[pulseaudio-discuss] configure a soundcard?

[Tanu Kaskinen]

On Mon, 2019-04-22 at 07:47 -0500, Matt Zagrabelny wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 22, 2019 at 3:06 AM Tanu Kaskinen <tanuk at iki.fi> wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, 2019-04-20 at 12:11 -0500, Matt Zagrabelny wrote:
> > > Greetings,
> > > 
> > > I'm running Debian Buster and I have a 1/8" audio jack. I need the sink
> > to
> > > be an analog output to send off to some other device. Things work great,
> > > except for when the system reboots, it comes up configured as a digital
> > > soundcard:
> > > 
> > > Digital Stereo (IEC958)
> > > 
> > > Here is a diff between a "pactl list" when the computer reboots and when
> > > I've configured it to be an analog sink:
> > > 
> > > -Sink #1
> > > -       State: SUSPENDED
> > > -       Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.iec958-stereo
> > > -       Description: Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (IEC958)
> > > +Sink #2
> > > +       State: RUNNING
> > > +       Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_14.2.analog-stereo
> > > +       Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
> > > 
> > > What is the best way to have the configuration saved between reboots?
> > > 
> > > I can provide further info if needed.
> > > 
> > > Thanks for any help!
> 
> Hey Tanu!
> 
> Thanks for the assistance. Below is the output of what you asked for.

<snip>

> Card #1
>         Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_00_14.2

...

>         Ports:

...

>                 analog-output-lineout: Line Out (priority: 9900, latency
> offset: 0 usec, not available)
>                         Part of profile(s): output:analog-stereo,
> output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo, output:analog-surround-21,
> output:analog-surround-21+input:analog-stereo, output:analog-surround-40,
> output:analog-surround-40+input:analog-stereo, output:analog-surround-41,
> output:analog-surround-41+input:analog-stereo, output:analog-surround-50,
> output:analog-surround-50+input:analog-stereo, output:analog-surround-51,
> output:analog-surround-51+input:analog-stereo, output:analog-surround-71,
> output:analog-surround-71+input:analog-stereo
>                 analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority: 9000,
> latency offset: 0 usec, not available)
>                         Properties:
>                                 device.icon_name = "audio-headphones"
>                         Part of profile(s): output:analog-stereo,
> output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
>                 iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority: 0,
> latency offset: 0 usec)
>                         Part of profile(s): output:iec958-stereo,
> output:iec958-stereo+input:analog-stereo

Both analog ports are marked as "not available", which means that to
PulseAudio looks like nothing is plugged in in either connector. This
is the reason why PulseAudio always picks the digital output on boot.
Broken jack detection is is a hardware or driver issue, which can be
worked around, see below.

> >     while read -r line; do amixer -c0 cget "$line"; done <<< $(amixer -c0
> > controls | grep Jack)
> > 
> 
> numid=1,iface=CARD,name='HDMI/DP,pcm=3 Jack'
>   ; type=BOOLEAN,access=r-------,values=1
>   : values=on
> numid=7,iface=CARD,name='HDMI/DP,pcm=7 Jack'
>   ; type=BOOLEAN,access=r-------,values=1
>   : values=off

It seems that I guessed wrong the card number. Card 0 seems to be the
HDMI card, while we're interested in the analog sound card, which is
alsa card 1. So change the script to this:

    while read -r line; do amixer -c0 cget "$line"; done <<< $(amixer -c0 controls | grep Jack)

This information is required for me to give instructions for how to
work around the issue.

-- 
Tanu

https://www.patreon.com/tanuk
https://liberapay.com/tanuk