[pulseaudio-discuss] Pulseaudio changes volume on source connect

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Thu, 2017-01-26 at 10:57 -0600, Dean Brundage wrote:
> Hey Tanu.  Thanks for the reply.  Response inline. --Dean
> 
> On Wed, Jan 25, 2017 at 11:19 PM, Tanu Kaskinen <tanuk at iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 2017-01-19 at 11:15 -0600, Dean Brundage wrote:
> > > Hello pulseaudio-discuss,
> > > 
> > > I am setting up a small linux computer (C.H.I.P.) to be a bluetooth
> > > receiver using pulseaudio.  The device is not running X so I am working
> > > through pactl and configuration files.  Everything is working except when
> > > my phone connects to the device pulseaudio always sets the sink-input
> > > volume to 0.
> > 
> > The sink input is the playback stream, but it looks more like the
> > problem is that the sink (i.e. playback device) volume gets set to
> > zero. The sink input volume is set to zero as well, but that's probably
> > just because you have flat volumes enabled, so streams usually show the
> > same volume as the device. If you'd prefer to have entirely separate
> > volumes for streams and devices, you can put "flat-volumes = no" to
> > /etc/pulse/daemon.conf (many people, me included, think that disabling
> > flat volumes makes things simpler).
> > 
> 
> You're probably correct that PA is changing the sink volume, not the
> sink-input.
> 
> Disabling flat volumes does not change the behavior.

I would expect disabling flat volumes to change the reported volume of
the sink input, but it won't help with the sink volume.

> > Now, why does the sink volume get set to zero? The log shows that
> > amixer sets the sink volume. The log doesn't show what volume it sets
> > it to (I think the volume is nowadays logged - is this an old
> > pulseaudio version?). If the reason for the zero volume is that amixer
> > sets it so, then this is a problem in your system. Is there some script
> > running that is automatically setting the volume using amixer?
> > 
> > 
> 
> 0 ol-blue /home/chip % pulseaudio --version
> pulseaudio 5.0
> 
> 0 ol-blue /home/chip % pactl --version
> pactl 5.0
> Compiled with libpulse 5.0.0
> Linked with libpulse 5.0.0
> 
> It looks like the latest PA version is 10.0, so I may be way out of date.
> If I'm interpreting the git branches correctly, the latest "stable" release
> is 7.x.  The C.H.I.P. runs Debian 8.6 so I'll see about updating pulse to
> something more recent on that platform.

All releases are considered stable. The "stable" branches are only used
when we make pure bugfix releases (7.1 was the last time we did that).

-- 
Tanu

https://www.patreon.com/tanuk