Bug 488779

Summary: Sound Preferences sets input level too high.
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Michael Monreal <michael.monreal>
Component: pulseaudioAssignee: Lennart Poettering <lpoetter>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: low    
Version: rawhideCC: bnocera, lkundrak, lpoetter
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OS: Linux   
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Last Closed: 2009-03-19 12:17:25 UTC Type: ---
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Description Michael Monreal 2009-03-05 18:04:51 UTC 
I wanted to test my microphone with pulse audio. It did not work. In the preferences, the slider was set to max. I checked alsamixer, which showed the level was 150%. Changing it there, it reset to 100% max. Tested, it works!

Sound Preferences should not offer to set the level higher than alsamixer would.

Note: I have checked the same using my usb headset. Input actually works with the slider set to max (>100% too) but the sound quality is very bad this way. Setting the level to 100% in alsamixer works best in this case, too.
Comment 1 Michael Monreal 2009-03-05 18:05:23 UTC 
Created attachment 334168 [details]
Screenshot
Comment 2 Bastien Nocera 2009-03-05 19:23:27 UTC 
If it sounds bad, it's PA's fault.

FWIW, it goes up to 150% thanks to this bug:
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=567536
Comment 3 Michael Monreal 2009-03-05 19:48:55 UTC 
Shouldn't bug 567536 be fixed in the 2.25.92 gnome-media package that is in RawHide atm?
Comment 4 Bastien Nocera 2009-03-05 20:32:26 UTC 
And it is. I think you're misunderstanding. The fact that the volume goes to 150% for inputs isn't a bug, it's a feature. Read the upstream bug.
Comment 5 Lennart Poettering 2009-03-19 12:17:25 UTC 
The PA and ALSA volumes are not directly related. PA's volumes are solely based on the dB information from the sound card. The result is that 100% in PA does not need to match up with 100% of the ALSA sound card.

I think this bug report is mostly due to a misunderstanding regarding how the volume values are related to each other. Closing.
Comment 6 Michael Monreal 2009-03-19 14:50:11 UTC 
PulseAudio? ALSA? (In reply to comment #5)
> I think this bug report is mostly due to a misunderstanding regarding how the
> volume values are related to each other. Closing.  

Why would a user care how different parts of the linux sound eco system work (or even know they exist). If this is still the case => FAIL. I was hoping PulseAudio would finally fix issues like this...
Comment 7 Lennart Poettering 2009-03-19 15:56:38 UTC 
We try to hide as much ugly stuff below PA as we can. But if you bypass PA then you will of course need to notice that there are certain differences between how PA and ALSA handles things. What did you expect?