Thanks to the help of folks here, I have for several weeks been able
to do video conferences. However, a few days back, I suddenly ran
into a unrelated issue. This time, it's my headset.

My discord chat with my son on February 24 went just fine. Then, on
the 25th, I was getting set up for a three-day WebEx. I plugged in
my headset to do a sound check, and found out that my 'puter would
no longer talk to it. I would open the sound settings, and select
"USB Audio Device" for output, but when I used "Test Sound", it came
out of the PC's built-in speakers. I would click "USB Audio Device"
for input, but tapping the headset's microphone gave no response.

Not only that, but if I closed Sound Settings and re-opened it, the
selections would go back to the built-in stuff. I have repeated these
tests multiple times over the last week, with no change in behavior.

The headset itself works fine, as I've shown several times by using
them on my other computers.[1]

I also know that it's not the USB socket for two reasons. 1. If I
plug the headset into a different USB socket on the problematic
box, I see the same behavior. 2. If I have Sound Settings open when
I plug in the headset, USB Audio Device appears, and when I unplug
the headset USB Audio Device disappears.

Does anybody have any ideas on how I can trouble-shoot this issue?

Here is an excerpt from syslog on the problematic box, bracketing
a "plug in" event:

Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.110377] usb 2-1.1: new full-speed USB device number 104 using ehci-pci
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.205963] usb 2-1.1: New USB device found, idVendor=1b3f, idProduct=2008
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.205972] usb 2-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.205977] usb 2-1.1: Product: USB Audio Device
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.205982] usb 2-1.1: Manufacturer: GeneralPlus
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.229745] input: GeneralPlus USB Audio Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.1/2-1.1:1.3/0003:1B3F:2008.001C/input/input80
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor kernel: [2166303.282784] hid-generic 0003:1B3F:2008.001C: input,hidraw0: USB HID v2.01 Device [GeneralPlus USB Audio Device] on usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.1/input3
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor mtp-probe: checking bus 2, device 104: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/usb2/2-1/2-1.1"
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor mtp-probe: bus: 2, device: 104 was not an MTP device
Mar 3 12:22:55 parvicursor systemd-udevd[21165]: Process '/usr/sbin/alsactl -E HOME=/run/alsa restore 1' failed with exit code 99.
Mar 3 12:22:56 parvicursor dbus[901]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Avahi' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service'
Mar 3 12:22:56 parvicursor dbus[901]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service': Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service not found.
Mar 3 12:22:57 parvicursor dbus[901]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Avahi' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service'
Mar 3 12:22:57 parvicursor dbus[901]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service': Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service not found.

Next, the same taken from a cooperative box:

Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.322361] usb 1-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 5 using ehci-pci
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.421836] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=1b3f, idProduct=2008
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.421849] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.421857] usb 1-1.2: Product: USB Audio Device
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.421864] usb 1-1.2: Manufacturer: GeneralPlus
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.443930] input: GeneralPlus USB Audio Device as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.2/1-1.2:1.3/0003:1B3F:2008.0004/input/input16
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus kernel: [10215506.498873] hid-generic 0003:1B3F:2008.0004: input,hidraw2: USB HID v2.01 Device [GeneralPlus USB Audio Device] on usb-0000:00:12.0-1.2/input3
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 5: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:12.0/usb1/1-1/1-1.2"
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 5 was not an MTP device
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus systemd-udevd[1350]: Process '/usr/sbin/alsactl -E HOME=/run/alsa restore 2' failed with exit code 99.
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus rtkit-daemon[1633]: Supervising 6 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus rtkit-daemon[1633]: Successfully made thread 1371 of process 2148 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus rtkit-daemon[1633]: Supervising 7 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus rtkit-daemon[1633]: Supervising 7 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus rtkit-daemon[1633]: Successfully made thread 1372 of process 2148 (n/a) owned by '1000' RT at priority 5.
Mar 3 12:18:03 diplodocus rtkit-daemon[1633]: Supervising 8 threads of 3 processes of 1 users.
Mar 3 12:18:04 diplodocus dbus[905]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Avahi' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service'
Mar 3 12:18:04 diplodocus dbus[905]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service': Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service not found.
Mar 3 12:18:06 diplodocus dbus[905]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.Avahi' unit='dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service'
Mar 3 12:18:06 diplodocus dbus[905]: [system] Activation via systemd failed for unit 'dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service': Unit dbus-org.freedesktop.Avahi.service not found.

I can see no differences in the behavior, assuming that the messages
from rtkit-daemon are irrelevant.

Any ideas on how I can track down the cause of this bad behavior?

Thanks,

[1] The perceptive among you might ask "Why doesn't Mike just use
one of those other computers for his conferencing?" That's a fair
question. The reason is that I've only been able to clean the dust
out of one, so the others would rapidly go into Bill the Cat mode,
due to thermal throttling, if I tried to conference on them.

--
Michael F. Stemper
There's no "me" in "team". There's no "us" in "team", either.

Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> Any ideas on how I can track down the cause of this bad behavior?

I'm a big fan of live boots, so I look at some problems from that
perspective.

I would boot some distro that you like as a live from USB and
install/configure the necessary parts that you would usually use to get
the usb headset to work.

That eliminates your current OS's job of making the headset work by
going around troubleshooting the existing system.

Also, as a temporary measure, if you make the live persistent and it
works for the headset, you could use it for your upcoming mission.

--
Mike Easter

On 03/03/2022 13.09, Mike Easter wrote:
> Michael F. Stemper wrote:
>> Any ideas on how I can track down the cause of this bad behavior?
>
> I'm a big fan of live boots, so I look at some problems from that perspective.
>
> I would boot some distro that you like as a live from USB and install/configure the necessary parts that you would usually use to get the usb headset to work.

What I usually do to get the headset to work is plug it in. In fact,
it's all that I've ever done.

But, a stray neuron fired yesterday afternoon. I asked myself "How
would I deal with this if it was WinDoze?" Sho 'nuff, after a reboot,
it worked just fine.

Of course, that doesn't give me any information about what went wrong,
but last night's meeting was just fine.

Thanks for the suggestion (even if it turned out not to be needed).

--
Michael F. Stemper
87.3% of all statistics are made up by the person giving them.