I agree that sound should just work. And I'm still kind of surprised that a) we have to configure it with a text file. And b) twenty years later, that's still the case for the most part. Not that I think that we should give up the command line even in part. Alsamixer isn't intuitive, but it is semi-user friendly IMO. It's far from perfect. But you launch it with alsamixer and exit with the escape key (aka boss key). Cursor up is up in volume, cursor down is down in volume. The "M" key for mute and unmute. The tab key to switch between playback and capture is not that intuitive. It should probably default to "ALL" IMO. But it does have the typical F1 help screen. Although I'm not sure of the accessibility options at this time. There does appear to be a bug report filed on it. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/430937 Although that dates back to 2009 and karmic. And the fix seems to be to install gnome-alsamixer and turn up master F. I still think that alsamixer is the route to fix it and it's just a level setting. http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-driver.git;a=blob_plain;f=utils/alsa-info.sh $ sh alsa-info.sh And the output (in /tmp) for that one should give you information on your card. Take note of the mixer part for "Master". I've used aumix in the past. But if you have more than one card or other things, it can be wrong / useless more often than not. Although it's still the only way to tell some soundcards to record from PCM out IME. I've never found a way to affect that setting in any other way, in the manner needed. Even though I can see the effect of that change in the output of amixer. HTH, - James On 5/20/11, Y P <yellowpenguin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello James: > > On Thu, May 19, 2011 at 09:59:01AM -0500, James Shatto wrote: >> The first step would be to see if it's even an ALSA issue. > > I had to say first of all I'm not using Flash nor graphical mixers since I'm > a VIP - vision impaired person; sometimes I use the Orca screen reader but > my current/daily usage of Gnu/Linux OSes is command-line. Sorry if I forgot > to precise this before. > >>With flash >> video (youtube) there's a speaker icon and a slider which affects the >> volume. I recently noticed hulu had my levels way low with such an >> icon. With mplayer there's a softvol option which might differ from >> the levels set in alsa. > > Yes but you can't go louder than the maximum of volume-level, so the problem > remains. > >>And of course alsamixer to actually set your >> levels. > > I'm not using any alsamixer, it is not user-friendly so I prefer adding > oss-compat, libsox-fmt-all and aumix, and adjust then the volumes -v -w -W > -s at the commandline. > > I'm afraid it is really an ALSA/Pulse problem: I just googled with the > keywords "ALSA+Pulse+netbook+very+low+volume+output+problem" and Google gave > me about 7 screens of results. > > The reasons why I believe the problem is really an ALSA+Pulse issue are: > - one of the Google results talks about an upgrade from an Ubuntu 9.10; I've > got a volume-problem since upgrading my Ubuntu Intrepid just a few weeks > ago, but before the release of the newest / latest Natty (11.04); so if some > other people encounter the problem with the same Intel hda chip in Ubuntu > 9.10 (Maverick) I had probably upgraded to the problem while I hadn't it > before ? > - from the Google results I see that the problem is not bound to one > specific distribution, that explains why the problem also occurs in the > Debian Squeeze; there is also a low level on headset, so the problem is > really bound to sound output, not to the distribution. > >> technically nothing is broke and nothing needs >> fixing. If the levels are set and maxed out and the problem persists, >> then it could be an alsa issue. > > I will probably try to install a fresh Squeeze on my Hercules eCAFE; at this > moment the output-volume of my 11.04 is normal, loud is loud, maxed is quite > too loud! > The major difference with the freshly installed Debian on my EEE where I've > got Ubuntu Intrepid before is, that maxed the volumes are stil too low, > impossible to stream radio and puting your machine as background-radio. > >>Although I'd extract the audio >> content being played and look at it in audacity to see if it's not >> just the content to verify the potential source. > > I'm not using audacity at all since that tool is graphical. > The difference I noticed you can hear it at boot time: before the problem I > was able to hear clearly the Ubuntu tamtam at gdm login, > at this moment I hear the Espeak voice in Debian's gdm login very very far > away, it's unusable ! > > IMHO there is a very important crucial bug happend a few versions ago and > that causes a volume difference of 32 dB or probably much more. > >>Just a power user >> here and nothing really current version wise on my end to have that >> issue or know much about it myself. But it'd be nice to know how to >> fix it, if I do run into it. > > I will continue to surf and have a look around to fix it, but I'm for sure > not the only one, please Google with the above keywords: this is a crucial > problem taht undermine for me each new planned installation of Gnu/Linux on > new potential users! How can I defend free and opensource software if the > first thing they need, sound, is not working correctly ! That's a big > moral problem for me (not sure about the English termonology, appology!). > > I will feedback anyway but if some advanced guru had worked out some > solution, I will be the first but probably not the last to appreciate if > they tell us the way to resolve this! > > Thanx, > > Y)ellow P)enguin > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What Every C/C++ and Fortran developer Should Know! 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