[SOLVED] Audio not working at all, thanks for your advice.

[joejac]

Hello,

1.- I did not have audio in my new Desktop, yesterday I followed the instructions here and the host had audio.

2.- Today I was trying to enable the audio in my virtual machines I reinstalled VirtualBox Additions in the Win 7 and in the LXDE and did not work. Then for the LXDE guest I installed through Synaptic the following packages

• task-pulseaudio
• pavucontrol

Immediately after installation I enabled it through PCLOS Control Center - Hardware - Sound, and reboot, but the sound did not work.

3.- So I opened a youtube video in the host and guess, no audio! so I checked the Sound setting on PCC and it is like yesterday when it worked. The host Sound Configuration in PCC is this:
3.1 Driver Intel HDA driver (snd_hda_intel-ALSA) the one automatically selected by the LXDE Installer.
3.2 Enable PulseAudio, marked
3.3 Enable 5.1 sound with Pulse Audio, marked
3.4 Enable user switching for audio applications, not marked
3.5 Use Glitch-Free mode, marked

In "Advanced", all values are the default ones.

4.- I have a Motherboard ASUS P8 Z77-VLX with audio Realtek ALC887, 8 channel HD Audio Codec and an NVIDIA GEForce GTX570HD. My headset and mic are connected to the motherboard connectors. In PCC there are lots of sound drivers and I do not know which one should the the right one.

5.- I do not understand why the Host audio was working yesterday and not today, today I only changed the virtual machines, not the host.

Sorry for so many questions, but if I resolve this issue, I thing I will finally get my Desktop working fine.

Regards
joejac

[djohnston]

3.- So I opened a youtube video in the host and guess, no audio! so I checked the Sound setting on PCC and it is like yesterday when it worked. The host Sound Configuration in PCC is this:
3.1 Driver Intel HDA driver (snd_hda_intel-ALSA) the one automatically selected by the LXDE Installer.
3.2 Enable PulseAudio, marked
3.3 Enable 5.1 sound with Pulse Audio, marked
3.4 Enable user switching for audio applications, not marked
3.5 Use Glitch-Free mode, marked

In "Advanced", all values are the default ones.

If you use pulseaudio, enable user switching for audio applications should be on. Pavucontrol allows you to set the audio output from an application to a device.

As far as the guest drivers, be aware there are a few options in VirtualBox for the host audio driver and controller. In your case, for the guest, I believe the driver should be PulseAudio and the controller should be Intel HD Audio. After you get the host working correctly, then you can work on the guests.

Just18 is the one to answer the pulseaudio and pavucontrol questions.

[Just17]

When playing something on the host and not hearing the audio, open PA Vol Control and look on the Playback tab ......  to which sound card is the audio being sent?

I suspect to the wrong one. (HDMI)

If you are not using the HDMI from the video card you can turn off its audio on the Configuration tab of PA Vol Control, which should mean all sound will go to the only remaining sound card.

[joejac]

Thanks a lot for your time to both of you, djohnston the images are very self explanatory.

1.- In PCC Sound Configuration of the Linux Host, when I mark Enable user switching for audio applications, and click Ok, the system automatically takes the mark out of it.

2.- In PulseAudio Volume Control of the Linux Host it was selected  GF110 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) I changed to the other only option Built-in Audio Analog Surround 5.1 and the audio begin to work

3.- The Win 7 VM audio worked fine with youtube videos. With Skype I listened my son voice well but he said my voice was cut but he understood me.
3.1 In Win 7 Control Panel System-Sound Controller I found selected: High Definition Audio Device, in Properties, Driver: MS 6.1.7601.17514
3.2 In Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager in the Win 7 Audio setting it has selected:
Host Audio Driver: ALSA Audio Driver
Audio Controller: Intel HD Audio
So I did not touched anything, While I was investigating the setting of Skype the Win 7 VM freeze, and I had to shut down Win 7 VM by force.

4.- The Linux Guest VM  In Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager  Audio setting it has selected
Host Audio Driver: ALSA Audio Driver
Audio Controller: ICH AC97
4.1 It sounds good, both youtube and Skype and my voice is better for the other party in Skype in comparison with Win 7 VM.
4.2 I changed the Win 7 VM Audio Controller to ICH AC97 but it did not work even reinstalling West Additions, so I set up again Intel HD Audio for the Win 7 VM. Unfortunately Win 7 VM Skype gets off very often when I sent a chat message.

I will do more tests tomorrow to see how it works everything, host and guests. To configure a new desktop takes a lot of time for some one that is not trained in Linux.

Regards
joejac

[Just17]

1.- In PCC Sound Configuration of the Linux Host, when I mark Enable user switching for audio applications, and click Ok, the system automatically takes the mark out of it.

Same here ......  I have found no use for that setting.
I suspect it is because by default PA is set up per user and not system wide.

2.- In PulseAudio Volume Control of the Linux Host it was selected  GF110 High Definition Audio Controller Digital Surround 5.1 (HDMI) I changed to the other only option Built-in Audio Analog Surround 5.1 and the audio begin to work

And don't forget if you do not use that audio output often, you can turn it off on the Confiog tab ......  and turn it on again any time you might require it.

On the guest OSs, you should use
Host Driver: PulseAudio
in place of ALSA or other option.
That *should* ensure all the audio, both host and guest/s, goes through PulseAudio.

You will see an entry on the Playback tab of PA Vol Control for the VM.

There might be some situations where this would not be desirable ....  but I would attempt to use it through PulseAudio first and change if a problem results.

[joejac]

Sorry Just18, the VM only works with:

Host Audio Driver: ALSA Audio Driver
Audio Controller:   ICH AC97

I will mark this as Solved
Thanks a lot to all
Regards
joejac

[Just17]

Sorry Just18, the VM only works with:

Host Audio Driver: ALSA Audio Driver
Audio Controller:   ICH AC97

I will mark this as Solved
Thanks a lot to all
Regards
joejac

I find that very strange .....  I have approx 11 VBox virtual machines, both Linux and Windows, and all have PulseAudio Host Driver selected and working - the host does have a correctly working PulseAudio set up.

One VM is using the HDA Intel controller while the others are using ACH97.