[pulseaudio-discuss] How to save mixer settings?

Frode Severin Hatlevik frodeseverin at gmail.com
Wed Sep 22 02:06:51 PDT 2010


2010/9/21 Colin Guthrie <gmane at colin.guthr.ie>:
>> Now I have a separate problem with kmix, seemingly.
>> If I use 'alsamixer -c0' in a terminal to monitor what kmix is
>> actually doing to my soundcard when raising and lowering the volume, I
>> notice that the 'Master' control slider sets PCM to 100 or 98 when I
>> raise the volume. If I lower the volume to 0, the PCM volume is also
>> set to 0. Sometimes when I rise it again, the 'Front' channel is also
>> set to 100.
>>
>> Is there a way for me to link the kmix 'master' volume to only
>> manipulate the master volume of my hda_intel soundcard?
>
> This page explains it all.
>
> http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/PulseAudioStoleMyVolumes
>

Thanks. So kmix is not misbehaving here, it is a feature of
PulseAudio. But seemingly it does not work properly with my card.

My card is a HDA Intel with a Realtek ALC883 chip. Possibly pretty
standard for a laptop? Anyway, if I set all the volumes in alsamixer
to 0 dB, then 'Master', 'PCM' and 'Front' are all set at their
maximum, level 100 (and yes I know it's not a percentage...). This
means the soundcard will be roaring at its maximum, and sound is
outrageously loud.

I suppose dB 0 for 'PCM' and 'Front' at level 100 is OK; it would mean
something like "no amplification". It looks sort of strange though,
and might be wrong (see below). But a 0 dB for master at level 100 is
rather silly, is it not? The graphical bars in 'alsamixer' turns red
at -6 dB (level 87), -7.6 dB (level 85-and-something), and 6 dB (level
87) for 'Master', 'PCM' and 'Front', respectivelly.

Do theese levels make sense to you? I thought maybe the 0 dB level
should be at the breakpoint between the white and red parts of the
graphs in alsamixer. This is the case for the 'Line', 'Mic' and 'Beep'
controls. Does this situation qualify for a bug against the Alsa
driver for my card/chip combination? Or perhaps I have the wrong
module loaded?

Please find attached two files containing the output of 'amixer -c0',
explaining the details of the situation.

> If you have problems with the system, it's really better to discuss them
> and try and find solutions for any bugs they present rather than just
> disabling it.
>
> If you genuinely don't like it, then disabling is perfectly acceptable!
>

I like the system, but it seems I experience clipping from time to
time. And I want to avoid that.

;)Frode

-- 
Da sa Gud: "Det bli lys!"
Og det ble lys.
                      1. Mosebok 1.3

And God said, "Let there be light,"
and there was light.
                      Genesis 1:3, NIV
-------------- next part --------------
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 26 [84%] [-7.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 216 [85%] [-7.80dB]
  Front Right: Playback 216 [85%] [-7.80dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 26 [84%] [-7.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 26 [84%] [-7.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 26 [84%] [4.50dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 26 [84%] [4.50dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 2 [67%]
  Front Right: 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Line'
-------------- next part --------------
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Front',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Line',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Mic Boost',0
  Capabilities: volume penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 3
  Front Left: 2 [67%]
  Front Right: 2 [67%]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Default PCM',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'Beep',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 31
  Front Left: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Capture 8 [26%] [0.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume penum
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Mic'
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',1
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Line'


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