HDMI audio not working

[Doranwen]

On the problem computer I'm running Mint 13 Mate 64-bit (I know it's outdated, but I have to use it on this one computer for specific reasons, it's a long story - rest assured I'm completely up-to-date on my main box). This computer's normal monitor and audio connection is done through a KVM switch with DVI for the monitor and a dedicated audio output cable to the standard audio jack. The same computer is often needed to connect to the TV to display videos. The HDMI cable connects just fine as far as video goes, but no sound emerges. The computer's graphics card is an Nvidia Geforce 210.

I did some searching all over the place and found enough to run this command:

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grep eld_valid /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*

The results:

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/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#0.0:eld_valid		0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#1.0:eld_valid		0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#2.0:eld_valid		0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#3.0:eld_valid		0

From what I can tell, all the 0s mean that the sound driver isn't recognizing ANY audio output from this card. (Correct me if I'm understanding this wrong.) The only threads and links that seemed remotely relevant (but I couldn't make enough sense of them to figure out where to go next) were the following:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2053471
http://http.download.nvidia.com/XFree86 ... e_shooting
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steam ... 061877946/
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steam ... 855559064/

If anyone has any ideas for what I should try next, let me know. While I can plug in other speakers, it's a little odd to have the sound from one corner of the room and the graphics from another, lol, so I'd like to figure out a way to get it to send the audio output correctly.

[catweazel]

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grep eld_valid /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*

The results:

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/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#0.0:eld_valid		0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#1.0:eld_valid		0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#2.0:eld_valid		0
/proc/asound/NVidia/eld#3.0:eld_valid		0

You need to have all the gear plugged in and turned on when you issue that command. Did you do that or not?

Also, install pavucontrol and see if you can use it to set HDMI as the output.

If that doesn't help, post the output of inxi -Fxz, noting the upper case F.

[Doranwen]

Code: Select all

grep eld_valid /proc/asound/NVidia/eld*

You need to have all the gear plugged in and turned on when you issue that command. Did you do that or not?

Yes, the TV is plugged in and currently displaying the computer's wallpaper and I'm still getting all 0s for that command.

Also, install pavucontrol and see if you can use it to set HDMI as the output.

Yes, I tried that. I can set it to HDMI as the output but no sound comes out when I do it. It does, however, see that there should be sound--when I look at the specific application under the Playback tab (which is where I set it to HDMI) the bar underneath it is flickering to show the sound volume. As soon as I switch it back to the Built-In Audio Analog Stereo option, the sound returns from the computer speakers.

If that doesn't help, post the output of inxi -Fxz, noting the upper case F.

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System:    Host: HP-Z220 Kernel: 3.2.0-23-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.6.3) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Z220 SFF Workstation
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1791 Bios: Hewlett-Packard version: K51 v01.61 date: 05/16/2013
CPU:       Quad core Intel Xeon CPU E3-1240 V2 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 8192 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 27137.7 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 1600.00 MHz 2: 1600.00 MHz 3: 1600.00 MHz 4: 1600.00 MHz 5: 1600.00 MHz 6: 1600.00 MHz 7: 1600.00 MHz 8: 1600.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA GT218 [GeForce 210] bus-ID: 01:00.0 
           X.Org: 1.11.3 drivers: nouveau (unloaded: vesa,fbdev) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz, 1360x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on NVA8 GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card-1: NVIDIA High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 01:00.1 Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.24
           Card-2: Intel 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Network:   Card: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e ver: 1.5.1-k port: f040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 8001.6GB (5.1% used) 1: /dev/sda WDC_WD4000FYYZ 4000.8GB 
           2: /dev/sdb WDC_WD4000FYYZ 4000.8GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 3.7T used: 194G (6%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 17.12GB used: 0.75GB (4%) fs: swap 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8C mobo: 27.8C gpu: 52.0 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 236 Uptime: 63 days Memory: 8454.9/15995.0MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.6.3 Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.33 

[catweazel]

Try running alsamixer in a terminal. Press F6 to select the card. You should then see all the controls for the card.

[Doranwen]

Try running alsamixer in a terminal. Press F6 to select the card. You should then see all the controls for the card.

I get four boxes with 00 in them, and underneath them is S/PDIF, S/PDIF 1, S/PDIF 2, and S/PDIF 3. Nothing else. The other card has Master, Headphone, Speaker, etc.

[Doranwen]

Any ideas?