CrunchBang Linux

apnea

New Member

Registered: 2011-05-07

Posts: 7

Cannot choose audio device in mixer

Hi,

Having a hard time figuring out how to make audio device selection work on my Statler desktop - can anyone help pls?

All devices work, in fact Skype (but only Skype) lets me choose any of them in working order. For all other apps only the intel device plays, and the usb device is visible in the various mixers, selectable, but does not play (occasionally this pattern is reversed on boot with usb playing and intel silent).

These are the devices:

>more /proc/asound/cards
 0 [Intel          ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
                      HDA Intel at 0xfbff8000 irq 53
 1 [U0x46d0x8ce    ]: USB-Audio - USB Device 0x46d:0x8ce
                      USB Device 0x46d:0x8ce at usb-0000:00:1a.7-4, high speed
 2 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech Wireless Headset
                      Logitech Logitech Wireless Headset at usb-0000:00:1d.1-2, full speed

I've tried a number of approaches (e.g. here http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … ult-mixer/) to manually select a particular device without success.  I've also tried configuring a .asoundrc file and defaulting the headset usb device.  This results in the headset being shown as primary device in, say, alsamixer but still intel is the only one audible.

>more ~/.asoundrc
pcm.Intel { type hw; card Intel; }
ctl.Intel { type hw; card Intel; }
pcm.U0x46d0x8ce { type hw; card U0x46d0x8ce; }
ctl.U0x46d0x8ce { type hw; card U0x46d0x8ce; }
pcm.Headset { type hw; card Headset; }
ctl.Headset { type hw; card Headset; }
pcm.!default pcm.Headset
ctl.!default ctl.Headset

So, I've run out of ideas...  Clearly Skype can do it but somehow the mixers cant (?).  BTW, various live CDs (mints, ubuntus, fedoras) appear to work with all devices switchable from the default mixer...  Any ideas pls?

Cheers!

Pete

mynis01

#! Die Hard

From: 127.0.0.1

Registered: 2010-07-02

Posts: 2,005

Re: Cannot choose audio device in mixer

Statler uses the xfce4 mixer which doesn't have an option to select your default sound card (why I'm not sure, they could include it with out making the mixer too "bloated" if you ask me). When you select a sound card in xfce4-mixer you are just choosing which sound card you wish to alter the volume levels for. Plenty of other apps (such as vlc, the default media player in statler) allow you to select which alsa device you would like to use just like skype does. However a lot of apps, like web browsers, will just use whatever device alsa decided to use as it's default card during startup. There are two ways I use to change the default card via terminal. The easiest is to use the python app asoundconf. There is a thread about it and a link to download it here. The other, more complicated and more perminant way, is to go into /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf and blacklist all of the cards besides the one you want to use. This is only advisable if you want to only use one sound card on the machine, ever. Just type

cat /proc/asound/modules

to get the name of the card(s) you want to blacklist. For example, mine yields

 0 snd_ice1712
 1 snd_hda_intel

Now say I want to blacklist the intel card, at the bottom of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf I would add the line

options snd-hda-intel index=-2

This can also be useful if you want to disable hdmi sound over hdmi on an nvidia video card. For example I always have PCI or USB audio interfaces in my machines, so I added the line

options snd-hda-nvidia index=-2

Or you can just use the asoundconf method which is probably a lot easier. Just be aware that if you use asoundconf to set the default card to your usb device, and then you start the machine up without the usb device plugged in, it will fall back to a card that it can detect, and you will have to run asoundconf and manually set the device to the default card after you plug it in.

apnea

New Member

Registered: 2011-05-07

Posts: 7

Re: Cannot choose audio device in mixer

Thanks for the info mynis01. It clarified a few things and encouraged me to look a bit further, and I can now consistently switch between devices by modifying a .asoundrc file generated with this script http://alsa.opensrc.org/.asoundrc#Simpl … undrc_file.

However, if I use the asoundconf (with blank .asoundrc) switching to anything but Intel raises 'Configured audiosink bin0 is not working' and 'Potential ALSA version problem:VLC failed to initialize your sound output device (if any).' type errors which I'm following up at the moment   I might just build the latest ALSA when I have the stomach for it I find audio troubleshooting very tedious