How do I tell pulseaudio not to change my alsa mixer settings?

TITiAN · 04-24-2012, 04:59 AM

Hi
I use an alsa mixer (gnome-alsamixer) for tuning my 5.1 system. The problem is, pulseaudio resets these settings, sometimes it seems even the input (microphone) settings, whenever I change the volume with anything else than an alsa mixer (for example, the volume in vlc player or the master volume in the gnome 3 applet). Pulseaudio seems to work pretty well, so I won't go through the trouble of uninstalling it, but the interferences between sound libraries (direct mixer settings vs. pulseaudio mixer settings) is really annoying!
I found something that sounds just like my problem here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...lse-audio-alsa
I can't find any "channel" options, or options set to "mixin", though. I'm on Debian Testing, with Gnome3.
Any ideas appreciated.
TIA

aus9 · 04-24-2012, 07:41 PM

hi

I am not sure if your mind is closed to the idea of uninstalling pulseaudio
can you explain what benefits you accrue using it.....eg you need to swap sound devices on the fly like an usb device pls?

2) Can you post a link to any guide you used to tweak pulseaudio or setup it correctly ?

3) when you open a terminal....and you really have configured pulseaudio correctly.....what you should see when as a local user
you run the command alsamixer is just one slider and its pulseaudio

if you see your mixer levels....pulseaudio is still configured correctly

4) leaping ahead....since you mention vlc and also your mic....do you agree that your settings should be set once by pulseaudio for outputs and inputs ....or if removed ditto alsamixer........or do you need different sound levels as you have a second device?

aus9 · 04-24-2012, 07:42 PM

ekk sorry I won't edit...if you see instead your mixer levels then pulseaudio is NOT configured correctly

TITiAN · 04-25-2012, 02:06 AM

My mind is not "closed to the idea of uninstalling pulseaudio", I just don't have time for that right now. The command-line alsamixer does show only the pulseaudio volume controls, which should be just 1 slider, yes. Pulseaudio should be configured correctly by default, otherwise I should really uninstall it, it just seems there are too many dependencies to do that in an instant, like it was possible some 2 years ago.
I don't have a second sound device in use by my desktop (I do have a usb sound interface used with jack, but that shouldn't matter) or any other need for pulseaudio, it's just that I don't need pulseaudio messing with my sound settings (oh the user-friendliness). If it's easier to uninstall pulseaudio in the first place, then that's what I'll do, it doesn't look like it though (yes, use free software with free choices, they said, it will be fun, they said).
If I manage to uninstall pulseaudio in the meantime, I will post again, otherwise solutions to my original question are greatly appreciated.

rainbowsally · 04-25-2012, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TITiAN

My mind is not "closed to the idea of uninstalling pulseaudio", I just don't have time for that right now. The command-line alsamixer does show only the pulseaudio volume controls, which should be just 1 slider, yes.

I'm not familiar with the mixer mentioned above, but if you have access to LXDE's mixer, it gives you a lot more control over what does what too.

LXDE has gnome dependencies, not sure what all it actually requires though.

But I even use it in KDE!

aus9 · 04-27-2012, 08:36 PM

ok some people do not have all pulseaudio graphical control panels installed

try installing any not installed but let me preview you them

Quote:

padevchooser
This is a simple GTK tool which registers an icon in the tray area and
allows quick access to some features of the PulseAudio sound server. Specifically it can do for you:
* Notify about new sink/sources becoming available on the LAN
* Quickly change the default PulseAudio sink/source/server assigned
to the current X11 display, selecting devices available on the LAN
* Start the auxiliary tools PulseAudio Volume Control, PulseAudio
Volume Meter, PulseAudio Manager, PulseAudio Preferences

paman
PulseAudio Manager (paman) is a simple GTK frontend for the
PulseAudio sound server. With paman you may browse most of
PulseAudio's internals. There is support for changing the volume of
sinks and sink inputs. You're also able to play samples from the sample
cache

pavucontrol
PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) is a simple GTK+ based
volume control tool (mixer) for the PulseAudio sound server. In contrast
to classic mixer tools this one allows you to control both the volume of
hardware devices and of each playback stream separately. It also
allows you to redirect a playback stream to another output device
without interrupting playback.

pavumeter
A simple GTK volume meter for the PulseAudio sound server.

(me.... if you have a surround sound system, you will get 6 or more volume meters)

paprefs
PulseAudio Preferences (paprefs) is a simple GTK+ based configuration dialog for the PulseAudio sound server.

I interested to see if you have pavucontrol installed and can use it?

TITiAN · 05-02-2012, 06:41 AM

I can use pavucontrol, it shows what I'm looking for, and guess what: doesn't work correctly. It shows different levers for front, surround, center and subwoofer, but can actually only control the output for the left and the right channel; the other speakers produce some output, but I can't change their volumes individually. (Tested with vlc and totem, stereo sources)
I'll try other things (like, the other tools) when I have time...
thank you so far for the ideas, more ideas are still welcome

aus9 · 05-04-2012, 07:32 PM

then you may a quirky soundcard.

pulseaudio is a sound server but its front end to alsa

your sound device may need a "quirk" or a "fix"

pls post the output for your sound bit for the command

lspci

also

aplay -l

aplay -L

pls

TITiAN · 05-05-2012, 08:05 AM

lspci:

Code:

00:05.0 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2)

aplay -l:

Code:

**** Liste der Hardware-Geräte (PLAYBACK) ****
ALSA lib conf.c:1220:(parse_def) show is not a compound
ALSA lib conf.c:1686:(snd_config_load1) _toplevel_:24:26:Unexpected char
ALSA lib conf.c:3406:(config_file_open) /usr/share/alsa/pulse-alsa.conf may be old or corrupted: consider to remove or fix it
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 0: VT1708S Analog [VT1708S Analog]
  Sub-Geräte: 1/1
  Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 1: VT1708S Digital [VT1708S Digital]
  Sub-Geräte: 1/1
  Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], Gerät 2: VT1708S HP [VT1708S HP]
  Sub-Geräte: 1/1
  Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0

aplay -L:

Code:

default
    Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server
sysdefault:CARD=NVidia
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
iec958:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
    HDA NVidia, VT1708S Digital
    IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output

and as a bonus: /usr/share/alsa/pulse.conf

Code:

# This file is referred to by /usr/share/alsa/pulse.conf to set pulseaudio as
# the default output plugin for applications using alsa when PulseAudio is
# running.

pcm.!default {
	type pulse
	hint {
		show {
			@func refer
			name defaults.namehint.basic
		}
		description "Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server"
	}
}

ctl.!default {
	type pulse
}

pcm.pulse {
        type pulse
	hint {
		show {
			@func refer
			name defaults.namehint.basic
		}
		description "Playback/recording through the PulseAudio sound server"
	}
}

ctl.pulse {
        type pulse
}

tia
BTW
using alsamixer works, pulseaudio just interferes and resets the mixer levels, so I don't think it's a driver problem

aus9 · 05-05-2012, 07:38 PM

firstly can't help with a better alsa tweak as
/usr/share/doc/alsa-vase/Hd-Audio-Models.txt only shows your codec as this option

Quote:

VIA VT17xx/VT18xx/VT20xx
========================
auto BIOS setup (default)

so we spot this issue

Quote:

ALSA lib conf.c:3406

config_file_open) /usr/share/alsa/pulse-alsa.conf may be old or corrupted: consider to remove

I am assuming you are using a system wide config so change to home/name if not

try a new config

as per arch wiki

cat /etc/asound.conf

Quote:

pcm.pulse {
type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
type pulse
}
pcm.!default {
type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
type pulse
}

reboot and retest aplay -l loses above error

next we have

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php..._ALSA_settings

but it was good to find you had bad config file before this solution

TITiAN · 05-11-2012, 10:36 AM

ok I uninstalled the "pulseaudio" package; removing "libpulse0" does not work (everything depends on it, like gnome-session and vlc), but pulseaudio isn't running anymore, so I assume it won't interfere with my mixer settings. I don't have a volume lever applet anymore, but that is really minor, i can open gnomealsamixer for the volume.
Thanks for your help and sorry for uninstalling pulseaudio only now