[pulseaudio-discuss] Alsamixertest

Mon Sep 27 03:11:32 PDT 2010

'Twas brillig, and Colin Guthrie at 27/09/10 10:34 did gyre and gimble:
> 'Twas brillig, and David Henningsson at 27/09/10 09:53 did gyre and gimble:
>> So over the previous weeks I've been working on a small script which
>> tests whether the ALSA mixer lives up to PA's expectations. If you are
>> familiar with dbmeasure or dbverify by Lennart Poettering, this
>> application's purpose is very similar, but this one is hopefully easier
>> to set up, more user friendly, and also tests that the names of the
>> volume controls are correct.
>> My hope is that this will aid as a debugging tool for all these
>> "everything below 20% of my speaker is muted, and then 21% blows my
>> speakers" bugs.
>>
>> To use the tool, you'll need some kind of loopback. You can e g use a
>> loopback cable and connect that between line in and line out, or test
>> your laptop's internal speakers with your laptop's internal mic (just
>> stop humming when you do so :-) ). Just set up the recording levels
>> appropriately.
>>
>> Alsamixertest is available for Ubuntu Lucid and Ubuntu Maverick from
>> these PPAs:
>> Lucid: https://launchpad.net/~diwic/+archive/ppa
>> Maverick: https://launchpad.net/~diwic/+archive/maverick
>>
>> For other distributions, download the tarball:
>> https://launchpad.net/~diwic/+archive/ppa/+files/alsamixertest_47.14.tar.gz
>> Unpack and read the readme file for compilation and install instructions.
>>
>> When it is installed, run "alsamixertest -r" for a small tutorial and
>> "alsamixertest -h" for command line options help.
>>
>> Looking forward to your comments about this new little tool! I think it
>> should be considered "beta" quality at this point.
> 
> Cool. Packaged up for Mandriva too now. What license do you use.
> Couldn't seem to find any reference to it...
> 
> Not tried it yet but will try and take it for a spin soon.

OK, for reference here is my output:

I don't actually have a specific headphones profile (no separate mixer
for headphones) but the results are more or less the same with and
without the -p argument (the only thing different appears to be the
range of the PCM tests). Ultimately the results seem to indicate that
"Master" is OK, but out by a bit, but PCM is all kinds of broken.

FWIW, the testing for -18.0, expected -21.04 measure -20.03dB is all a
little confusing. When testing for -18.0, why is 021.04 expected?
Perhaps some more explanation would be nice as to why the expected
values differ from the test value.

Anyway the output:

[colin at jimmy pulse]$ alsamixertest -p analog-output-headphones
INFO:root:Running initial test signal.
INFO:root:Testing that Master actually mutes the signal
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -3.00dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -4.50dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -6.00dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -9.00dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -10.50dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -12.00dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -15.00dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -16.50dB
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -18.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-18.0,
expected -21.04dB but measured -20.03dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -21.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-21.0,
expected -24.04dB but measured -22.72dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -22.50dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-22.5,
expected -25.54dB but measured -24.09dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -24.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-24.0,
expected -27.04dB but measured -25.40dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -27.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-27.0,
expected -30.04dB but measured -28.16dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -28.50dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-28.5,
expected -31.54dB but measured -29.30dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -30.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-30.0,
expected -33.04dB but measured -30.70dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -33.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-33.0,
expected -36.04dB but measured -33.43dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer Master, level -34.50dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer Master has invalid dB data for dB=-34.5,
expected -37.54dB but measured -34.67dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -2.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-2.0, expected
-5.04dB but measured -3.05dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -4.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-4.0, expected
-7.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -6.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-6.0, expected
-9.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -8.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-8.0, expected
-11.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -10.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-10.0, expected
-13.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -12.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-12.0, expected
-15.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -14.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-14.0, expected
-17.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -16.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-16.0, expected
-19.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -18.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-18.0, expected
-21.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -20.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-20.0, expected
-23.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -22.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-22.0, expected
-25.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -24.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-24.0, expected
-27.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -26.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-26.0, expected
-29.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -28.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-28.0, expected
-31.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -30.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-30.0, expected
-33.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -32.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-32.0, expected
-35.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -34.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-34.0, expected
-37.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -36.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-36.0, expected
-39.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -38.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-38.0, expected
-41.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -40.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-40.0, expected
-43.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -42.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-42.0, expected
-45.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -44.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-44.0, expected
-47.04dB but measured -3.10dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -46.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-46.0, expected
-49.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -48.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-48.0, expected
-51.04dB but measured -3.12dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -50.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-50.0, expected
-53.04dB but measured -3.11dB.
INFO:root:Running test for mixer PCM, level -51.00dB
ERROR:root:Error 6: Mixer PCM has invalid dB data for dB=-51.0, expected
-54.04dB but measured -3.12dB.

-- 

Colin Guthrie
gmane(at)colin.guthr.ie
http://colin.guthr.ie/

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