Slackware 14.2-beta: A few remarks on PulseAudio and Audio Quality
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That could just be a result of Plasma 5 and some of the updated dependencies that were required for it. Have you tried the full stock Slackware live ISO?
Distribution: Slackware 15.0, Slackware 14.2_x64, Slackware 14.1 x86
Posts: 609
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That would be the other iso download that is regular Slackware and not the XFCE or the other iso, correct? If so, no. I'll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the tip.
That would be the other iso download that is regular Slackware and not the XFCE or the other iso, correct? If so, no. I'll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the tip.
Correct. It'd be slackware64-live-current.iso. This will help determine if it is an issue with -current itself or something with Eric's Plasma5 build.
Last edited by bassmadrigal; 02-17-2016 at 07:40 PM.
Distribution: Slackware 15.0, Slackware 14.2_x64, Slackware 14.1 x86
Posts: 609
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Well crud. I just got it on my usb stick and tried it out and it's exactly the same as the plasma5 iso. No controls for anything other than a single volume control (well, two if I include the input control also). Nothing else at all. This isn't good at all, fixing what ain't (or wasn't) broke, heh.
It may not even be related to pulseaudio and could just be a regression for your audio driver in the kernel. Maybe it'd be worth installing -current on a separate partition (although, I suppose if you're using the persistent live version, that could be used instead) and create a new thread with more details so we can try and work through the problem.
Distribution: Slackware 15.0, Slackware 14.2_x64, Slackware 14.1 x86
Posts: 609
Rep:
I appreciate the help, but if it's a regression, even if it's (or especially?) the kernel, that's a no go for me. If pulse or phonon or whatever it is can't do as well as alsa did/does for me now, I can't see any reason to go to a version of any distro that uses it. I honestly don't believe it's a "problem" other than things getting 'fixed' that don't need it. Unless of course you happen to know a nice simple way for me to uninstall (shut off, blacklist, etc) the pulse/phonon thing and install/use the alsa that's giving me the 'good stuff' I like for my sound, it looks like I'll be stuck at 14.1 the rest of my days.
I appreciate the help, but if it's a regression, even if it's (or especially?) the kernel, that's a no go for me. If pulse or phonon or whatever it is can't do as well as alsa did/does for me now, I can't see any reason to go to a version of any distro that uses it.
But it may not be a pulse issue. 14.1 includes the 3.10 series kernel, and -current includes the 4.4 series. That is 13 major releases of the kernel, which has had a lot of changes during that time, some of which can create regressions. Also, the 4.4 series kernel is still pretty new, and will have many subsequent releases to fix bugs/regressions/security issues. I'm not saying your problem isn't caused by pulse (since we don't have enough info to determine that), but I am saying that it could be a number of different things, some of which may not be related to pulse. Without proper diagnostics, it's impossible to know. This is why -current exists to the public. People can try it out and report issues, and the community (and dev team) can try to find ways to resolve it before -current becomes the next stable release. This is why I'd recommend creating a new thread to discuss this issue and see if the community can find a solution.
Also, it is likely that pulse is here to stay in Slackware, so sticking with 14.1 further down the road may not be a viable option if you want modern hardware/software. Even now, 14.1 is showing its age with modern hardware, and I'd imagine there's some software out there that require newer libraries than what comes with 14.1.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTIO
I honestly don't believe it's a "problem" other than things getting 'fixed' that don't need it.
The "problem" that needed fixing may not have affected you, but without pulse, Slackware 14.2 would've had a regression in regards to bluetooth. The problem did need to get "fixed", and the solution wasn't to remove bluetooth support.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FTIO
Unless of course you happen to know a nice simple way for me to uninstall (shut off, blacklist, etc) the pulse/phonon thing and install/use the alsa that's giving me the 'good stuff' I like for my sound, it looks like I'll be stuck at 14.1 the rest of my days.
It is not recommended to remove pulse, because to do it properly, you'd need to recompile a lot of programs. However, there are a few threads floating around that discussed how to make pulse route all sound to alsa instead of the opposite that occurs now. I'm too lazy to find them now, but I know they exist.
I'm using Alien's latest liveslak Plasma5 on a usb stick, and unfortunately my kmix has only one of the controls of the *many* it has in 14.1. Alsamixer gives me nothing better. Getting quite bummed out about it.
I have no bass, treble, or some of the other controls I use on 14.1 that I can't remember offhand.
Here's something to try. Edit your /etc/pulse/default.pa (or make a copy as .config/pulse/default.pa in your home directory to make these changes for one user only) and add the following lines:
I appreciate the help, but if it's a regression, even if it's (or especially?) the kernel, that's a no go for me. If pulse or phonon or whatever it is can't do as well as alsa did/does for me now, I can't see any reason to go to a version of any distro that uses it. I honestly don't believe it's a "problem" other than things getting 'fixed' that don't need it. Unless of course you happen to know a nice simple way for me to uninstall (shut off, blacklist, etc) the pulse/phonon thing and install/use the alsa that's giving me the 'good stuff' I like for my sound, it looks like I'll be stuck at 14.1 the rest of my days.
Just rebuild things you need without-pulse and replace /etc/asoundrc with blank.
Just rebuild things you need without-pulse and replace /etc/asoundrc with blank.
There isn't even any need to rebuild anything. Just blank out asoundrc, and make sure pulseaudio doesn't run at boot (or autospawn, check the /etc/pulse/client.conf). Most of the things that link with libpulse will automatically fall back to ALSA if pulse is not available, and all of them can be configured to favor ALSA.
Distribution: Slackware 15.0, Slackware 14.2_x64, Slackware 14.1 x86
Posts: 609
Rep:
Thanks bassmadrigal and volkerdi, I'll try that out and see what happens and report back on it. I can say now, having spent all day on there that sound at all is as erratic as a single sheet of tp in a tornado. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it's full of static, sometimes (the rarest times of all) it's clear but for a short time. Really weird stuff.
Also, every time I open kmix, the hardware part is changed back to using some hdmi thing it seems to think I have installed. I have the bios audio turned off in the bios, and the only sound card I have is the Sound Blaster Live!. I have to keep changing it back to using the Sound Blaster.
As for starting another thread, why, when this one is basically about sound troubles which is what I'm having. Another thread might make it even harder for others to follow along when they see two threads so similar, no?
There isn't even any need to rebuild anything. Just blank out asoundrc, and make sure pulseaudio doesn't run at boot (or autospawn, check the /etc/pulse/client.conf). Most of the things that link with libpulse will automatically fall back to ALSA if pulse is not available, and all of them can be configured to favor ALSA.
Sorry boss, I don't have hardware for pulse so I just discard the lib and rebuild some old parts like gstreamer0 and xfce4-mixer.
If there's something that doesn't start without libpulse, I discard that too.
Distribution: Slackware 15.0, Slackware 14.2_x64, Slackware 14.1 x86
Posts: 609
Rep:
Okay. I followed volkerdi's instructions and that gave me my multi-band equalizer back (though it's the same one I'm used to having on 14.1, nothing more special)...but there was no sound at all. Plus, it took away the ability to change the card I could choose to use (for example a SB Live! using 2.1 stereo, or an SB Live! using 5.1, etc).
Okay, so then I found the nearest thing I've ever had to an 'asound.rc' which was the /etc/asound.conf and commented it completely out. Then went to /etc/pulse/client.conf and changed autospawn=yes to autospawn=no, and allow-autospawn-for-root=yes to allow-autospawn-for-root=no, and got my sound back. It's sounding like it should too as Rob Zombie plays Dragula, heh heh. BTW...I've *never* had an asound.rc in *any* of the Slackware versions I've had 13.37 through 14.1 and this current also. Sure have been curious these past years though to find out why or why others do have it. Strange, heh.
Thanks to everyone who helped get this fixed. Hopefully it will help others who possibly may end up with similar troubles when 14.x comes around.
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