Bug 125437
| Summary: | gnome-volume-control doesn't control volume | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Product: | [Fedora] Fedora | Reporter: | Per Nystrom <centaur> |
| Component: | alsa-lib | Assignee: | Martin Stransky <stransky> |
| Status: | CLOSED RAWHIDE | QA Contact: | |
| Severity: | medium | Docs Contact: | |
| Priority: | medium | ||
| Version: | rawhide | CC: | centaur, mattdm |
| Target Milestone: | --- | ||
| Target Release: | --- | ||
| Hardware: | i686 | ||
| OS: | Linux | ||
| Whiteboard: | |||
| Fixed In Version: | Doc Type: | Bug Fix | |
| Doc Text: | Story Points: | --- | |
| Clone Of: | Environment: | ||
| Last Closed: | 2005-07-12 07:49:07 UTC | Type: | --- |
| Regression: | --- | Mount Type: | --- |
| Documentation: | --- | CRM: | |
| Verified Versions: | Category: | --- | |
| oVirt Team: | --- | RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host: | |
| Cloudforms Team: | --- | Target Upstream Version: | |
| Embargoed: | |||
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Description
Per Nystrom
2004-06-07 04:57:14 UTC
alsamixer behaves the same way. Sounds like it might be a hardware thing. Quoting from http://opensrc.org/alsa/index.php?page=intel8x0 : ============ For everyone who's missing volume control with his CMedia 9739 onboard sound chip, here are the facts I found out so far. This chip is used at least on Epox 8RDA3+ and maybe in every newer nforce2 chipset. (Who knows where else it is used?) The general problem with the 9739 is that it doesn't have a volume control in hardware. As the technical reference (avail. at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/e_t_twp.htm) states, there is no PCM volume register on chip, only a PCM muting register. Strangely, it also states that there is a _Master_ volume register where you should be able to set the volume (not only muting)! But I had no success using it; changes to that register have no effect. Maybe this is a hardware bug, or the tech reference is wrong. BTW. CMedia's OSS driver does volume control in software, so they know about the problem... So it seems that the best solution is to use some kind of software volume control. To get the chip in fact working under Linux, there are several possibilities: * use intel8x0 driver (and an external volume control, maybe at the speaker) Pro: mostly works (stable etc.) Con: you need an external volume control; and it's not very elegant :) * use intel8x0 driver and an extra sound demon (eg. KDE's artsd) Pro: works; and the sound daemon has volume control Con: not every app supports those sound daemons (but xmms and mplayer do); you have one program more running in background; the daemons are not always reliable (that's my experience); you need to use a specific program for setting the volume (eg. kmix) * use CMedia's OSS driver (avail. at http://www.cmedia.com.tw/download/e_UDA9738_linux_01.htm) Pro: built by manufacturer :) ; has built-in volume control Con: only usable with old OSS (Open Sound System), AFAIK not usable with ALSA; didn't work reliably for me * curse CMedia for building such a crappy chip; curse them again for not releasing an ALSA driver; curse NVidia for using such a crappy chip (older nforce boards had a better chip onboard..); in the end, buy an extra soundcard and be happy :) Pro: it does work really well (if you buy a good card and not an el-cheapo for 9.95 EUR which features as chip a 9739 :) Con: additional costs to your PC; takes a PCI slot BTW. I think I also tried the nforce2 soudn driver; it worked stable, but had no volume control as well... Well the (probably) best solution would be to integrate generic software volume control in ALSA; that means to write an ALSA plugin that does about the same as CMedia's driver does: rescale every sound sample to the desired volume. CMedia's driver is under the GPL, so their algorithm could be used. I've heard that such a plugin is planned, but I don't know about the current status. Ask at Alsa-devel mailing list (https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-devel) about it. More about ALSA plugins: http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/alsa-lib/pcm_plugins.html Good luck, Oliver Sounds like an alsa issue. Fix comes with alsa 1.0.8. There is plugin for software volume control. If you have new kernel (in devel is alsa 1.0.8), you can try use SW
volume plugin. You have to create file .asoundrc in your home
directory with:
$cat .asoundrc
--------------------------------------------------------
#
# Default output
#
pcm.!default {
type plug
slave.pcm {
type softvol
slave.pcm "hw:0,0"
control {
card 0
name "PCM Playback Volume"
}
}
}
--------------------------------------------------------
Of course, this is only simple testing example for one card without
dmix and other plugins. You can control volume using "PCM Playback
Volume" slider.
Let me please know, if it works for you.
Thanks
Ok, I fetched and installed the alsa-lib-devel-1.0.8-1.devel alsa-lib-1.0.8-1.devel rpms, created ~/.asoundrc as above, and tried to change the volume using alsamixer. The Master control still has no effect, and now I can't manipulate the PCM control at all. In fact, if I try to mute it, I get a segmentation fault. gnome-volume-mixer behaves the same as it did before, except that now the PCM section in the "Intel ICH5 [Alsa Mixer]" tab has 32(!!) sliders that won't move. Same as with alsamixer, if I try to mute the PCM in that tab I get a segmentation fault. Fedora Core 2 is now maintained by the Fedora Legacy project for security updates only. If this problem is a security issue, please reopen and reassign to the Fedora Legacy product. If it is not a security issue and hasn't been resolved in the current FC3 updates or in the FC4 test release, reopen and change the version to match. It should be fixed in FC4. Can anybody check it on FC4? Yes, software volume control seems to be working in FC4. I tried it in both alsamixer and in gnome-volume-control. Thank you. Thanks for testing. |