LinuxQuestions.org - Alsa config for c310 usb webcam and nvidia GeForce 210 hdmi audio

Debian Squeeze 3.2.0-0.bpo.2-amd64
alsa-utils 1.0.23-3

My goal is to get gtalk to register my webcam, so I can use the built in microphone.

Currently I have 3 sound cards, the on board sound, Nvidia 210, and the mic on my c310 webcam. They are registered

0: on board sound
1: nvidia hdmi audio
-- 7 is the device number that works for HDMI audio
2: c310 USB webcam microphone [ 046d:081b ]
-- 0 appears to be the capture device

I have set my /etc/asound.conf to

Code:

        defaults.pcm.card 1

        defaults.pcm.device 7

        defaults.ctl.card 1

This sets my nvidia card as the default device.

Which gives me proper playback on all applications over nvidia HDMI. This worked perfect until I added my webcam. The webcam registers on the gtalk settings page, the microphone only appears as a list of speakers. So i have started looking for a way to configure my /etc/asound.conf or ~/.asoundrc so that the webcam Microphone is set as the default input device. I found the following config via the arch wiki.

Code:

pcm.usb

{

    type hw

    card U0x46d0x81b

}

pcm.!default

{

    type asym

    playback.pcm

    {

        type plug

        slave.pcm "dmix"

    }

    capture.pcm

    {

        type plug

        slave.pcm "usb"

    }

}

When this is set via my .asoundrc the webcam microphone works, but other things break. This causes all the other applications to no longer be controlled by my default pcm volume control (except for mpd which adjusts fine).

I cannot set the volume for Flash, Mplayer or xbmc with any of the other mixer controls I have available. I have tried adjusting everything inside alsamixer, but no luck. I understand that ~/.asoundrc overrides the /etc/asound.conf. I cannot seem to solve how to incorporate both configs to achieve the goal of having one mixer control for system wide volume adjustment.

Thanks!