no mixer control

fricike · 05-09-2005, 08:56 AM

Hi.

My great problem that i can't control the sound volume. Got an onboard intel 82801EB ICH5.
It can produce sound (mplayer, mpg123, xmms), but cannot set volume. I tried both under oss and alsa. When i want to change volume (aumix, alsamixer, rexima, mplayer or xmms), and i change volume, the same loudness out, but at 0%.

Tried alsaconf, recognised it, it says it set it up correctly, but still no mixer control. I don't know if it make any difference, the two time i can really set the volume is while using alsaplayer, and once i tried if i can change volume in wesnoth...

Can anybody help me, please?

Code:

root@dalmag:~# uname -a 
Linux dalmag 2.6.8-2-686 #1 Mon Jan 24 03:58:38 EST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

root@dalmag:~# lspci 
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 02)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82865G Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #1 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #2 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #3 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #4 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Bridge (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) Ultra ATA 100 Storage Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8029(AS)

root@dalmag:~# lsmod |grep snd
snd_intel8x0           36460  0 
snd_ac97_codec         69988  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm_oss            55080  0 
snd_mixer_oss          20096  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm                98728  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm_oss
snd_timer              25668  1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc         11752  2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
gameport                4704  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_mpu401_uart         7968  1 snd_intel8x0
snd_rawmidi            25124  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          8200  1 snd_rawmidi
snd                    57156  9 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore              10336  1 snd

Dead Parrot · 05-09-2005, 10:45 AM

To rule out the most obvious cause for your sound problem, double-check that when you open alsamixer at least "Master" and "PCM" are unmuted. If they are muted, alsamixer shows MM at the bottom of the volume bar and if they are unmuted, it shows OO. You can unmute/mute channels in alsamixer by pressing the "m" key.

fricike · 05-09-2005, 11:22 AM

Unfortunately they are not muted; if it were, i should'n hear sound. But i do.

It seems to be binary; when at alsamixer master or pcm is at 0%, sound is off, and when between 1 and 100%, it's on, but always on the same volume level. (pcm=1 and master=1 equals pcm=100 and master=100)

Dead Parrot · 05-09-2005, 12:23 PM

That's strange. I've got the same soundcard model and the same modules loaded, so the problem is probably not there. "dpkg -l |grep alsa" shows that I've got "alsa-base", "alsa-oss", and "alsa-utils" installed (although I'm not sure if I actually need alsa-oss).

In /var/lib/alsa/asound.state I've got these values for Master Playback:

Code:

        control.1 {
                comment.access 'read write'
                comment.type BOOLEAN
                comment.count 1
                iface MIXER
                name 'Master Playback Switch'
                value true
        }
        control.2 {
                comment.access 'read write'
                comment.type INTEGER
                comment.count 2
                comment.range '0 - 63'
                iface MIXER
                name 'Master Playback Volume'
                value.0 46
                value.1 46
        }

And a bit later in the same file I've got these values for PCM Playback:

Code:

        control.22 {
                comment.access 'read write'
                comment.type BOOLEAN
                comment.count 1
                iface MIXER
                name 'PCM Playback Switch'
                value true
        }
        control.23 {
                comment.access 'read write'
                comment.type INTEGER
                comment.count 2
                comment.range '0 - 31'
                iface MIXER
                name 'PCM Playback Volume'
                value.0 25
                value.1 25
        }

I really don't know what to suggest. Changing the volume in alsamixer (Master/PCM) while something is playing in the background doesn't affect the sound volume? How about if you "su" to root and try alsamixer again?

If fiddling with alsamixer has no effect (except turning sound on/off), I can only suppose that some other application has somehow managed to capture the mixer control. Maybe you should browse through all the sound related apps that you've installed and think if one of them could be the quilty party.

Come to think of it, someone has mentioned earlier here at LQ that in KDE you need to disable aRts (or so I seem to recall) and twiddle with kmix. I don't actively use KDE or Gnome so I cannot give any detailed advices about them.

fricike · 05-09-2005, 12:58 PM

Yes, quite strange

I'm using WMaker, not KDE, but tried removing arts-packages (no success), reinstalling them (still no success).
The alsa state file is almost the same here, too.

When playing music with xmms, and in another xterm i run rexima, and change the pcm volume, i can see that the xmms volume indicator moves, but no effect on the real loudness...

fricike · 05-10-2005, 06:32 AM

So, no good news. Even google doesn't know the answer...
I tried the ALSA-users mailing list, but the guys doesn't even answered anything.

Dead Parrot · 05-10-2005, 08:31 AM

I have few suggestions left. I've got almost the same soundcard (Intel Corp. 82801AA AC'97 Audio), same kernel modules loaded, I use WMaker, and my sound works without any problems.

I can only suggest that you remove the ALSA packages with their config files (apt-get --purge remove alsa-base alsa-oss alsa-utils) and then reinstall them, and run alsaconf and alsamixer again to make sure that they are properly installed.

I once had a dockapp called wmrack installed and it hijacked the mixer settings, restoring them to its own saved settings everytime I logged in, but I don't recall it interfering the volume levels during sessions. Nevertheless, you should perhaps check all your installed applications that have anything to do with sound, especially mixer programs, and think if they could conflict with ALSA. (You don't have wmsoundserver installed, do you? I'm not sure if it's fully compatible with ALSA.)

If everything else fails, you should be able to remove the ALSA packages (like suggested above) and set up your sound with OSS. I don't know how to do this but you'll probably need to remove the blacklists for discover and hotplug that prevent OSS drivers from being loaded. (Always make backups before editing or removing important config files!)

fricike · 05-10-2005, 08:55 AM

Oh, i deinstalled and reinstalled alsa packages more than 10 times in the last few days... :-/

But just got an answer on the alsa-user list. The archives told me that alsa 1.0.8 got the solution.
I't strange, becouse dpkg shows that alsa stuff is 1.0.8, but /proc/asound/verion tells 1.0.4

Code:

root@dalmag:~# dpkg -l |grep alsa
ii  alsa-base      1.0.8-7        ALSA driver configuration files
ii  alsa-headers   1.0.8-7        transitional dummy package that can be safel
ii  alsa-oss       1.0.8-1        ALSA wrapper for OSS applications
ii  alsa-source    1.0.8-7        ALSA driver sources
ii  alsa-utils     1.0.8-4        ALSA utilities
ii  alsamixergui   0.9.0rc2-1-7   graphical soundcard mixer for ALSA soundcard
ii  alsaplayer     0.99.76-0.3    PCM player designed for ALSA
ii  alsaplayer-com 0.99.76-0.3    PCM player designed for ALSA (common files)
ii  alsaplayer-gtk 0.99.76-0.3    PCM player designed for ALSA (GTK version)
ii  alsaplayer-oss 0.99.76-0.3    PCM player designed for ALSA (OSS output mod
ii  libalsaplayer0 0.99.76-0.3    PCM player designed for ALSA (interface libr
ii  libclalsadrv   1.0.0-1        ALSA driver C++ access library
ii  libclalsadrv-d 1.0.0-1        Development file for libclalsadrv

root@dalmag:~# cat /proc/asound/version 
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.4 (Mon May 17 14:31:44 2004 UTC).
Compiled on Jan 24 2005 for kernel 2.6.8-2-686.

C.L. from the alsa-user list told that the alsa drivers are part of the kernel, so i should upgrade the kernel package.
My kernel is 2.6.8-2-686, and that's the latest in the debian "testing" distrib. And i'm a bit afraid upgrade the kernel to an "unstable" kernel 2.6.11-1-686...
So at first, i'll try to compile alsa-driver-1.0.8, and if i have a problem, i'll be back...

fricike · 05-10-2005, 12:21 PM

Thanks to Dead Parrot and C.L., my Intel 82801EB ICH5 onboard soundcard got volume control working right now.

For people who's got the same problem, in this order:
1, apt-get remove all the alsa packages
2, apt-get install them again
Install alsa from source:
3, alsa-lib-1.0.9rc3
4, alsa-driver-1.0.9rc3 (and run snddevices)
5, alsa-oss-1.0.9rc3
6, alsa-utils-1.0.9rc3
7, run alsaconf

There is some annoying sizzling sound while playing sound, but that is another problem, i'm gonna check the archives for that too.

And thank you very much, again.

Dead Parrot · 05-10-2005, 01:07 PM

Quote:

C.L. from the alsa-user list told that the alsa drivers are part of the kernel, so i should upgrade the kernel package.
My kernel is 2.6.8-2-686, and that's the latest in the debian "testing" distrib.

Development has been a bit slow lately in Debian's testing and unstable branches because of the forthcoming Sarge release. After that we'll probably see pretty quickly newer kernel versions also in Debian testing.

It's certainly good news that you solved this puzzling problem and I'm especially happy that you provided the solution.

fricike · 05-11-2005, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dead Parrot
It's certainly good news that you solved this puzzling problem and I'm especially happy that you provided the solution.

Anytime. If i can help after i was helped, let's do it.

And in the final... Man proposes God disposes.
To have a clear view the whole story is:
I had a plus CMI8738 sound card in the machine, becouse of the uncontrollanle volume of the Intel82801 ICH5. But the machine froze several times, so i got the CMI out. It was working fine from then, but with uncontrolled volume.
After the days s.cking with the Intel82801, i got it working and controlled, but there was the annoying sizzling sound, for what i could'n find a solution...

And i put back the CMI again, and with the new kernel the interrupts are allocated correctly, so no frozen penguin anymore

, and with the new ALSA the CMI working 150%, becouse the rear output and all the extra stuff is working perfectly.
I'm happy now. Thanks again.