Here is the situation: After a fresh install, upon first boot a users sound card levels, PCM and Volume, are both at zero. When the user logs in they have to figure out how to turn the PCM and Volume sound up via the sound applet which is very difficult. The sound applet is being worked on upstream to improve this situation, however the fact that it is difficult to use is not the whole problem. The real problem is that we don't have sounds on by default so that music playing and other sounds from things like IM work out of the box, as intended. The default sound level should not loud but at a reasonable level to start with and let the user change via the applet from there. Setting the default level to 75% on both the Volume and PCM will bring the sound to where it isn't loud or obnoxious on some cards and will turn it on enough for people to hear it working and have them adjust it up or down from there. Not sure if this is the correct component for filing this bug, feel free to move this to a more appropriate component.
s-c-soundcard (run in firstboot) sets a default, I believe.
cat /etc/modprobe.conf # --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. --- # --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.0rc2 --- alias char-major-116* snd alias snd-card-0 snd-emu10k1 # OSS/Free portion alias char-major-14* soundcore alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 # card #1 alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || : remove snd-emu10k1 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-emu10k1 --- initscripts-7.80-1 After rebooting, pcm value is always "0" in gnome-volume-control. So no sound.
switching to s-c-s
Seems duplicate of : http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=133535
This does not appear to be a dup of the bug 133535 mentioned in comment 4 This bug is about the sound levels being set on the boot up after a first install.
I look at the source of system-config-soundcard and it set the mixer setting only if "Play test sound" is clicked. Overless the mixer stay muted.
We need to set the mixer states even if the no tests are being run. We also need to be careful not to change the states if this isn't the first run, or set the volume/unmute if need be when running the config tool in a normal desktop.
> We also need to be careful not to change the states if this isn't the first run Useless since only root can launch system-config-soundcard. system-config-soundcard is use when there is something broken or changed (new sound card).
Then this bug shouldn't be in system-config-soundcard... I'll let Bill handle that one.
Again... This bug seems a duplicate of #133535 . Perhaps I am wrong. But this bug and #133535 should be in udev. If this bug append without a reboot (as stated by comment #5) then initscripts (/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit) don't involve here.
No, it's not fully a duplicate. 133535 is about the current saved volume not being restored. This bug is about it not being *set* anywhere to begin with. That either needs done at initial 'configuration' with s-c-soundcard, or at the alsa-library (ick) or desktop levels.
Yes, Bill is 100% correct. This is not fully a duplicate. I'm hoping Bastien can add something to s-c-soundcard for first boot that initializes the PCM and Main Volumes to be about 75% or so.
Has this been fixed? In the last test install sounds was set at 75% after a fresh install.
It sure wasn't fixed for me. Fresh install. Both Master an PCM was zero volume and muted.
Also Headphone volume (if mixer present) should be set to some level, this is sometimes used on laptops instead of Master.
It appears to have regressed. It was working for a couple weeks, but the latest test installs appear to be broken again.
The only code that exists currently to unmute the default alsa config is in s-c-soundcard, in the sound test program.
Created attachment 107580 [details] a silly initial volume setter The attached will, when run: a) set all playback channels to 75% b) mute all capture channels, except for CD We could run this at some point in the first boot process, I suppose. But it would run into the same issues as s-c-soundcard in making sure it's run in all cases. Moreover, it's rather late for this sort of change, and there's no guarantee that this sort of config won't make someone's ears bleed on some oddly-wired sound card.
Created attachment 107603 [details] slightly better version, FWIW
Bill: Did this get into rawhide yet? I don't want bug reports of ears bleeding, however I'd really like to get something like this in. Most distros (*cough* Ubuntu and NLD) have sound at a reasonable level working from first boot.
Oh and we should definitely email test-list or something to ask as many people as possible to try this out once we get it in. Hopefully we'll get it smoothed out before FC4.
It's not in rawhide because it's not really obvious where you'd want to run it.
Maybe I'm confused, I thought this was to be run during first boot ( i.e. after a fresh install ). Initializing the persons sounds levels to a value where when they play something sound will actually come out instead of leaving the levels at zero and leaving them to hunt down PCM and Master volume settings. This only needs to happen at first boot, after that sound is saved and restored on shutdown/startup, correct?
CC'ing firstboot maintaner. I suppose it could be grafted into firstboot, if we assume that firstboot isn't going to fail/be skipped. We could also do something really gross like run it on module load for any card that *doesn't* have a saved state. Not sure if that would surprise people, though.
OK, alsa-utils-1.0.8-4 has changed the default script that restores sound volumes on module load to unmute the playback channels if there is no saved config to restore.
*** Bug 152246 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***