Troubleshooting USB Audio Device Problems

This section describes how to troubleshoot USB audio device problems.

Solving USB Speaker Problems

Sometimes USB speakers do not produce any sound even though the driver is attached and the volume is set to high. Hot-plugging the device might not change this behavior.

The workaround is to power cycle the USB speakers.

Audio Device Ownership Key Points

Keep the following audio device ownership key points in mind when working with audio devices.

• When you plug in a USB audio device and you are logged in on the console, the console is the owner of the /dev/* entries. This means you can use the audio device as long as you are logged into the console.

• If you are not logged into the console when you plug in a USB audio device, root becomes the owner of the device. However, if you log into the console and attempt to access the USB audio device, device ownership changes to the console. For more information, see logindevperm(4).

• When you remotely login with the rlogin command and attempt to access the USB audio device, the ownership does not change. This means that, for example, unauthorized users cannot listen to conversations over a microphone owned by someone else.