hello, most of the examples you are giving are not about alsa but about other sound architectures that build on top of that, and software. i think you might want to do some reading, e.g. here: http://tuxradar.com/content/how-it-works-linux-audio-explained maybe you'll notice that the writer of this article is critical, like you, but not complaining. i really don't understand the complaining tone you are using; there's nothing wrong with opening a config file and editing a few settings. btw, if you have 2 soundcards you can also set the default permanently, so it becomes hw:0,0 again. i feel like reacting to your last sentence but i won't. but maybe you'd like to read this: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm i think alsa does things well and works nicely on my machine. but it's a book with 7 seals to me, and i heard people say it's notoriously underdocumented. which is probably the reason why it's so hard to find solutions to problems. also, being lightweight _always_ means more configuration has to be made by hand. or none. so much from me. d. On Sun, 1 Dec 2013 19:14:38 +0100 wempwer@xxxxxxxxx wrote: > On my way to become an advanced Linux user I started to learn > ALSA. However, it seems that ALSA, and sound system in general on > Linux, is in a pretty bad state at the moment. Here are the examples - > don't get me wrong, fix me if I got things wrong: > > 1) my work computer with Ubuntu has HDA Intel PCH soundcard > installed. Moving PCM slider in alsamixer or muting it has no > effect. This happens both when pulseaudio server is stopped and > running. Moreover, manipulating volume slider inside pavucontrol > results in higher volume than when Master and Speakers are set to > maximum in alsamixer alone. That means, if I set a maximum volume > inside pavucontrol I can hear sound louder because even if volume is > set to maximum in alsamixer it is only about 50% in pavucontrol. > > 2) my home laptop HP Pavilion DV6 3015ew with Slackware has HDA ATI SB > soundcard installed. Here, moving PCM slider in alsamixer changes > volume correctly but PCM cannot be muted. Nothing happens in alsamixer > when I press `m', and amixer says: > > $ amixer set PCM mute > amixer: Invalid command! > > pulseaudio is not running here. Why is PCM observed behavior not > coherent between 1) and 2) ? > > 3) my Toshiba n550d netbook has 2 soundcards - alsamixer shows > "HD-Audio Generic" and "HDA ATI SB". What is bad is that the first > card is set as default but it has no controls in alsamixer apart from > "S/PDIF". Why this has happened? It brings some problems in programs > that pick the first available card and treat it as default. For > example, mocp says: > > Running the server... > Trying OSS... > > FATAL_ERROR: No valid sound driver > > FATAL_ERROR: Server exited > > I needed to the following to $HOME/.moc/config: > > AlsaDevice = hw:1,0 > > 4) What's the relationship between Alsa, PulseAudio and OSS? On my HP > Pavilion laptop I installed Linphone, a cool SIP client but I wasn't > able to use it with my in-built mic until I set capture device to > "OSS: /dev/dsp" in Linphone. I was looking for some general > information on how to configure a microphone and I found this: > http://alsa.opensrc.org/Record_from_mic. However, this guide contains > expressions such as "I am not sure about that" or "Other things to > try: " and a list of random thoughts follows. And about PulseAudio, I > remember back in days that killing PulseAudio was the very first thing > to do after starting the system to able to hear any sound at all. > > 5) My parents have Acer Aspire d255. It has some problems with > in-built microphone - it doesn't work. This bug describes it: > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...er/+bug/940841. Does anybody > know if this problem is solved now in new kernel, new ALSA or is it > solved at all? My parents are computer illiterate, they used to have > Windows 7 Starter on this machine but it took it like 15 minutes to > start so I removed it and installed Ubuntu for them. Now I have to > explain to them why the microphone doesn't work out of the box. > > 6) A few months ago I got myself Creative bluetooth speakers. I have > the following in my ~/.asoundrc.conf: > > Quote: > pcm.bluetooth { > type bluetooth > device 00:02:3C:20:1D:5E > } > > pcm.!default { > type plug > slave.pcm "bluetooth" > } > > Some programs such as xmms2 can pick these settings correctly and play > music on speakers, but some others such as mplayer can't do that and I > always have to pass "-ao alsa:device=bluetooth" what's really annoying > (I could create an alias for that but it's just a workaround and not a > real solution). What's even more, I can't play sound in 2 programs > simultaneously - only one program at a time can play sound. If I open > a flash video in Firefox, I need to close it before I can play a song > in xmms2. xmms2 for example is saying: > > Please check that: > > Your sound card is configured properly > You have the correct output plugin selected > No other program is blocking the sound card > > That's all. I am quite worried about all of these. It makes me thing > that Linux is still not ready for wider adoption amongst casual users. > ...................................................................... Olen siirtymässä uuteen s-posti-osoitteeseen, viimeistä kertaa ikinä! Sen pitäisi jo näkyä tämän viestin otsikossa (lähettäjä), mutta tässä se on: ---> danter ät iki piste fi <--- Ole hyvä ja päivitä ositekirjasi. Jos ihmettelet miksi, ja miksi viimeista kertaa, katso tästä: iki.fi ...................................................................... I am changing my email-address, hopefully for the last time ever! It should show in this message's header (From), but here it is again: ---> danter ät iki dot fi <--- Please update your address book. If you're wondering why, and why the last time ever, read here: iki.fi ...................................................................... Ich wechsele meine email-adresse, hoffentlich das letzte mal für immer! Man müsste sie im kopf dieser nachricht schon sehen, aber hier ist sie nochmal: ---> danter ät iki punkt fi <--- Bitte aktualisiere dein Adressbuch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Rapidly troubleshoot problems before they affect your business. Most IT organizations don't have a clear picture of how application performance affects their revenue. With AppDynamics, you get 100% visibility into your Java,.NET, & PHP application. 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