[opensuse] 13.2 and Sound - specifically the volume setting
Prior to 13.2 I set the sound volume in the Mixer (bottom right, System Tray) and it would stay as set from logout to login to logout..... ad finitum. Now, under 13.2 the volume setting changes according to some unknown algorithm. For example, last night I set the volume(s) in the Mixer to be at their maximum and I then adjust the actual volume of the sound I want to hear from the speakers via the volume control of my sound card (SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium). A few minutes ago I turn on VLC to be able to watch some television --- and find that there is almost no sound coming from the speakers! I look at the Mixer (icon/widget, bottom RH) and found that all the volume settings have been reset to much lower level. Reset by _what_? Anyone know, please, what is required to make the settings in Mixer to *stick* and not be randomly altered by something in 13.2? (There have been posts in this mail list from people who suddenly found that they had no sound. I think that the answer to my question would also solve their problem.) BC -- Using openSUSE 13.2, KDE 4.14.4 & kernel 3.19.0-3 on a system with- AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor 16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel RAM Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 02/03/15 17:52, Basil Chupin wrote:
Prior to 13.2 I set the sound volume in the Mixer (bottom right, System Tray) and it would stay as set from logout to login to logout..... ad finitum.
Now, under 13.2 the volume setting changes according to some unknown algorithm. For example, last night I set the volume(s) in the Mixer to be at their maximum and I then adjust the actual volume of the sound I want to hear from the speakers via the volume control of my sound card (SoundBlaster X-Fi Titanium).
A few minutes ago I turn on VLC to be able to watch some television --- and find that there is almost no sound coming from the speakers! I look at the Mixer (icon/widget, bottom RH) and found that all the volume settings have been reset to much lower level. Reset by _what_?
Anyone know, please, what is required to make the settings in Mixer to *stick* and not be randomly altered by something in 13.2?
(There have been posts in this mail list from people who suddenly found that they had no sound. I think that the answer to my question would also solve their problem.)
BC
I got rid of that PITA thing called pulseaudio and now I once again have control over the volume - with a bonus thrown in as well. My ISP provides a streaming service of music available from a multitude of radio stations. I listen to one from America called Radio Tunes but more often than not I cannot hear anything from the middle and right-hand channels (I have a 5.1 speaker system) but now that I got rid of pulseaudio all 6 speakers are functioning. BC -- Using openSUSE 13.2, KDE 4.14.4 & kernel 3.19.0-4 on a system with- AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor 16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel RAM Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 02/03/15 06:52, Basil Chupin wrote: <SNIP>
Anyone know, please, what is required to make the settings in Mixer to *stick* and not be randomly altered by something in 13.2?
If you had the expected behaviour prior to 13.2, you must, at some point, have set "flat-volumes = no" is /etc/pulse/daemon.conf - once this is done, all mixer inputs and outputs are independent of each other and retain their values from session to session (at least, they do here.) When enabled, "flat-volumes" re-adjusts all inputs/outputs when you change one, supposedly to maintain the balance between them. The actual result is that volumes gradually reduce and need to be regularly reset. Apparently, this is the way Windoze does it, so the PA devs thought they should too. I disagree - a set level should stay set until *I* change it. For me, PA is the easiest way to balance audio from different application or hardware sources and route them for recording/playback to multiple hardware/software sinks. Dx
(There have been posts in this mail list from people who suddenly found that they had no sound. I think that the answer to my question would also solve their problem.)
BC
-- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 04/03/15 23:20, Dylan wrote:
On 02/03/15 06:52, Basil Chupin wrote: <SNIP>
Anyone know, please, what is required to make the settings in Mixer to *stick* and not be randomly altered by something in 13.2?
If you had the expected behaviour prior to 13.2, you must, at some point, have set "flat-volumes = no" is /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
Nope, didn't even know that this existed.
- once this is done, all mixer inputs and outputs are independent of each other and retain their values from session to session (at least, they do here.) When enabled, "flat-volumes" re-adjusts all inputs/outputs when you change one, supposedly to maintain the balance between them. The actual result is that volumes gradually reduce and need to be regularly reset. Apparently, this is the way Windoze does it, so the PA devs thought they should too. I disagree - a set level should stay set until *I* change it.
Yes, there is still this deep psychological desire to consider that Windows is the leader in all things and that "it must be obeyed!". I think that we are all glad that Linus has a different brain which thinks outside the square otherwise we all would walking around now crying out, "Eliminate! Eliminate!".
For me, PA is the easiest way to balance audio from different application or hardware sources and route them for recording/playback to multiple hardware/software sinks.
So I have heard from people who have a need to work with multiple sound sources. I find that alsa can handle my sound sources - the TV, CDs, DVDs, streaming radio thru Firefox - perfectly so I am a happy chappy, but obviously your "mileage" is different and pulseaudio suits you better. Oh, I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I had forgotten to install pavucontrol - which for some unknown reason to us mere mortals but obviously known to the "developers" is never installed by default - so I installed it; but after I did pavucontrol had no idea what my sound system was all about -- which is when I ditched the little dear, precious, darling.
Dx
(There have been posts in this mail list from people who suddenly found that they had no sound. I think that the answer to my question would also solve their problem.)
BC
BC -- Using openSUSE 13.2, KDE 4.14.4 & kernel 3.19.0-5 on a system with- AMD FX 8-core 3.6/4.2GHz processor 16GB PC14900/1866MHz Quad Channel RAM Gigabyte AMD3+ m/board; Gigabyte nVidia GTX660 GPU -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (2)
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Basil Chupin -
Dylan