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Sound in Mandriva 2009.1 Spring


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I am completely lost with sound configuration in Mandriva 2009.1 Spring. With PulseAudio on, I don't have sound from speakers when I play CDs or Youtube clips. With PulseAudio disabled, I can play CDs with KsCD, but don't have any sound whwn I play clips from YouTube. Also, sound comes from both the PC internal speaker and speakers attached to the back of the box (I only want proper speakers to work). This is very confusing... can anybody help please?

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You may be missing some gstreamer plugins (which, paradoxically enough, is the default phonon backend).

However, gstreamer is (IMHO) an ugly and buggy solution. Actually GNOME users despise gstreamer, why KDE users have to live with it?

I set all my desktop systems with no PulseAudio, and the phonon xine backend. It plays pretty much everything, provided that xine can use a full win32codecs pack (you can get it either from PLF, or directly from the mplayer site).

Another option are the mplayer and vlc phonon backends. Both are unofficial, and mostly beta, but they are quite promising. For now, the one that works best is definitely the phonon-xine backend.

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Thanks, scarecrow.

 

Could you please give me a little more guidance? phonon-xine package, real-codecs and win32-codecs are installed (the latter two are from PLF). Also, I installed flash-player-plugin from PLF. After disabling pulse-audio, logging out and loggin in again, youtube clips have sound (another mirracle!)

 

I can play CDs with VLC, kaffeine, KsCD, xine, but not with totem or amarok. I can live without totem, but I would like to be able to use amarok. What bugs me is that I have no understanding of what's going on :-) hence I cannot sort out any problems, for example I would like to disable the PC speakers and play through the external speakers. Also, I had trouble with using the microphone but that probably a subject for a separate post.

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What's mixer channel settings map?

 

The card is onboard Intel. Here is what lspci tells about it:

Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JD/DO (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

The external speakers work as well as internal one. I just want to play back music/youtube/skype through the external internal speaker, and leave the internal speaker for system beeps only.

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Sorry but I hadn't quite grasped what was happening. I assume you are using a set of external speakers with a jack plug on the end for plugging into the sound card. If this is correct then when you do plug the speakers in usually the internal speaker is disconnected, therefore unusable. I also assumed you were using kmix as a mixer control. If this is the case then the channel map is in .kde in your home directory, if you are using kde 3, and in .kde4 if you are using kde 4. In either case the mapping is in the share/config sub-directory/kmixrc. However you don't need this file in your case. I am not familiar with your sound card so there may be settings that I don't know about, but as far as I am aware you can only use either external speakers or internal speakers but not both at the same time on the same card.

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Indeed, I use external speakers plugged into sound card. However, the internal speaker is not disconnected for some unknown reason, therefore when I turn down the volume of the internal speaker using the kmix control, the volume from the external speakers also goes down. Turning them up adds an audible noise to the sound, it's quite annonying.

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I think the next thing to do would be in konsole type

amixer contents

that will give you a list of all the available controls on your sound card. Look to see if you have separate controls for the internal and external speakers. If you have, then you can mute them separately with amixer commands. Take a look at

man amixer

for all the options. Once again if you can control the volumes separately then we are back to the kmixrc file.

I had a similar problem on a laptop that I have and used the above method to track down the source of the noise. It turned out to be the on-board modem.

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Hmm... I cannot see anything related to external speakers

 

 

$ amixer contents
numid=40,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=on
numid=39,iface=MIXER,name='Master Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=0,max=39,step=0
 : values=39
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=5,iface=MIXER,name='Headphone Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=41,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---RW-,values=2,min=0,max=255,step=0
 : values=199,199
 | dBscale-min=-51.00dB,step=0.20dB,mute=0
numid=10,iface=MIXER,name='Front Mic Boost'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=3,step=0
 : values=2,2
 | dBscale-min=0.00dB,step=10.00dB,mute=0
numid=21,iface=MIXER,name='Front Mic Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=20,iface=MIXER,name='Front Mic Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=31,step=0
 : values=26,26
 | dBscale-min=-34.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=6,iface=MIXER,name='Front Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='Front Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=39,step=0
 : values=21,21
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=30,iface=MIXER,name='Surround Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='Surround Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=39,step=0
 : values=39,39
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=31,iface=MIXER,name='Center Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=on
numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Center Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=0,max=39,step=0
 : values=39
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=32,iface=MIXER,name='LFE Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=on
numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='LFE Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=0,max=39,step=0
 : values=39
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=25,iface=MIXER,name='Line Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=24,iface=MIXER,name='Line Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=31,step=0
 : values=25,25
 | dBscale-min=-34.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=11,iface=MIXER,name='Line-In Boost'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=3,step=0
 : values=2,2
 | dBscale-min=0.00dB,step=10.00dB,mute=0
numid=27,iface=MIXER,name='CD Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=26,iface=MIXER,name='CD Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=31,step=0
 : values=31,31
 | dBscale-min=-34.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=9,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Boost'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=3,step=0
 : values=3,3
 | dBscale-min=0.00dB,step=10.00dB,mute=0
numid=23,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=22,iface=MIXER,name='Mic Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=31,step=0
 : values=25,25
 | dBscale-min=-34.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=8,iface=MIXER,name='Mono Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=on
numid=7,iface=MIXER,name='Mono Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=1,min=0,max=31,step=0
 : values=24
 | dBscale-min=-46.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=13,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=15,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Switch',index=1
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=off,off
numid=12,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=54,step=0
 : values=39,39
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=14,iface=MIXER,name='Capture Volume',index=1
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=54,step=0
 : values=43,43
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=38,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Default PCM Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=on
numid=34,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Con Mask'
 ; type=IEC958,access=r-------,values=1
 : values=[AES0=0x0f AES1=0xff AES2=0x00 AES3=0x00]
numid=35,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Pro Mask'
 ; type=IEC958,access=r-------,values=1
 : values=[AES0=0x0f AES1=0x00 AES2=0x00 AES3=0x00]
numid=36,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Default'
 ; type=IEC958,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=[AES0=0x04 AES1=0x82 AES2=0x00 AES3=0x02]
numid=19,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Source'
 ; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw------,values=1,items=2
 ; Item #0 'PCM'
 ; Item #1 'ADC'
 : values=0
numid=37,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1
 : values=on
numid=18,iface=MIXER,name='IEC958 Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=39,step=0
 : values=39,39
 | dBscale-min=-58.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=29,iface=MIXER,name='Beep Playback Switch'
 ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=2
 : values=on,on
numid=28,iface=MIXER,name='Beep Playback Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=31,step=0
 : values=24,24
 | dBscale-min=-34.50dB,step=1.50dB,mute=0
numid=33,iface=MIXER,name='Channel Mode'
 ; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw------,values=1,items=3
 ; Item #0 '2ch'
 ; Item #1 '4ch'
 ; Item #2 '6ch'
 : values=0
numid=42,iface=MIXER,name='Digital Capture Volume'
 ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---RW-,values=2,min=0,max=120,step=0
 : values=116,116
 | dBscale-min=-30.00dB,step=0.50dB,mute=0
numid=16,iface=MIXER,name='Input Source'
 ; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw------,values=1,items=5
 ; Item #0 'Front Mic'
 ; Item #1 'Mic'
 ; Item #2 'Line'
 ; Item #3 'CD'
 ; Item #4 'Mix'
 : values=1
numid=17,iface=MIXER,name='Input Source',index=1
 ; type=ENUMERATED,access=rw------,values=1,items=5
 ; Item #0 'Front Mic'
 ; Item #1 'Mic'
 ; Item #2 'Line'
 ; Item #3 'CD'
 ; Item #4 'Mix'
 : values=0

I was playing with two controls, Master and Front. Both did pretty much the same thing - turned up/down volume on both external and internal speakers at the same time. Interestingly, my another computer (laptop, MDV 2008.0) has a 'Speaker Playback Switch' control, but as you can see, the desktop does not have it. Could this be a root of the problem? Is it possible to add such a control?

 

You mentioned kmixrc.... I run KDE 3.5.10 installed on top of KDE 4, but I don't have kmixrc in /home/valu/.kde/share/config/. There is one in /home/valu/.kde4/share/config/ though. Does this mean, I must run kmixer from KDE3.5.10 instead? It does not seem to exist in /opt/bin, does it have to be installed separately?

 

$ more /home/valu/.kde4/share/config/kmixrc
[Global]
DefaultCardOnStart=ALSA::HDA_Intel:1
MasterMixer=ALSA::HDA_Intel:1
MasterMixerDevice=Front:0
Position=928,265
Size=727,241
Visible=true

[View.Base.ALSA::Generic_USB_Audio_Device___:1.Auto_Gain_Control:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::Generic_USB_Audio_Device___:1.Mic:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::Generic_USB_Audio_Device___:1.PCM:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Beep:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.CD:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Capture:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Capture:1]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Center:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Channel_Mode:0]
Show=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Digital:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Front:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Front_Mic:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Front_Mic_Boost:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Headphone:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.IEC958:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.IEC958_Default_PCM:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.IEC958_Playback_Source:0]
Show=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Input_Source:0]
Show=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Input_Source:1]
Show=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.LFE:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Line-In_Boost:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Line:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Master:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Mic:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Mic_Boost:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Mono:0]
Show=false
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.PCM:0]
Show=true
Split=false

[View.Base.ALSA::HDA_Intel:1.Surround:0]
Show=true
Split=false

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You don't need to install another kmixrc, kde will use the correct one. Looking at the output from the 'amixer' command I can see the speaker output is called 'Line Playback' which has a switch setting, also there is a setting for 'Beep Playback' switch and volume. You can configure kmix by right clicking on the volume control icon on the systray. In the configuration dialog you can activate/deactivate any or all of the controls shown by the 'amixer contents' command. What I would do is activate the ones you may think is the ones I have mentioned (or any you wish) and you will then have them easily accessible via the systray icon. You can use them just like any other control. When you have done you can then disable what is not needed otherwise you will have a massive mixer control on your desktop.

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