[GRLUG] strange audio levels problem

[John-Thomas Richards]

On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 07:48:39AM -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 8:17 PM, John-Thomas Richards <jtr at jrichards.org> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 02:58:21PM -0400, Michael Mol wrote:
> >> One thing to try:
> >>
> >> Switch to using a custom X session for some diagnostics. Rather than
> >> launching a full wm of any kind, just launch xterm. (Not konsole or
> >> gnome-terminal or anything like that)
> >
> > Haven't used twm in a decade or so.  twm at 1920x1080 looks a lot like
> > twm at 800x600.  :-)
> 
> I wasn't going to recommend using any window manager at all, but twm
> should be simple enough.

For some reason starting x from the console with just xterm bails on the
Synaptics touchpad.  twm was the quickest way to get 99% plain x.

> >> If Pulse is running with the ALSA hook enabled, then any app which
> >> accesses ALSA for playback will launch Pulse, assuming Pulse has its
> >> configuration cookie lodged with your running X session. Once you boot
> >> into an X session which only has an xterm, you should be in as clean
> >> an X environment as is possible. Run 'ps' and verify the Pulse daemon
> >> isn't running. Now use alsamixer to check your levels.
> >
> > alsamixer doesn't show the soundcard; it shows a "dummy" sound level at
> > 100.
> 
> That would be the ALSA Pulse daemon, most likely. What's the output of
> 'alsa-info'?

I have no such file/command.

> > Since the card doesn't show up, I installed xdm and wdm to see what is
> > loading pulse.  Openbox is loading it.  Twm does not.  gdm3 could be,
> > but even if it is not Openbox is.
> 
> I don't know enough about Openbox to make a whole lot of
> recommendations there. If it has some kind of applet or panel system,
> there might be sound settings coming in from those as they come up.

When I start twm via gdm3 Pulse is running, which means gdm3 is starting
it for me (since twm is certainly not starting it).   And the levels are
random.  My guess is gdm3 is messing with them.

Here is something that is odd.  I stopped the display manager and x
altogether, and rebooted into multiuser without x.  I logged in at the
console.  Pulse was not running anywhere on the system, by any user.  I
ran alsamixer from the console and the levels were jacked again.  I set
them and stored them (as root, `alsactl store').  Rebooted (so as to
ensure a clean environment) and checked alsamixer again.  The levels are
being jacked by Pulse itself, it appears.

> Also, I'd assumed you were already running xdm or some such. If you're
> accustomed to using startx, then 'startx xterm' would get you to that
> barebones X environment I was talking about earlier. That's probably
> not very relevant at this point, though.

For some reason startx isn't working.  That bothers me.  On a laptop I
generally run a display manager.  It bails with these errors in
/var/log:

[150164.895] (EE) Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
[150164.895] (--) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad: no supported touchpad
found
[150164.895] (EE) SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad Unable to query/initialize
Synaptics hardware.
[150164.896] (EE) PreInit returned 11 for "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad"

[snip]
-- 
john-thomas
------
Metaphysics means only an unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly
and consistently.
William James

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