Re: I think that the current state of ALSA is poor

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On Sun, Dec 01, 2013 at 09:16:28PM +0200, D.T.au wrote:
> 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.

Nope. There is something wrong if your system doesn't work out of the
box because something is broken by someone in some place.

> 
> 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

You don't need to tell me that Linux != Windows. Personally, I don't
dream about Linux being another Windows in terms of popularity but
your attitude shown above makes it worse for all of us.
 
> 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: 
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> ......................................................................
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> ......................................................................
> 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.
> 
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-- 
<wempwer@xxxxxxxxx>


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