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  • Author Author: gam3t3ch
  • Date Created: 14 Sep 2019 5:50 PM Date Created
  • Views 23776 views
  • Likes 8 likes
  • Comments 38 comments
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  • raspberry pi 4 alsa

Alsa no audio (glitch) issue Pi 4 fix

gam3t3ch
gam3t3ch
14 Sep 2019

image

 

**Small update: [Oct.13.19] Remember to also plug your audio into another speaker system as well.  Today I thought I had this issue again so  I ran the fix and was getting frustrated that it wasn't working.  Turns out that my speakers on my old monitor that I am using finally went and now I have to find a low powered replacement so remember to also try hardware as well to make sure it is working (I could have run my phone into the monitor to test it which I eventually did after to double check it was the issue after resetting the monitor as well.)

 

 

So recently I have been installing a bunch of programs and been finding some have been causing a weird audio issue with my pi 4 but not to fear instead of wiping the pi and starting over I decided to investigate further and see what I could do to get it to work.

 

If your audio should be working but isn't on the pi 4 this might be something to try before you reset it.

 

Now I had it configured properly but still was not getting sound out after installing a few different programs and even had a issue playing with sdr and some games but finally got it working the following way.

 

 

First off your audio setting are probably all set back to where they were working before but still no audio.

 

First thing we will do is run open terminal ctrl + alt + t  (or from your quick launch)

type the following in bold.

sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio

now if it comes back that pulseaudio is not installed you will have to install it with:

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio

sudo reboot

after the reboot you will run the removal up top.

Test in terminal if you have sound now it might not be working quite yet we have one more line to run but you should hear something

when played through terminal.

aplay /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Noise.wav

alright a few more quick steps to complete now pulseaudio should be removed we are going to run the following

sudo apt autoremove

sudo /etc/init.d/alsa-utils reset

you can test again before reboot if you hear sound with the aplay command above.

sudo reboot

Now that the unit is rebooted we will select our analogue or HDMI as our default whichever you were using. for me it was the 3.5mm jack

Now open a web browser and go to youtube.com and play a video you should now have sound.

 

I had tested many different configs for getting the audio to work but this was the method I had to do each time to get my audio back even rasp-config wouldn't play nice with me on this one

So hopefully will help someone and if you have any questions about it or having issues let me know.

If I find any other workaround or fixes for this I will post them up here.

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Top Comments

  • colporteur
    colporteur over 6 years ago +6
    Thanks for sharing your discoveries. I can speculate on the issue but I am not a developer so it is pure speculation. clem57 shared some resources with me when I was researching an issue with setting up…
  • gam3t3ch
    gam3t3ch over 6 years ago in reply to clem57 +5
    Ya I never had the issue with my 3b+ installing the same things but seems to arise more in the pi4 will have to keep my eyes open more to see if I can find out more its a really annoying issue lol been…
  • gam3t3ch
    gam3t3ch over 6 years ago in reply to colporteur +4
    So when I install a program and the volume issue happens I resolve and remove the program and reset before attempting another. On a few tho I have wanted working I have had it so that I run the fix to…
  • bzediver
    bzediver over 5 years ago

    Huge thanks to the author of this solution.  I have had my new rpi4 8gb running buster v10 with audio out of the headphone jack for about 3 weeks without any serious problems.  Last night I was messing with a new install of nginx when I noticed youtube videos would start but immediately stop. I created a new os sd and booted that.  Same problem.  The fresh os did not fix the issue.  Searched and tested solutions for about 4 hours before I stumbled on this one.  I dont know what the side effects are but as long as its working, Im happy.

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  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago

    From this release onwards, we are switching Raspberry Pi OS to use the PulseAudio sound server. https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/new-raspberry-pi-os-release-december-2020/

     

    That is one of the changes with the upcoming December of Raspberry Pi O/S.

     

    This feels like I am playing a board game of "Snakes & Ladders" or "Chutes and Ladders" for those who are afraid of the scary snake image and I just stepped on the tile that causes me to drop five levels from my objective.

     

    It is ironic, that the article mentions some of issues that gave the team cause to move away from ALSA, yeah but I have worked around them.   I reminisce about the audio problems I have resolved. I have to remember when I start to use the next version, to not use past audio solution for future problems.

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  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago in reply to ricgal

    I have had success routing audio to the jack using the raspi-config tool.

     

    The latest version of Raspberry OS introduced some changes in the raspi-config tool.

     

    From the command line

    sudo raspi-config

    Menu items have changed. Audio is now found under System Options. You can set the audio there.

     

    I have found after making this change I had to issue the following two commands from the CLI.

    amixer cset numd=1 1

    amixer cset numd=1 100% 100% <- volume level

     

    This is all from a fresh install of the OS. No additional configurations or software required.

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  • ricgal
    ricgal over 5 years ago

    I had a problem with a usb audio device, a monaural headset (earpiece and boom mic). The mic worked fine to capture, but using the audio settings on the desktop would not actually switch the audio output from hdmi to the headset via usb audio.

     

    Because I needed to use the headset for a confidential Zoom meeting (Celebrate Recovery Crisis Response zoom group), I needed to have the earpiece working.

     

    From my reading, I knew that pulse audio and alsa work together. So when I saw in the article how to remove pulse audio, I wanted to see what was what. I installed pulse, rebooted, and now everything works fine.

     

    I have a Raspberry Pi 4 - 4 Gig version. Raspbian was a fresh install (I was having a problem with raspicast and needed it gone.)

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  • colporteur
    colporteur over 5 years ago

    I've used this post to keep track of details regarding Raspberry Pi audio.

     

    I discovered the following command:

    amixer cset numid=3 1

    generated an error message.

    amixer: Cannot find the given element from control default

     

    I used it to set audio to the headphone jack. Not anymore.

     

    It appears a change in the Version:August 2020 Release date:2020-08-20 of Raspberry Pi OS is significant.

    Look in the section Other Changes in the following post for the details

    https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/latest-raspberry-pi-os-update-may-2020/

     

    Commands that have worked in the past, as above, may appear to stop working. This can be really frustrating when you have a number of different version of the O/S running on different Pi's.

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