[pulseaudio-tickets] [PulseAudio] #139: HAL module only adds the first ALSA device of each card

[PulseAudio]

#139: HAL module only adds the first ALSA device of each card
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  Reporter:  juergbi        |       Owner:  lennart 
      Type:  enhancement    |      Status:  reopened
  Priority:  normal         |   Milestone:          
 Component:  module-alsa-*  |    Severity:  normal  
Resolution:                 |    Keywords:          
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Comment (by markfal):

 It seems to me that lack of detection of more than the 0 device of any
 card is becoming a critical need for pulseaudio's future success. The
 forums are full of people complaining that they have no way to control
 their digital outputs. Another point to be made in this argument, the new
 video cards that support HDMI output have their sound device detected as
 device 2 and so are completely ignored by hal/pulseaudio.

 I really think that hal/pavucontrol should present all the devices
 detected and let the user have control over them rather than detect only
 device 0 and leave the user with no control over anything that is not
 device 0.

 Adding the combine function into the pavucontrol gui would fix a lot of
 these issues. So would a AC3 passthrough checkbox.

 I can understand the concern of lennart:

 This patch is not right. On some sound cards surround sound is implemented
 via a 4 stereo subdevices which are then combined into a single 7.1
 device. Thus it generally doesn't make sense to open subdevices directly,
 because only ALSA itself knows what those subdevices are about. The proper
 way to open a device for digital out is using the "spdif:" ALSA device
 string, not directly opening subdevices which will only work on very few
 devices.

 But it does not make any sense to just ignore the issue. ALSA has that
 information, it is a failure of hal-detect to get it and pass it on to
 pavucontrol so it can be presented to the user that is the real issue
 here.

 I have 5 output devices I would like to use but only 2 are available in
 pavucontrol and only one falls into the concerns that lennart expresses.
 When I try to add them manually as all I get is errors and the pa daemon
 refuses to start. So, as a result, I have only control over 2 speakers and
 my headphones working on separate sound cards and no way to control the
 sound on the other speakers and the sound to my TVs.

 Pulse Audio makes it very easy to control sound over a network, but
 impossible to control sound around my living room.

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Ticket URL: <http://www.pulseaudio.org/ticket/139#comment:15>
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