On Fri, 2021-11-05 at 11:17 +0100, Takashi Iwai wrote:

Check the contents in /proc/asound/cards.  Is that empty as well?

Thanks for getting back to me, Takashi. Looks like it's empty:

$ sudo tree /proc/asound/ /proc/asound/ ├── Device -> card1 ├── card1 │   ├── id │   ├── pcm0p │   │   ├── info │   │   └── sub0 │   │   ├── hw_params │   │   ├── info │   │   ├── status │   │   └── sw_params │   ├── stream0 │   ├── usbbus │   ├── usbid │   └── usbmixer ├── cards ├── devices ├── hwdep ├── modules ├── oss │   ├── devices │   └── sndstat ├── pcm ├── seq │   ├── clients │   ├── drivers │   ├── queues │   └── timer ├── timers └── version

6 directories, 23 files

If the card is recognized there, check the /sys/class/sound/*.

This is what I see in that directory:

$ sudo tree /sys/class/sound/ /sys/class/sound/ ├── card1 -> ../../devices/platform/soc/e00000000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0/0000:02:02.0/0000:04:00.0/usb1/1-2/1-2.1/1-2.1:1.0/sound/card1 ├── controlC1 -> ../../devices/platform/soc/e00000000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0/0000:02:02.0/0000:04:00.0/usb1/1-2/1-2.1/1-2.1:1.0/sound/card1/controlC1 ├── pcmC1D0p -> ../../devices/platform/soc/e00000000.pcie/pci0000:00/0000:00:00.0/0000:01:00.0/0000:02:02.0/0000:04:00.0/usb1/1-2/1-2.1/1-2.1:1.0/sound/card1/pcmC1D0p ├── seq -> ../../devices/virtual/sound/seq └── timer -> ../../devices/virtual/sound/timer

5 directories, 0 files

If a PCM device is found there, it must be the lack of the corresponding device in /dev/snd/* that is usually created via udev.

And this is what I see there:

$ sudo tree /dev/snd/ /dev/snd/ ├── by-id │   └── usb-Generic_USB2.0_Device_20130100ph0-00 -> ../controlC1 ├── by-path │   └── platform-e00000000.pcie-pci-0000:04:00.0-usb-0:2.1:1.0 -> ../controlC1 ├── controlC1 ├── pcmC1D0p ├── seq └── timer

2 directories, 6 files

A bit of information on my system:

$ uname -a Linux kip-unmatched 5.11.0-1021-generic #22-Ubuntu SMP Tue Sep 28 15:19:16 UTC 2021 riscv64 riscv64 riscv64 GNU/Linux

$ lscpu Architecture: riscv64 Byte Order: Little Endian CPU(s): 4 On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3 Thread(s) per core: 4 Core(s) per socket: 1 Socket(s): 1 L1d cache: 32 KiB L1i cache: 32 KiB L2 cache: 2 MiB

I've also attached the output of the alsa-info(1) generated log.

On Fri, 2021-11-05 at 19:58 +0100, Takashi Iwai wrote:

No, it contains the card entry.  You can see it in alsa-info.sh output you attached, which is:

I thought cards was supposed to be a directory populated with something, but I see now that its a file containing the aforementioned.

Try to run like   % aplay -Dplughw:1 -vv foo.wav   If this works, the problem is rather the access via PulseAudio.

Unfortunately it didn't:

$ aplay -Dplughw:1 -vv /usr/share/games/lincity-ng/sounds/Water1.wav ALSA lib pcm_hw.c:1829:(_snd_pcm_hw_open) Invalid value for card aplay: main:852: audio open error: No such file or directory

$ aplay -l aplay: device_list:276: no soundcards found...

On Sat, 2021-11-06 at 08:23 +0100, Takashi Iwai wrote:

How about to run as root?

It works as root!

$ sudo aplay -Dplughw:1 -vv /usr/share/games/lincity-ng/sounds/Water1.wav

So there appears to be a permission issue. I wonder why?

On Sat, 2021-11-06 at 22:13 +0100, Takashi Iwai wrote:

It depends rather on your system setup and desktop environment. Usually the device file permissions are managed by logind and modified dynamically at login via ACL.

As it's no kernel issue, better to ask your distro.

It probably is a distro issue. But at least we know now that it works and it's just a matter of fiddling with permissions. Thanks Takashi.