Linux Audio problem
 

Hi All,

My question may be annoying for many of you, but i have no other go. Every time I update my Linux box, I use to scratch my head with the audio video settings.

The Linux audio is like a black magic to me. My latest problem is while i am viewing youtube videos, I am not able to hear the audio, but when i plug in my earphones, i am able to enjoy the audio.

Now my short term goal is to set this problem right and my long term is to understand about the Linux audio/video system.


Please let me know what all info you guys need to help me out of this problem.

Thanks,

From what you said your headphones and speakers are on different channel(is it a laptop) You probably have one chanel quiet down in settings. Try alsamixer.

Yes it usually changes the channel assignments and even default volumes.
Very common challenge to every linux user. As Demerzel said you were listening through another channel.

On the terminal (cli, or dos-prompt) type:

--$ alsaconf <Enter> {Just follow and make default answers in 'Yes' to the interactive that follows as the alsa driver configures your audio.}

Then if you need to adjust volumes type:

--$ aumix <Enter> {You will be able to control the volumes and balance through the keyboard.}

If you are using a distro that runs a KDE you can do the same via:

Press: Alt+F2
Then type: /usr/bin/kmix {Click 'Run'. A better xbased applet will pop up.}

Or under Xfce 4 do this:

Press: Alt+F2
then type: /usr/bin/xfce4-mixer {Click 'Run'}

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Dear malekmustaq,

You nailed it :-). Actually , this is the first time I am using KDE. And I am not quite familiar with KDE controls. I was trying to find something like 'Advanced volume configuration, in Gnome. Your reply dragged me to kmix and bingo, i got the audio working. Thanks :-)

And again, is there any detailed tutorial for Linux sound configuration.

Thanks again,

also you never stated what distro you are using

there is a very common bug with fedora and pulse-audio
pulse-audio in gen i think

one or more of the channels , PCM mostly, gets set to 0

for better help you might want to add the distro you are using

Will do that in future John. Thanks

greplinux,

My limited observation tells that most GNU/Linux distros use ALSA, so it is most advisable to learn how to use its native commands regardless of where and which distro we are running. The first recourse for knowing about ALSA is found in your hard drive which may vary from distro to distro, in my case [Slackware]: /usr/doc/alsa-utils-1.0.17/README-alsa-utils; there is also a good tutorial for it here; it is most advisable to learn control ALSA from the ncurses under command line, a short tutorial is here.

Usually we wanted to progress into gaining more control over media formats like converting from mp3 to another format, or even dare edit the digital file. There is a short tutorial here concerning how to use Grip either in CLI or GUI. That would be a good start.

By the way before I forget, under your Kde, to automate calling 'Kmix' volume control you can put a 'button' on your task bar. Right click the task bar, click Add New Item then scroll into an icon for the Volume Control, then apply it. Kde is very rich on applications, I often feel overloaded by it :) If it doesn't give you the button there is another way of placing a button in the task bar, just call my attention if you need to hear about this.

Hope it helps. Good luck.

Hi malekmustaq,

I have added kmix in my task system tray. Thank you!!

Regards,