[alsa-devel] [pulseaudio-discuss] pulseaudio fails to start with kernel 4.11, caused by new snd_hdmi_lpe_audio module)

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Wed, 2017-03-29 at 16:14 +0300, Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
> On Wed, 2017-03-29 at 15:06 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > On Wed, 29 Mar 2017 14:59:45 +0200,
> > Tanu Kaskinen wrote:
> > > 
> > > On Wed, 2017-03-29 at 07:21 +0200, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> > > > Does PA really need to start streaming at its invocation time?
> > > > The crash happens when PA gets started via desktop autostart, and at
> > > > this moment, the HDMI graphics state is possible disconnected before
> > > > xrandr setup.  The HDMI connection state should have been informed /
> > > > notified to PA via the jack interface, so it should be possible to
> > > > judge beforehand.
> > > > 
> > > > Or it might be something wrong in the driver side regarding the jack
> > > > state processing?
> > > 
> > > I had a closer look at the PA log that was posted earlier. It looks
> > > like the device numbering is non-standard. Trying to open any of the
> > > hdmi:1,x devices fails. hw:1 can be opened, and pulseaudio assumes that
> > > it's an analog stereo device. Jack detection isn't going to work in
> > > this situation, because pulseaudio doesn't know that it should be
> > > looking at the hdmi jacks.
> > > 
> > > Can the driver be fixed to use the standard HDMI device numbers?
> > 
> > Hmm, it might be the missing hdmi PCM definition?
> > 
> > The latest alsa-lib git already contains the card config for HDMI LPE
> > audio, and this might help.  (Though, I thought I still saw the same
> > PA problem even with the card config.  Unfortunately I can't access
> > the box with the DP audio right now, so others may help more quickly
> > than me...)
> > 
> > Can anyone confirm that you have the latest alsa-lib git installed and
> > whether the PA issue is fixed or not?
> 
> If the alsa-lib configuration just maps hdmi:1,0 to hw:1,0, then I
> would expect this problem to persist. If hw:1,0 can be opened,
> pulseaudio will think that there's an analog stereo output. If hdmi:1,0
> works too, then pulseaudio will think that there are two separate
> outputs, and if the hdmi jack state says that hdmi is not available,
> pulseaudio will use what it thinks is an analog output.
> 
> If it's not possible to change the device numbering in the driver, this
> will have to be worked around in pulseaudio somehow (pulseaudio
> shouldn't try to use hw:1,0 on this hardware).

Adding to that: ignoring hw:1,0 won't be enough. For jack detection,
pulseaudio will look for a jack control named HDMI/DP,pcm=3, which
probably won't exist if HDMI uses hw:1,0.

-- 
Tanu

https://www.patreon.com/tanuk