERIP,nf_nat_tftp,nf_nat_snmp_basic,nf_conntrack_snmp,nf_nat_sip,nf_nat_pptp,nf_nat_irc,nf_nat_h323,nf_nat_ftp,nf_nat_amanda,nf_conntrack_amanda,nf_conntrack_sane,nf_conntrack_tftp,nf_conntrack_sip,nf_conntrack_proto_sctp,nf_conntrack_pptp,nf_conntrack_proto_gre,nf_conntrack_netlink,nf_conntrack_netbios_ns,nf_conntrack_broadcast,nf_conntrack_irc,nf_conntrack_h323,nf_conntrack_ftp,xt_helper,xt_conntrack,xt_connmark,xt_state,iptable_nat,nf_nat,nf_conntrack_ipv4
iptable_mangle         12695  1
nfnetlink              14327  3 ip_set,nf_conntrack_netlink,nfnetlink_log
iptable_filter         12810  1
ip_tables              27196  4 iptable_raw,iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter
x_tables               33968  49 ipt_IFWLOG,ipt_psd,xt_time,xt_connlimit,xt_realm,xt_addrtype,iptable_raw,xt_comment,xt_recent,xt_policy,ipt_ULOG,ipt_REJECT,ipt_REDIRECT,ipt_NETMAP,ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_ECN,ipt_CLUSTERIP,ipt_ah,xt_set,xt_TPROXY,ip6_tables,xt_tcpmss,xt_pkttype,xt_physdev,xt_owner,xt_NFQUEUE,xt_NFLOG,xt_multiport,xt_mark,xt_mac,xt_limit,xt_length,xt_iprange,xt_helper,xt_hashlimit,xt_DSCP,xt_dscp,xt_dccp,xt_conntrack,xt_connmark,xt_CLASSIFY,xt_AUDIT,ipt_LOG,xt_tcpudp,xt_state,iptable_nat,iptable_mangle,iptable_filter,ip_tables
des_generic            21386  0
ecb                    12815  0
md4                    12595  0
nls_iso8859_1          12713  1
cifs                  298258  2
af_packet              35171  2
hwmon_vid              12783  0
coretemp               13401  0
ses                    17363  0
enclosure              15209  1 ses
dm_mirror              22020  0
dm_region_hash         20806  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                 18458  2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
dm_mod                 91783  2 dm_mirror,dm_log
snd_hda_codec_hdmi     36158  1
snd_hda_codec_realtek   145436  1
xhci_hcd              132855  0
uas                    17751  0
usb_storage            53507  0
iTCO_wdt               17948  0
iTCO_vendor_support    13718  1 iTCO_wdt
snd_hda_intel          33293  0
snd_hda_codec         126641  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
snd_hwdep              17659  1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm               100893  3 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec
snd_timer              29532  1 snd_pcm
cpufreq_ondemand       13732  0
cpufreq_conservative    13783  0
i2c_i801               17786  0
cpufreq_powersave      12618  0
snd                    82658  7 snd_hda_codec_hdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm,snd_timer
acpi_cpufreq           14670  1
freq_table             14666  2 cpufreq_ondemand,acpi_cpufreq
mperf                  12667  1 acpi_cpufreq
soundcore              15047  1 snd
eeepc_wmi              12826  0
asus_wmi               24055  1 eeepc_wmi
sparse_keymap          13890  1 asus_wmi
rfkill                 21915  1 asus_wmi
r8169                  60839  0
pci_hotplug            35161  1 asus_wmi
mii                    13934  1 r8169
wmi                    19070  1 asus_wmi
processor              31529  1 acpi_cpufreq
mei                    80098  0
snd_page_alloc         18484  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
serio_raw              13371  0
joydev                 17412  0
evdev                  17753  14
ipv6                  332904  21 bridge,xt_TPROXY,nf_defrag_ipv6
autofs4                38756  2
usbhid                 48797  0
hid                    99583  1 usbhid
ext4                  466873  1
jbd2                   90794  1 ext4
crc16                  12675  1 ext4
sd_mod                 44753  2
ahci                   25720  0
crc_t10dif             12563  1 sd_mod
libahci                26939  1 ahci
sr_mod                 22295  0
ata_piix               30754  1
pata_marvell           12912  0
libata                212549  4 ahci,libahci,ata_piix,pata_marvell
ehci_hcd               61343  0
scsi_mod              218408  6 ses,uas,usb_storage,sd_mod,sr_mod,libata
usbcore               206950  6 xhci_hcd,uas,usb_storage,usbhid,ehci_hcd
firewire_ohci          40346  0
firewire_core          63138  1 firewire_ohci
crc_itu_t              12707  1 firewire_core
usb_common             12581  1 usbcore
i915                  467298  2
drm_kms_helper         42351  1 i915
drm                   251708  3 i915,drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit           13272  1 i915
button                 13825  1 i915
i2c_core               39972  5 i2c_i801,i915,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit
video                  19096  1 i915
[burak@localhost ~]$

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aumix -q
aumix:  error opening mixer: No such file or directory

[burak@localhost ~]$

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[burak@localhost ~]$ /sbin/fuser -v /dev/dsp
Specified filename /dev/dsp does not exist.
[burak@localhost ~]$

[doktor5000]

/dev/dsp not existing is quite an issue. May i ask what you have against pulseaudio and why you don't want it?

To put this into perspective (as i remember you coming from *buntu, IIRC?) *buntu had one of the worst pulseaudio implementations overall,
Mandriva together with Fedora one of the best since day one. Our pulseaudio maintainer (and sound guru in general ) is also pulseaudio upstream
release manager FWIW. So for the most part i find it quite unfair that some people brag and complain about pulseaudio, how it's
broken and not working, but mostly they never even notice upstream of that fact or do bugreports so such issues can be fixed properly.

If you want to do avoid pulseaudio, i can't really help you with that. If you want to troubleshoot our default sound setup, i'm all ears.

[TabletHater]

1. I got the (perhaps wrong) impression that for bit perfect audio output one needs a sans pulse system.

2. My general understanding is that if you don't need a workaround (pulse) it's better to have a strait path rather than going circles and adding lots of useless middle men. And pulse was not needed and not installed in Lubuntu; I would install Volti and everything would be fine. So I thought it would be possible with the better distro (Mageia) as well!

3. I don't know and you know, but there're other knowers complaining about pulse.

With respect.

[doktor5000]

1. I got the (perhaps wrong) impression that for bit perfect audio output one needs a sans pulse system.

Nope, the total other way around http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwar ... rfectSetup
(that's just a pun actually on the perfect setup, hope you get it)

2. My general understanding is that if you don't need a workaround (pulse) it's better to have a strait path rather than going circles and adding lots of useless middle men. And pulse was not needed and not installed in Lubuntu; I would install Volti and everything would be fine. So I thought it would be possible with the better distro (Mageia) as well!

Wy do you think Pulseaudio is a workaround? A workaround to what problem?
Also you can disable pulseaudio via draksound if you really think that's better, but you're quite on your own then as you should know what you're doing then.

3. I don't know and you know, but there're other knowers complaining about pulse.

Yes, i know there are others, but mostly it's just unconstructive complaining without adressing any particular issues with pulseaudio.

[TabletHater]

All right Dok, as usual, I'll humbly obey if I can't find a solution to just one little problem. Only if, instead of a helpful guy, you could become a patronising idiot; then it would be easier to ignore your words!

Sincerely.

[colin]

As a first port of call, recent versions of Ubuntu have a pretty good setup regarding PulseAudio. David Henningsson has done a brilliant job since he got on board and while the initial couple of Ubuntu releases which included PulseAudio had a deservedly bad reputation, those since then have been very good in that regard. David has pushed all of his work upstream and has fixed many ALSA issues. So credit where it's due.

With that out the way, I do have to say that I'm also (obviously) going to push you towards PA. To try to avoid it is generally folly and it'll lead to a lot of problems generally. Unless you have very specific use cases, I'd be very interested to hear why it is not desirable on your setup.

Ultimately PulseAudio is about providing a consistent user experience across a wide range of hardware. We need to have a level playing field. Every individual user could deal with the myriad of different manual mixer controls provided on a different hardware but we try and provide a simple interface that is the same for everyone on all hardware by hiding this variation. We deal with device configuration centrally, meaning that hotplugging USB devices works and bluetooth is handled gracefully. We deal with volume setting and restoration. We make sound more efficient by using timer based scheduling, saving power which is especially important on mobile environments run from battery.

For bit perfect audio, PA will do that if everything aligns. e.g. if you have a 48kHz source and a 48kHz capable sound card, we won't resample but will use it at that rate. But what happens if something else wants to play audio at a different rate? We deal with this as gracefully as we can, but we try not to change sample rates of the card while something is playing as that causes an audible blip. All in all we try to do everything we can to give the user what he wants without all the problems associated with it. Dealing with the massive variations in setups is very difficult so a user who runs a desktop, with one sound device, no hotplugging or bluetooth and who only plays sounds from a fixed sample rate could arguably say he has no need of PA. But we have to design for the greater good, and thus our focus is on what is best for everyone.

Anyway, evangalism aside, here is some actually useful info


It seems that the alsa-plugins-pulse-config package will have included a PulseAudio sound profile even when PulseAudio daemon iteself is not installed. This is by design as PA also enables thin client setups and it's perfectly possible to have such a setup without a local PA daemon (it would instead run over the network).

You can view your current sound profile via:
update-alternatives --display soundprofile

It should give something like:

link currently points to /etc/sound/profiles/pulse
/etc/sound/profiles/alsa - priority 10
/etc/sound/profiles/pulse - priority 20
Current `best' version is /etc/sound/profiles/pulse.


You can manually set this to ALSA via the command:
update-alternatives --set soundprofile /etc/sound/profiles/alsa

Or you could just use draksound to disable PA from a nice GUI.

That should solve your problem in broad stroke, although many applications will of course need configuration to work properly and lots of desktop features will become unavailable.

All the best.

[TabletHater]

I'm grateful for the detailed and thoughtful explanation, Colin. Hope you have taken my words in perspective, that is, I tended to see pulse useless in my special case, not in general. And it seems I need it as well.

Best wishes.