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  • Author Author: gam3t3ch
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 23776 views
  • Likes 8 likes
  • Comments 38 comments
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Alsa no audio (glitch) issue Pi 4 fix

gam3t3ch

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.

  • in reply to jurgenah

    This post is a place all the audio bodies are buried. I have long forgotten most of the post but know it is here as a starting point if audio issues are a fault.

     

    If you discover something in your forage for audio please do share. I suspect someone will run into it at some point using a Pi.

  • Thanks so much for writing up rhis fix roadmap.  I installed a package to try it out and noticed a reference to pulseaudio that raised my eyebrows, and sure enough my sound stopped working.  Removing the offending package didn't restored the sound.  Once I found your steps things were corrected. 

  • in reply to truthreigns

    Sorry for the tardiness in my response. My time was taken up with a family project.

     

    It appears you have the latest Raspbian now called Raspberry Pi OS installed. You can download the latest from the site. There are easier ways (I think) to install than NOOBs but that is me.

     

    Your description of the environment changes after reboots I have seen. It is usually associated with doing something. What that something is I'm not exactly sure. I have seen installing an application or tweaking application options, do things behind the scene that causes other things not to work. Mainly sound.

    image

    Many of my audio problems I have found are related to this file. It is found in the Pi users home directory. When this file changes bad things happen between ALSA and pulse-audio. I am still searching for the knowledge to fully understand the why's and where fores. I keep a good copy of this file as a starting point when I have audio issues. It seems a number of fingers muck with the file and you never know. GNURadio wrecks havoc in a Pi through this file.

     

    When you say after the multiple boots "you had audio", what are you referring to HDMI, speaker, bluetooth.... The screen change is an anomaly I wouldn't ignore if it is consistent with the audio problem. HDMI is a specification that we hope all vendor apply fully. We also hope the Pi fully supports it. The Pi may be having problems detecting the monitor. I have seen this happen many moon ago when the O/S was designed version 1 boards. I had a monitor with HDMI input that didn't work. With today's O/S it works fine. Wait it HDMI what changed?

     

    I use Ubuntu O/S as my desktop and not on a Pi. I have discovered it is best for me to stick to one O/S for a device in order to keep sane. I was mixing and matching Linux, BSD and Microsoft across multiple devices at one point and found it almost impossible to become proficient.

  • in reply to colporteur

    Within an hour of stating i was not an engineer; i realized i was constrained by the "establishment" def. (certified).  Yes, problem solver is an overarching meta-program for my self concept.  I have been compared to MacGyver by one neighbor.  Truth is - i am an engineer.  The point about the AC being plugged in is interesting.  I know that feeling of frustration.  While i was in the military, working as a telephone central office repairman; i would often get calls from other technicians for line level readings for their respective circuits; as all circuits came through what was then called the main-frame in the telephone central office.  One individual who was perplexed and kept calling back for my reading, said he was getting no signal.  Finally, i asked him to check if his test equipment was plugged in.  That must have been it, because he didn't call back that day.  I was quite smug about it until one day i did the same thing myself.  Some times we are so close to the problem we can't see the forest for the trees.

    Thanks for the two commands: yes, it is Raspbian Buster; Linux raspberry pi 4.19.118-v71+ #1311 SMP

    I did a test.  I shut down and restarted the Pi 20 times.  3 times out of 20, i had audio.  Coincidental or maybe not; the screen was nearly full screen when i had audio.  The other 17 times there was a hand's width of black on both sides of the screen.  During this process, i recalled that the first time i used the Pi; i unplugged the power to shut down before i learned the proper protocol.  So now i have two possible directions to take for further troubleshooting.  I can try installing a different operating system (Ubuntu 19.09) or i could reflash the micro sd card with the Noobs setup and then reinstall Raspian Buster.  I already tried reinstalling Buster with no effect but during this test; i realized the sd card may be corrupted and necessitate a clean download.