Alsa 1.0.28 breaks sound with steam runtime

steamclosed reviewedAudioruntime

ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux#3376 · opened 2014-06-25 by dcelasun · updated 2016-12-19 · 10 comments · github

Ddcelasun 2014-06-25 github

I'm on an up-to-date Arch Linux x86_64. Two days ago, all alsa related packages got a version bump:

[2014-06-20 12:30] [PACMAN] upgraded alsa-lib (1.0.27.2-1 -> 1.0.28-1)
[2014-06-20 12:30] [PACMAN] upgraded alsa-plugins (1.0.27-2 -> 1.0.28-1)
[2014-06-20 12:30] [PACMAN] upgraded alsa-utils (1.0.27.2-1 -> 1.0.28-1)
[2014-06-23 10:44] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-alsa-lib (1.0.27.2-1 -> 1.0.28-1)
[2014-06-23 10:44] [PACMAN] upgraded lib32-alsa-plugins (1.0.27-1 -> 1.0.28-1)

Now there is no sound with steam runtime enabled. I tried flash videos on the store and in-game in TF2. Starting steam with STEAM_DEBUG=1, alsa 1.0.28 has the following error:

ALSA lib pcm_ioplug.c:920:(snd_pcm_ioplug_create) ioplug: Plugin version mismatch
ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1018:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

I have tried removing related libraries from the runtime to no avail. As a workaround I have downgraded to 1.0.27, but this should probably be fixed in the runtime.

Here is the upstream changelog.

TTheSiege 2014-07-24 github

I think I have a related problem
since that update I can't start games like Guacamelee, Symphony or ittle dew anymore (I think they are all mono based games)
on dmesg I get

game-bin[22791]: segfault at 4 ip 00000000ede55dd9 sp 00000000ffda6720 error 6 in libasound.so.2.0.0[ede35000+c4000]

and my steam output is

ALSA lib /var/tmp/portage/media-libs/alsa-lib-1.0.28/work/alsa-lib-1.0.28/src/control/control.c:953:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL hw:0

I have to downgrade to 1.0.27 too and then everything is fine

using gentoo 64-bit

Hher001 2014-07-30 github

Looks like a friend and I have the same issue (Arch 64 bit). Games all seem to work fine, none of the games you guys mentioned had issues for me, but flash videos on the store don't. Voice chats work, big picture mode works.

Reverting the packages also fixed this issue.

993i 2014-09-28 github

Hm... no news on this one? same issue here (arch 64), doesn't really help you sell your games if i can not watch the trailers.

PPlaque-fcc 2014-09-29 github

Relinking this one with #3504.

Iiensenfirippu 2014-10-28 github

I had the same issue, but I solved it using the workaround described by Hirato in the linked issue (#3504).
Deleting/renaming alsa-lib and libasound.so.* in the steam-runtime folder will fix the problem without any need for rollback. (I'm on Arch 64bit)

But I thought I would just include the locations, to make it easier for others to find the files (until the problem is solved).
~/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/i386/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/
~/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/amd64/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/

Uubuntuaddicted 2014-11-14 github

This solution of renaming or deleting the alsa-lib folder and the 2 libasound.so* files also worked for me and I even updated the Arch Wiki of Steam troubleshooting. Thanks for the documenting the workaround!

Iivan-kolmychek 2015-11-27 github

Yeah, got this yesterday.

Removing the libasound.so files and alsa-lib folders works for me too.

Hher001 2015-11-27 github

For those that are having issues and waiting for a fix, you can also just not use 32bit flashplayer and then everything will work fine.

Bboskar 2016-02-04 github

Worked for me today in Debian sid (broken ~3 days ago).

Kkisak-valve maintainer 2016-12-19 github

Closing as this appears to have been resolved.

Nothing extracted yet.