Fedora 16: No sound after the latest Software Update+Reboot

[Harry]

Hello,

I was already running a fairly up-to-date FC16 just fine and could play back sound just fine until yesterday; I only had problems getting my microphone to work for the first time.

So, I thought, I'd troubleshoot my mic problems only after doing the latest software update... because, you never know, the update just might 'automatically' solve my mic problems.

However, after doing the latest software update (using the Gnome GUI version of the Software Update program) followed by a reboot, I'm realizing -- to my horror-- that even my playback functionality has ceased to work now.

That is, I cannot any more hear any sound whatsoever!

Earlier, I posted this on FedoraForum.org (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?p=1597363 ) but I'm still awaiting a helpful response. The FedoraForum.org thread link also has the output of my `alsa-info.sh` (which I'm not including here inline; I could, if forum etiquette here requires it).

Now, I have no idea how ALSA, PulseAudio, JACK, OSS, etc work individually or together at the enduser level. Would greatly appreciate if you could help me quickly get my sound back.

Regards,
/HS

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had all those issues some time ago but debian finally caught up.

I THINK that reinstalling gnome sound and reconfiguring it may work.

Have a look in system->preferences->sound and see what selectable
options there are.

Use alsa if possible

You may have lost the sound driver in the upgrade as well..


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

[J G Miller]

On Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 at 15:00:02h +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> I THINK that reinstalling gnome sound and reconfiguring it may work.

There is surely no need to reinstall gnome sound, but to fire
up pavucontrol and check the default sync and source and setting
the levels for the input and output devices appropriately.

It may also be necessary to adjust sound at the ALSA level
using alsamixer.

> Use alsa if possible

I doubt that Fedora installs OSS.

> You may have lost the sound driver in the upgrade as well..

Really? Certainly possible but highly unlikely.

It is also possible that the loudspeakers are not powered up
or that the cable has become detached.

The most probable cause is that the volume control at the ALSA level
is either set too low or possibly muted, or that the default
sync and source for pulseaudio is the wrong device.

The ALSA device becoming muted or level too low happens quite
frequently due to a bug in pulseaudio when the devices are
"restored" during pulseaudio initialization.

[Harry]

On Wednesday, August 15, 2012 7:38:46 PM UTC+5:30, J G Miller wrote:
> On Wednesday, August 15th, 2012 at 15:00:02h +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>
> It is also possible that the loudspeakers are not powered up
> or that the cable has become detached.

This is definitely not the case here. I have tried earphones as well as my loud-speakers. In fact, I noticed this 'no sound' problem immediately following my software update and reboot during which time the speakers remained physically intact, turned on, and connected.

> > I THINK that reinstalling gnome sound and reconfiguring it may work.
>
> There is surely no need to reinstall gnome sound, but to fire
> up pavucontrol and check the default sync and source and setting
> the levels for the input and output devices appropriately.

In pavucontrol, I noticed that my 'Configuration|Profile' was not matching the profile set in 'Gnome|Sound Settings'. I have set the Profile to 'Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input' now.

All volume levels are now 100% for output and > 100% for input, with nothing muted.

There's no trace of 'sync' and 'source' settings anywhere, though.

> It may also be necessary to adjust sound at the ALSA level
> using alsamixer.

In the 'Select Sound Card' option, I was being shown these 3 choices:
a) - (default)
b) 0 HDA Intel PCH
c) enter device name...

Option (a) was chosen on initial invocation of the program. I tried to choose option (b) and set all levels to 100%, with nothing muted.

However, running alsamixer again showed up option (a) again. I'm assuming this is okay. Only 2 knobs -- Master and Capture -- are made available with option (a); both appear to be set to 100%.

> The most probable cause is that the volume control at the ALSA level
> is either set too low or possibly muted, or that the default
> sync and source for pulseaudio is the wrong device.

Where do I find 'source' and 'sync' settings?

> The ALSA device becoming muted or level too low happens quite
> frequently due to a bug in pulseaudio when the devices are
> "restored" during pulseaudio initialization.

I believe the levels and the muting have been taken care of, at least now.

So, what do I do now?

[J G Miller]

On Wednesday, August 15th, 2012, at 17:40:49h -0700, Harry explained:

> This is definitely not the case here.

I did not think it was the case, just as much as I thought it was
highly unlikely that your ALSA sound modules had been removed during
the upgrade.

> In pavucontrol, I noticed that my 'Configuration|Profile' was not matching
> the profile set in 'Gnome|Sound Settings'. I have set the Profile to
> 'Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input' now.

Okay it is good to keep things consistent.

> All volume levels are now 100% for output and > 100% for input,
> with nothing muted.

Well it is important to check that nothing is muted but in general it
is a good idea to set the input and output levels to somewhere between
70% and no more than 86% maximimum in an initial configuration.

> There's no trace of 'sync' and 'source' settings anywhere, though.

To explain -- the sync is the outptut of the pulseaudio and source
is the input. So in your case the sync is the ALSA sound card device
associated with "Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output" and the source is
the ALSA sound card device associated with "Analog Stereo Input".

Now if you have loudspeakers or headphones, why have you selected
the sync (pulseaudio output) to "Digital Stereo (HDMI) output"?

That is sending the sound output to the socket where you have
presumably an HDMI cable inserted connected to some device with
HDMI input on the other end.

If you want to hear sounds from your loudspeakers which are presumably
connected to your analog stereo output of your sound card (or
motherboard onboard sound device) you must select as output
device for your sound card "analog stereo output" and thus the
profile would probably be "Analog Stereo Output + Analog Stereo Input"

> In the 'Select Sound Card' option, I was being shown these 3 choices:
> a) - (default)
> b) 0 HDA Intel PCH
> c) enter device name...

Okay that looks fine and it appears you have only have a on the motherboard
sound card device.

The default entry is in fact pulseaudio because distributions now set up
the default device for ALSA to be pulseaudio, which then sends it back
to the ALSA hardware device which is the item sound card 0 (HDA Intel).

So for the default in alsamixer (vis pulseaudio) you will only see
two controls as you did -- output level and capture level.

Selecting sound card 0, which you could actually get directly by
invoking alsamixer with alsamixer -D hw:0 (sound cards are numbered
starting from 0) you will then see all the individual mixer controls
for your actual sound card device viz analog output, microphone input
during playback, digital (SPDIF or optical) input/outputs etc.

By hitting F4 you can go to the capture level controls, F6 for both
playback and capture, and F3 to go back to just playback only.

> So, what do I do now?

It seems to me that your problem is you have selected the wrong profile --
profile is a pulseaudio item for selecting both the sync and source in
one go. I suggest you try changing the sync from HDMI output to
analog stereo output by choosing the appropriate profile
"Analog stereo output + Analog stereo input" as suggested above if
you wish to hear sounds from your analog stereo loudspeakers.

[Harry]

You were right about the profile: I'd chosen the one which just 'sounded right' namewise, even though behaviorally it wasn't sounding right at all! :-) Now, I have selected the profile as 'Analog Stereo Duplex' and I have managed to get my playback back. Thanks!

Which brings me back to square one:

------------------------------------
How to get the microphone to work?
------------------------------------

This is an external microphone.

When I could not record a test call with Skype, I tried gnome-sound-recoder. The latter gives me only one choice called 'Capture' in the 'Record from input:' dropdown. I recorded my voice sample as 'Voice, Lossless (.wav type)'.

Result? When I play it back, I hear nothing.

In the program padevchooser, choosing the 'Volume Control...' menu gives the following tabs:
- Playback
- Recording
- Output Devices
- Input Devices
- Configuration

On the 'Input Devices' tab, I see the device as 'Internal Audio Analog Stereo'. The 'Front Left' and 'Front Right' levels are set to 92% (just temporarily for testing, I'll set them back to your recommended range later when things get working).

The 'Recording' tab shows an entry while I try to record using gnome-sound-recorder; later, it shows 'No application is currently recording audio.'. So, this tab is okay.

So, any idea how to get the mic working?

(I could start a new thread if necessary.)

[J G Miller]

On Thursday, August 16th, 2012, at 05:08:46h -0700, Harry asked:

> How to get the microphone to work?

Training? The right salary? Health benefits?

Try plugging it into the microphone socket? ;)

So assuming that it is plugged into the microphone socket (often
colored pink on modern sound cards or onboard devices) it should
just be a case of adjusting the levels.

Again fire up alsamixer.

On the default (pulseaudio) check the master capture level by
hitting F4 (as I explained in the last posting) to take you to
the Capture page and adjust the sound level to around 84%.

You also need to ensure that capture is activated -- as you recall
using M to mute or unmute your sound devices, so you use <SPACE>
to turn on or off capture. You will see a red "L R capture"
when so activated.

Now hit F6 and go to the actual ALSA hardware device, your
onboard Intel HD sound card.

You should note in the description at the top that you are
on the capture and playback page. So go along with the right
arrow keys and check the level for microphone (probably labeled
<Front Mic>. You will then need to move along and check that
the Capture is set to on and if there is more than one of them
it may need to be a trial and error to find which one is tied
to the microphone.

To do this, fire up

pavumeter --record

and whilst talking into the microphone check which one you need
to turn on to cause the meter of pavumeter to respond to sound.

Once you see the level on the meter fluctuating you know that the
sound being picked up by the microphone is being passed through
the sound card. Then when you use parecord or gnome sound recorder,
your recorded file should have some sounds in it.

So you see it is not a case of getting the microphone to work:
it is a case of ensuring that the signals from the microphone
cable get processed by the sound card by adjusting the levels
appropriately and making sure that the sound card is "capturing"
those signals.

[Harry]

On Thursday, August 16, 2012 5:58:11 PM UTC+5:30, J G Miller wrote:
> On Thursday, August 16th, 2012, at 05:08:46h -0700, Harry asked:
>
>
>
> > How to get the microphone to work?
>
>
>
> Training? The right salary? Health benefits?

:-)

I first fire up pavumeter --record.

On pressing F4, the moment I press <SPACE> to turn on capturing, the Front Left/Right levels in pavumeter automatically start fluctuating (before I even start speaking into the Mic, probably due to background noise).

When I go to the F6 screen, I see available 3 Mic's: Front Mic, Line, Rear Mic... with the Line showing as currently captured (because of my earlier capturing action on F4 screen). Trying to capture the other 2 Mic's (Front and Rear) causes the auto-fluctuations in pavumeter to disappear. I call these auto-fluctuations because they happen without my speaking into the Mic.

Thus, with the Line mic captured and with the levels sufficiently high, I cannot get my voice to record via gnome-sound-recorder. All I hear is static/noise during playback.

[Harry]

In audacity, if I select the Recording device to be hardware device ('HDA Intel PCH: CONEXANT Analog (hw:0,0): Front Mic:0' instead of 'pulse'), I can record/playback fine. But this is not good enough because apps like Skype don't give an option to choose the hardware device.

[J G Miller]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 06:43:51 -0700, Harry wrote:

> I first fire up pavumeter --record.

Okay.

> On pressing F4, the moment I press <SPACE> to turn on capturing

On which control?

> the Front Left/Right levels in pavumeter automatically start fluctuating

Yes that is normal if the level is just fluctuating only a very little

> (before I even start speaking into the Mic, probably due to background noise).

Is it more than 1-5% of the bar though?

> When I go to the F6 screen, I see available 3 Mic's: Front Mic, Line, Rear Mic...

So do you have your microphone plugged into Front Microphone socket
or Rear Microphone socket?

The line socket is "onlt" for eg analog stereo out from a radio or an MP3 player etc
and not microphones.

The impedance of the microphone sockets is high for the microphone and
so it is important to ensure that you have the microphone in the microphone
socket and not the line socket and similarly for analog stereo line
out from other (radio, MP3 etc) devices these need to go into the line socket
not the microphone socket.

> Trying to capture the other 2 Mic's (Front and Rear) causes the auto-fluctuations
> in pavumeter to disappear.

It could be that your chosen pulse audio profile (Duplex) is thus using line input as
the pulseaudio "source" rather than the microphone. Thus if you want to just
do it the easy way via pavucontrol then you need to go the input devices
tab and ensure that the input device is set to "Microphone" and not "Line In".

If you want to double check at the command line then

pactl list sources | egrep Active

Active Port: analog-input-microphone

will shew you which source device that pulseaudio is using.

pactl list sources will shew you full information about your source devices
(microphone, line etc) and for the microphone to be chosen as the Active Device
over the line in, you will see that the priority is set higher (done by
changing the input device in pavucontrol as detailed above).

Ports:
analog-input-microphone: Microphone (priority: 8700)
analog-input-linein: Line In (priority: 8100)

> Thus, with the Line mic captured

Please do not confuse "line in" with microphone (see explanation of difference above).

The reason why all this is so complicated is because sound cards are
complicated (lots of input and output ports) and because sound on Linux
us multi-tiered -- pulseaudio running on top of ALSA (user library interface)
which runs on top of the ALSA modules (kernel interface to hardware).

Once you get the feel for the controls alsamixer and pavucontrol you should
be proficient at changing the levels and sound input/output devices on
one sound card or even to/from multiple sound devices
(eg USB headset, USB telephone etc).

Once you have adjusted levels on alsamixer you should only ever need to then
use pavucontrol but sometimes pulseaudio, due to a bug, turns down the sound
at the ALSA level or even mutes the device, which is why it is necessary to
do a check there.

[J G Miller]

On Thursday, August 16th, 2012, at 07:12:36h -0700, Harry explained:

> In audacity, if I select the Recording device to be hardware device
> ('HDA Intel PCH: CONEXANT Analog (hw:0,0): Front Mic:0' instead of 'pulse'),
> I can record/playback fine.

That is an excellent test at the ALSA level shewing that everything is
actually working as it should.

I should have explained that it is always best to test at the ALSA
level first and then when it is known to be working there, then move
to the pulseaudio level (pavucontrol, pavumeter, parecord etc).

So now you just need to go, as I explained in the other posting, into
pavucontrol to the Input Devices tab and ensure that it is set to
"Front Microphone" and not "Line In" or "Rear Microphone".

> But this is not good enough because apps like Skype don't give an option
> to choose the hardware device.

No because they rewrote Skype to only use pulseaudio and show the pulseaudio
"device" options if it detects that the pulseaudio process is running.

[Harry]

On Thursday, August 16, 2012 7:50:11 PM UTC+5:30, J G Miller wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 06:43:51 -0700, Harry wrote:
>
>
>
> > I first fire up pavumeter --record.
>
>
>
> Okay.
>
>
>
> > On pressing F4, the moment I press <SPACE> to turn on capturing
>
>
>
> On which control?

'Control' meaning?? On pressing F4, I'm taken to the Capture page that shows only one 'control'. By 'controls', I'm taking it that you mean a set of vertical bars that you can scroll thru with left/right arrow keys. On this page, there is only one such vertical bar which I just select with a <SPACE>.

> > the Front Left/Right levels in pavumeter automatically start fluctuating
>
>
>
> Yes that is normal if the level is just fluctuating only a very little

Yes, it's only a little.

> > (before I even start speaking into the Mic, probably due to background noise).
>
>
>
> Is it more than 1-5% of the bar though?

No, it's very little.

>
> > When I go to the F6 screen, I see available 3 Mic's: Front Mic, Line, Rear Mic...
>
>
>
> So do you have your microphone plugged into Front Microphone socket
>
> or Rear Microphone socket?

It's plugged into the Front microphone socket of my workstation.

> The line socket is "onlt" for eg analog stereo out from a radio or an MP3 player etc
>
> and not microphones.

Ok.

> The impedance of the microphone sockets is high for the microphone and
>
> so it is important to ensure that you have the microphone in the microphone
>
> socket and not the line socket and similarly for analog stereo line
>
> out from other (radio, MP3 etc) devices these need to go into the line socket
>
> not the microphone socket.

Ok, I get it now (the difference between Line and Microphone).

> > Trying to capture the other 2 Mic's (Front and Rear) causes the auto-fluctuations
>
> > in pavumeter to disappear.
>
>
>
> It could be that your chosen pulse audio profile (Duplex) is thus using line input as
>
> the pulseaudio "source" rather than the microphone. Thus if you want to just
>
> do it the easy way via pavucontrol then you need to go the input devices
>
> tab and ensure that the input device is set to "Microphone" and not "Line In".
>
>
>
> If you want to double check at the command line then
>
>
>
> pactl list sources | egrep Active
>
>
>
> Active Port: analog-input-microphone
>
>
>
> will shew you which source device that pulseaudio is using.
>
>
>
> pactl list sources will shew you full information about your source devices
>
> (microphone, line etc) and for the microphone to be chosen as the Active Device
>
> over the line in, you will see that the priority is set higher (done by
>
> changing the input device in pavucontrol as detailed above).
>
>
>
> Ports:
>
> analog-input-microphone: Microphone (priority: 8700)
>
> analog-input-linein: Line In (priority: 8100)

This is what I get from commandline:

$ pactl list sources | egrep Active
Active Port: analog-output-headphones
Active Profile: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo


My pavucontrol doesn't let me select sources and sinks. In fact, it doesn't even show sources and sinks; only the program padevchooser shows sources and sinks.

In my pavucontrol, on the Input Devices tab, all you can change is the Front Left/Right levels. There is also a parallel Configurations tab with the following profiles in a dropdown:
a. Analog Stereo Duplex
b. Analog Stereo Output
c. Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input
d. Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output
e. Analog Stereo Input
f. Off

If I choose the 'Manager...' menu in padevchooser program, I'm taken to PulseAudio Manager app. In this app, there is a Devices tab that lists the Sinks and the Sources and their detailed properties. I'm just listing here the top-level items from this tab (without their detailed properties, that is):

Sinks
1. Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Desc: Internal Audio analog Stereo

Sources:
1. Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Desc: Internal Audio analog Stereo

2. Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
Desc: Monitor of Internal Audio analog Stereo

So, as you can see, there's no 'Line' listed anywhere here.

> The reason why all this is so complicated is because sound cards are
>
> complicated (lots of input and output ports) and because sound on Linux
>
> us multi-tiered -- pulseaudio running on top of ALSA (user library interface)
>
> which runs on top of the ALSA modules (kernel interface to hardware).
>
>
>
> Once you get the feel for the controls alsamixer and pavucontrol you should
>
> be proficient at changing the levels and sound input/output devices on
>
> one sound card or even to/from multiple sound devices
>
> (eg USB headset, USB telephone etc).
>
>
>
> Once you have adjusted levels on alsamixer you should only ever need to then
>
> use pavucontrol but sometimes pulseaudio, due to a bug, turns down the sound
>
> at the ALSA level or even mutes the device, which is why it is necessary to
>
> do a check there.

Very much appreciate all this bonus info, thanks!

[J G Miller]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:01:14 -0700, Harry wrote:

> 'Control' meaning?? On pressing F4, I'm taken to the Capture page that
> shows only one 'control'

If it is only shewing one control that will be for the pulseaudio
"virtual device". Having set that to actively capture, you then
need to move on the ALSA sound card and set the levels there.

But as you have already indicated with audacity, you do not in
fact need to change anything there because the levels there are
set correctly.

> By 'controls', I'm taking it that you mean a set of vertical bars
> that you can scroll thru with left/right arrow keys.

Well the vertical bars are the levels applicable to a particular
sub-device on the sound card. When I wrote "which control" I should
really have written "control for which sub device"

The ALSA command line program amixer calls them controls (mixer controls
is what they are) and you can see the complete list for sound
card 0 at the command line with

amixer -D hw:0

withouth the -D hw:0 you would just see the "controls" for the
pulseaudio virtual default device.

> Yes, it's only a little.

Okay that is all to be expected then.

> This is what I get from commandline:
>
> $ pactl list sources | egrep Active
> Active Port: analog-output-headphones
> Active Profile: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo

Something is seriously amiss here. Your active port says
analog-output-headphones for sources (an input) when headphones
are an output device and should only be listed as a sink.

(OOPS I have been making a homophonic error -- where I wrote "sync"
previously I should have been writing "sink"!!!)

To make things clearer, a diagram to shew the relationship between
ALSA output and pulseaudio sink, and ALSA input and pulseaudio source


speakers <-- line out <-- pulseaudio <-- ALSA hw:0 Front
socket Analog output

*sink* *output*



microphone <-- Mic Front <-- pulseaudio <-- ALSA hw:0 Front Mic
socket Analog input

*source* *input*

> My pavucontrol doesn't let me select sources and sinks.

It should do, except it hides the term "source" behind
"Input Device" and the term "sink" behind "Output Device"

> In my pavucontrol, on the Input Devices tab, all you can change is the
> Front Left/Right levels.

Hmm, no dropdown style menu labeled "Port"?

Now as you mention you have padevchooser on your system and you are
on Fedora 16 not 17, it must be the case that you are on the older
version of pulseaudio before everything was simplified into the
single pavucontrol and padevchooser disappeared.

So can you try going into padevchooser and check there for
input device and change that for analog stereo input from
"line in" to "microphone"?

If that will not do it, you will have to use the CLI pactl
tool. I also have a shell script which will do the job
and can be used with some configuration files to easily change
from one audio device to another eg microphone on sound
card to microphone on USB headset or microphone on USB phone
with just

set_pulse goes to default sound card input and output
set_pulse headset sets output to USB headphone and input to headphone microphone
set_pulse phone sets output to USB phone and input to USB headphone microphone
set_pulse webcam sets output to default sound card output and input to USB webcam microphone

set_pulse -q show current default pulseaudio input and output

> Sources:
> 1. Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
> Desc: Internal Audio analog Stereo

Somehow you have to get to the next level down on this and
change the "Port" from Line to Microphone. It could be that on
the older pulseaudio version you are using it cannot be
done through the GUI.

[Harry]

On Thursday, August 16, 2012 9:32:03 PM UTC+5:30, J G Miller wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:01:14 -0700, Harry wrote:
>
>
>
> > 'Control' meaning?? On pressing F4, I'm taken to the Capture page that
>
> > shows only one 'control'
>
>
>
> If it is only shewing one control that will be for the pulseaudio
>
> "virtual device". Having set that to actively capture, you then
>
> need to move on the ALSA sound card and set the levels there.
>
>
>
> But as you have already indicated with audacity, you do not in
>
> fact need to change anything there because the levels there are
>
> set correctly.
>
>
>
> > By 'controls', I'm taking it that you mean a set of vertical bars
>
> > that you can scroll thru with left/right arrow keys.
>
>
>
> Well the vertical bars are the levels applicable to a particular
>
> sub-device on the sound card. When I wrote "which control" I should
>
> really have written "control for which sub device"
>

Ok.

>
> The ALSA command line program amixer calls them controls (mixer controls
>
> is what they are) and you can see the complete list for sound
>
> card 0 at the command line with
>
>
>
> amixer -D hw:0
>
>
>
> withouth the -D hw:0 you would just see the "controls" for the
>
> pulseaudio virtual default device.
>

Ok.

>
> > Yes, it's only a little.
>
>
>
> Okay that is all to be expected then.
>
>
>
> > This is what I get from commandline:
>
> >
>
> > $ pactl list sources | egrep Active
>
> > Active Port: analog-output-headphones
>
> > Active Profile: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo
>
>
>
> Something is seriously amiss here. Your active port says
>
> analog-output-headphones for sources (an input) when headphones
>
> are an output device and should only be listed as a sink.
>

>
> (OOPS I have been making a homophonic error -- where I wrote "sync"
>
> previously I should have been writing "sink"!!!)

No issues. I saw it, but didn't want to waste your precious time -- that results in your salary/health benefits -- over a correcting a trivial error, :-).

>
> To make things clearer, a diagram to shew the relationship between
>
> ALSA output and pulseaudio sink, and ALSA input and pulseaudio source
>
>
>
>
>
> speakers <-- line out <-- pulseaudio <-- ALSA hw:0 Front
>
> socket Analog output
>
>
>
> *sink* *output*
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> microphone <-- Mic Front <-- pulseaudio <-- ALSA hw:0 Front Mic
>
> socket Analog input
>
>
>
> *source* *input*
>
>

I had to paste your ascii-diagram into an editor with fixed-sized font to better see. Even then, a line break had already been introduced.
I get it, though.
Very much appreciate the effort you put in.

>
>
> > My pavucontrol doesn't let me select sources and sinks.
>
>
>
> It should do, except it hides the term "source" behind
>
> "Input Device" and the term "sink" behind "Output Device"
>
>
>
> > In my pavucontrol, on the Input Devices tab, all you can change is the
>
> > Front Left/Right levels.
>
>
>
> Hmm, no dropdown style menu labeled "Port"?

Nope. There /is/ a Port dropdown on the Output Devices tab with the choices...
a. Analog Output
b. Analog Headphones

... but /none/ on the Input Devices tab.

> Now as you mention you have padevchooser on your system and you are
>
> on Fedora 16 not 17, it must be the case that you are on the older
>
> version of pulseaudio before everything was simplified into the
>
> single pavucontrol and padevchooser disappeared.
>
>
>
> So can you try going into padevchooser and check there for
>
> input device and change that for analog stereo input from
>
> "line in" to "microphone"?

The padevchooser icon in the "system tray" of my Desktop, shows the following menu only:

Default Server | Default (radiobutton)
Default Server | Other... (radiobutton)

Default Sink | Default (radiobutton)
Default Sink | Other... (radiobutton)

Default Source | Default (radiobutton)
Default Source | Other... (radiobutton)

If I choose any of the "Other..." menus for Server/Sink/Souce, a dialog box pops up with an edit field to specify the Name of the Server/Sink/Source. I don't know what exact string to put in there, so I'm going there with the Default radiobutton for Server/Sink/Source.

>
> If that will not do it, you will have to use the CLI pactl
>
> tool. I also have a shell script which will do the job
>
> and can be used with some configuration files to easily change
>
> from one audio device to another eg microphone on sound
>
> card to microphone on USB headset or microphone on USB phone
>
> with just
>
>
>
> set_pulse goes to default sound card input and output
>
> set_pulse headset sets output to USB headphone and input to headphone microphone
>
> set_pulse phone sets output to USB phone and input to USB headphone microphone
>
> set_pulse webcam sets output to default sound card output and input to USB webcam microphone
>
>
>
> set_pulse -q show current default pulseaudio input and output
>
>
>
> > Sources:
>
> > 1. Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
>
> > Desc: Internal Audio analog Stereo
>
>
>
> Somehow you have to get to the next level down on this and
>
> change the "Port" from Line to Microphone. It could be that on
>
> the older pulseaudio version you are using it cannot be
>
> done through the GUI.

I'm not sure how comfortable you would be sharing your scripts, either publicly with this forum or privately with me. I'm a simple enduser who wants to get his blessed mic working so that he can use Skype.

The other option is to go with Fedora 17. I hope F17 is stable by now and is safe to use, AND more importantly will have no issues with Skype and other apps based on PulseAudio. It typically takes me half a day to get a basic minimum of a installation up and running and an additional day or two to really get all my old environment back (non-std rpms installed from Internet, personal settings, etc). :-(

I will wait for your response (or, one from anyone else) for another day or so before going the F17 route.

Even US Airforce was quite happy with their "F16"... until (probably) PulseAudio forced them to upgrade LOL. I doubt, if (upgrade) time could ever be an issue for them, as long as the upgraded F-?? continues to "play Shockwave".

Thanks for enlightening me on various small (but important) concepts and info!

[JimR]

On 08/15/2012 09:09 AM, Harry wrote:

> That is, I cannot any more hear any sound whatsoever!
>

> /HS

Harry

I had problems when I first installed FC17. I am running the KDE spin,
so I don't know how applicable this will be to the gnome environment.
Maybe it will help, maybe it won't.

I had no sound at all. When I open the Mixer, then select Settings |
Audio Setup and the Audio Hardware Setup tab, the Sound Card selected
defaulted to "High Definition Audio Controller". When I changed this
instead to the "Internal Audio" option, all of my sound problems were
solved.

My computer only has 1 sound board, which is built into the mainboard.

YMMV, but best of luck. I know audio problems in linux can be daunting.

JimR

[Harry]

Jim, thanks for your YMMV note. It would be ideal if someone could tell me how to uninstall ALL of soundcard related drivers, apps, etc and then reinstall them. Otherwise, imagine my frustration on seeing similar problems on F17 also.

[J G Miller]

On Friday, August 17th, 2012, at 01:50:21h -0700, Harry wrote:

> It would be ideal if someone could tell me how to uninstall ALL
> of soundcard related drivers, apps, etc and then reinstall them.

That is the Windoze (tm) way of dealing with problems and rarely
solves the underlying problem.

GNU/Linux is not Windoze and the ALSA kernel modules and user
libraries and pulseaudio software were not created by your sound
card manufacturer for a specific sound card, so all has to be
properly configured either automagically (which can work) but
more often needs to be configured by the user, as is the
case under discussion.

[The Natural Philosopher]

That is the general case in any Linux area which is relatively still a
'moving target'

Sound, scanners and earlier, printers were all such areas. Printers are
pretty much sorted now but sound still is messy.

[J G Miller]

On Thu, 16 Aug 2012 18:56:33 -0700, Harry wrote:

> I get it, though.

Good if you understand the way the audio software is layered, you
have a much better possibility of being able to fix things yourself
because you know you have to check at the different levels viz
is the aprorpriate ALSA kernel module loaded, are the interface
files present under /dev/snd, are the levels set correctly at
the ALSA level and the controls unmuted with alsamixer, and finally
is pulseaudio correctly configured with the appropriate profile
and the input and output devices selected correctly and the master
levels set appropriately.

> Nope. There /is/ a Port dropdown on the Output Devices tab with the choices...
> a. Analog Output
> b. Analog Headphones
>
> ... but /none/ on the Input Devices tab.

And you stated the input device is on analog headphones???

This would seem to me that there is a problem in the profile that
you are using.

> Default Source | Default (radiobutton)

And again, that points to analog headphones???

> Default Source | Other... (radiobutton)
>
> If I choose any of the "Other..." menus for Server/Sink/Souce,
> a dialog box pops up with an edit field to specify the Name of
> the Server/Sink/Source.
> I don't know what exact string to put in there

Okay, so either you are going to have to put in the appropriate
string there, or just use the command line with pactl and pacmd.

But first we must get the exact name of all available sources
(input devices) and hope that microphone is tied to one
of them.

Please can you run the command

pactl list sources

and include the output in your reply (if the following does
not apply and does not work).

I am hoping that on one of the source blocks you will see something like

Ports:
analog-input-microphone: Microphone (priority: 8700)
analog-input-linein: Line In (priority: 8100)

and the next line is currently pointing to line in rather than microphone

Active Port: analog-input-microphone

Because what is required is changing your default source from
analog headphone to analog-stereo and thus for the source block
above we need to get the full name of the source, eg

Name: alsa_input.0.analog-mono

or for you in the case of Intel HD most likely

Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

If it is, then you could just try doing

pacmd set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

Then fire up pavucontrol, go to input devices, which should then
show the above, and hopefully you will then see Ports and you can
select Microphone instead of Line In.

> I'm not sure how comfortable you would be sharing your scripts

I would be happy to share the script although it is rather long
at 611 lines (not including blank lines and comment line separators)
so it is not something that should be posted to the newsgroup.

One reason why it is so lengthy is because of the checks it does,
and also has verbose mode, and provides output in color (where available).

And you do have to do some digging to setup the config files for each
device but since I already have one for a system with Intel HD audio
you may be able to just use that as is, namely

#*****************************************************************************#
#|
#| file : /usr/local/etc/sound/config/intel
#|
#*---------------------------------------------------------------------------*#
#
alsa_output="0:Master Playback Switch:on"
alsa_output2="0:Master Playback Volume:92%"
#
profile="output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo"
#
sink="alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo"
sink_device="pci-0000_00_1b.0"
sink_rate="48000"
sink_volume="84%"
#
source="alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo"
source_device="pci-0000_00_1b.0"
source_rate="48000"
source_volume="84%"
#
#*****************************************************************************#


As you can see it is used to set the default sink and source,
and ensure that the sound level at both the ALSA level control
and the pulseaudio master level are set to the preferred values.

> Thanks for enlightening me on various small (but important) concepts and info!

Well if you were not informed about those points you would be scratching your
head over just what pacmd set-default-source does, and what are those lines
in the above configuration file doing.

There is nothing worse than people just blindly following without understanding
what it is they are being asked to do.

[J G Miller]

On Friday, August 17th, 2012, at 13:22:47h +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> That is the general case in any Linux area which is relatively still a
> 'moving target'

Yes, it comes down to the fact that the GNU/Linux system tries to
implement a "general" case, whereas when you go the Windoze route
there are specific drivers and even specific user interface programs
provided by the device manufacturer.

> but sound still is messy.

In the case of pulseaudio definitely, rather like twisted, and maybe
knotted, spaghetti ;)

[GangGreene]

I have Fedora 15 and the way to get sound was to remove pulse audio.

Just use the Software management tool to remove it. One will need to leave
libpulse thou.

[J G Miller]

On Friday, August 17th, 2012, at 18:40:11h -0400, GangGreene incited:

> I have Fedora 15 and the way to get sound was to remove pulse audio.

<http://www.banklawyersblog.COM/.a/6a00d8341c652b53ef0133f4d7c234970b-800wi>

[Harry]

Each time padevchooser gets invoked anew (meaning, after quitting the previous instance instead of it running in your sys-tray), none of the above radiobutton menus is shown selected.

If I select the Default radiobutton menu, this selection does not persist across padevchooser invocations.

If I explicitly enter the source (via the Other... menu), even though source that I just entered persists across padevchooser invocations, the top-level menus still show up as un-selected on a new invocation of padevchooser.

I'm assuming this is a GUI-update issue in addition to other issue(s) that I may be having.

>
>
> But first we must get the exact name of all available sources
>
> (input devices) and hope that microphone is tied to one
>
> of them.
>
>
>
> Please can you run the command
>
>
>
> pactl list sources
>
>
>
> and include the output in your reply (if the following does
>
> not apply and does not work).

Here's the output of the above command. Note that state of my input device comes up as SUSPENDED.

--- Start of output ---

Module #0
Name: module-device-restore
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Automatically restore the volume/mute state of devices"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #1
Name: module-stream-restore
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Automatically restore the volume/mute/device state of streams"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #2
Name: module-card-restore
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Automatically restore profile of cards"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #3
Name: module-augment-properties
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Augment the property sets of streams with additional static information"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #4
Name: module-alsa-card
Argument: device_id="0" name="pci-0000_00_1b.0" card_name="alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0" tsched=yes ignore_dB=no card_properties="module-udev-detect.discovered=1"
Usage counter: 1
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "ALSA Card"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #5
Name: module-udev-detect
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Detect available audio hardware and load matching drivers"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #7
Name: module-esound-protocol-unix
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "ESOUND protocol (UNIX sockets)"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #8
Name: module-native-protocol-unix
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Native protocol (UNIX sockets)"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #9
Name: module-gconf
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "GConf Adapter"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #10
Name: module-default-device-restore
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Automatically restore the default sink and source"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #11
Name: module-rescue-streams
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "When a sink/source is removed, try to move their streams to the default sink/source"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #12
Name: module-always-sink
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Colin Guthrie"
module.description = "Always keeps at least one sink loaded even if it's a null one"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #13
Name: module-intended-roles
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Automatically set device of streams based of intended roles of devices"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #14
Name: module-suspend-on-idle
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "When a sink/source is idle for too long, suspend it"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #15
Name: module-console-kit
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Create a client for each ConsoleKit session of this user"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #16
Name: module-position-event-sounds
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Position event sounds between L and R depending on the position on screen of the widget triggering them."
module.version = "0.9.23"

Module #17
Name: module-cork-music-on-phone
Argument:
Usage counter: n/a
Properties:
module.author = "Lennart Poettering"
module.description = "Mute or cork music while a phone stream exists"
module.version = "0.9.23"

Sink #0
State: RUNNING
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Description: Internal Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 4
Mute: no
Volume: 0: 86% 1: 86%
0: -3.86 dB 1: -3.86 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 100%
0.00 dB
Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
Latency: 17912 usec, configured 20000 usec
Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "CONEXANT Analog"
alsa.id = "CONEXANT Analog"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe1a30000 irq 41"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"
device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "1c20"
device.product.name = "6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"
device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "front:0"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
device.description = "Internal Audio Analog Stereo"
alsa.mixer_name = "Intel CougarPoint HDMI"
alsa.components = "HDA:14f150a1,102804f5,00100100 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
Ports:
analog-output: Analog Output (priority. 9900)
analog-output-headphones: Analog Headphones (priority. 9000)
Active Port: analog-output-headphones

Source #0
State: IDLE
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
Description: Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 4
Mute: no
Volume: 0: 94% 1: 94%
0: -1.53 dB 1: -1.53 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 100%
0.00 dB
Monitor of Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Latency: 0 usec, configured 2000000 usec
Flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
device.description = "Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo"
device.class = "monitor"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe1a30000 irq 41"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"
device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "1c20"
device.product.name = "6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"
device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "0"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"

Source #1
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Description: Internal Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 4
Mute: no
Volume: 0: 84% 1: 84%
0: -4.46 dB 1: -4.46 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 79%
-6.00 dB
Monitor of Sink: n/a
Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "CONEXANT Analog"
alsa.id = "CONEXANT Analog"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe1a30000 irq 41"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"
device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "1c20"
device.product.name = "6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"
device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "front:0"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
device.description = "Internal Audio Analog Stereo"
alsa.mixer_name = "Intel CougarPoint HDMI"
alsa.components = "HDA:14f150a1,102804f5,00100100 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"

Sink Input #47
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Client: 39
Sink: 0
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Mute: no
Volume: 0: 86% 1: 86%
0: -3.86 dB 1: -3.86 dB
balance 0.00
Buffer Latency: 472925 usec
Sink Latency: 17685 usec
Resample method: n/a
Properties:
media.name = "ALSA Playback"
application.name = "ALSA plug-in [plugin-container]"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.process.id = "29893"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "plugin-container"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"
module-stream-restore.id = "sink-input-by-application-name:ALSA plug-in [plugin-container]"

Client #0
Driver: module-console-kit.c
Owner Module: 15
Properties:
application.name = "ConsoleKit Session /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2"
console-kit.session = "/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2"

Client #1
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Properties:
application.name = "Blueman"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.process.id = "1818"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "python2.7"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"

Client #2
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Properties:
application.name = "GNOME Volume Control Media Keys"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "3.2.3"
application.process.id = "1757"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "gnome-settings-daemon"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"

Client #3
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Properties:
application.name = "GNOME Shell Volume Control"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.id = "org.gnome.VolumeControl"
application.icon_name = "multimedia-volume-control"
application.version = "3.2.2.1"
application.process.id = "1800"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "gnome-shell"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"

Client #32
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Properties:
application.name = "Thunderbird"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.icon_name = "thunderbird"
application.version = "14.0"
application.process.id = "4391"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "thunderbird"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"

Client #39
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Properties:
application.name = "ALSA plug-in [plugin-container]"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.process.id = "29893"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "plugin-container"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"

Client #42
Driver: protocol-native.c
Owner Module: 8
Properties:
application.name = "pactl"
native-protocol.peer = "UNIX socket client"
native-protocol.version = "16"
application.process.id = "16952"
application.process.user = "hxs"
application.process.host = "box"
application.process.binary = "pactl"
application.language = "en_US.UTF-8"
window.x11.display = ":0"
application.process.machine_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e"
application.process.session_id = "146489d0e7c8a435ef01c7ea0000001e-1345254074.456367-1353190318"

Card #0
Name: alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1b.0
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Owner Module: 4
Properties:
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe1a30000 irq 41"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"
device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "1c20"
device.product.name = "6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"
device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "0"
device.description = "Internal Audio"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
Profiles:
output:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority. 6000)
output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Duplex (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority. 6060)
output:hdmi-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output (sinks: 1, sources: 0, priority. 5400)
output:hdmi-stereo+input:analog-stereo: Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 1, sources: 1, priority. 5460)
input:analog-stereo: Analog Stereo Input (sinks: 0, sources: 1, priority. 60)
off: Off (sinks: 0, sources: 0, priority. 0)

Active Profile: output:analog-stereo+input:analog-stereo

--- End of output ---

> Because what is required is changing your default source from
>
> analog headphone to analog-stereo and thus for the source block
>
> above we need to get the full name of the source, eg
>
>
>
> Name: alsa_input.0.analog-mono
>
>
>
> or for you in the case of Intel HD most likely
>
>
>
> Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
>
>
>
> If it is, then you could just try doing
>
>
>
> pacmd set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

$
$ pacmd set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Welcome to PulseAudio! Use "help" for usage information.
>>> >>> $
$

> Then fire up pavucontrol, go to input devices, which should then
>
> show the above, and hopefully you will then see Ports and you can
>
> select Microphone instead of Line In.

Saw no change in the Input Devices tab contents of pavucontrol. Likewise, no change in padevchooser either: The Sources continue to be following...

Sources:
1. Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Desc: Internal Audio analog Stereo

2. Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
Desc: Monitor of Internal Audio analog Stereo

... in the paman program.

(Thus, still cannot record in gnome-sound-recorder.)

[J G Miller]

On Sunday, August 19th, 2012, at 23:44:14h -0700, Harry wrote:

> Saw no change in the Input Devices tab contents of pavucontrol.

I thought you said that before the input device was shewing as the headphones?

> Likewise, no change in padevchooser either: The Sources continue to be following...
>
> Sources:
> 1. Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
> Desc: Internal Audio analog Stereo
>
> 2. Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
> Desc: Monitor of Internal Audio analog Stereo

That is what you want to see.

The problem it appears is even deeper however, and a possible solution
is offered on the Fedora Forums.

Please can you try the solution offered in post #3 at

<http://forums.fedoraforum.ORG/showthread.php?t=272323>

QUOTE

adding the following line:

"options snd-hda-intel model=auto"

at the beginning of the file

"/etc/modprobe.d/dist-alsa.conf"

UNQUOTE

As you are changing a parameter for a kernel module,
the simplest thing to do is to *reboot* following the edit,
unless you want to kill all sound, unload all the sound modules
and reload them, all by hand ...

[J G Miller]

On Monday, August 20th, 2012, at 09:19:57h +0000, J G Miller wrote:

> QUOTE
>
> adding the following line:
>
> "options snd-hda-intel model=auto"
>
> at the beginning of the file
>
> "/etc/modprobe.d/dist-alsa.conf"
>
> UNQUOTE

As you are editing this file, you may as well add index=0 as
a parameter


options snd-hda-intel index=0 model=auto


to ensure that your onboard sound card device always comes up
as sound card 0 regardless of USB devices being plugged
in at boot time.

[Harry]

I tried both with and without "index=0" (followed by a reboot).
Saw no change. Meaning,
1. the Input Devices tab continues to look the same in pavucontrol; and
2. no recording happening as before

[J G Miller]

On Monday, August 20th, 2012, at 03:36:32h -0700, Harry observed:

> I tried both with and without "index=0" (followed by a reboot).
> Saw no change. Meaning,
> 1. the Input Devices tab continues to look the same in pavucontrol; and
> 2. no recording happening as before

And when you now do pactl list sources and look for the section
something like


Source #1
State: IDLE
Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 48000Hz

Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 4
Mute: no
Volume: 0: 84% 1: 84%

0: -4.54 dB 1: -4.54 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 13%
-52.50 dB
Monitor of Sink: n/a
Latency: 137146 usec, configured 341333 usec

Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"

alsa.name = "AD198x Analog"
alsa.id = "AD198x Analog"

alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "0"
alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel"

alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel at 0xfebf8000 irq 46"

alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"

device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "front:0"

device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"

device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"

device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"
alsa.mixer_name = "Analog Devices AD1988B"
alsa.components = "HDA:11d4198b,104381f6,00100200"

module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
Ports:

analog-input-microphone-front: Front Microphone (priority: 8500)

analog-input-microphone: Microphone (priority: 8700)
analog-input-linein: Line In (priority: 8100)

Active Port: analog-input-microphone
Formats:
pcm


do you still not see any Ports lines mentioning Microphone and Line In?

[Harry]

No, I don't see any Ports section. Here are the two Sources I see:

Source #0
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor
Description: Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz

Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 4
Mute: no

Volume: 0: 94% 1: 94%

0: -1.53 dB 1: -1.53 dB
balance 0.00

Base Volume: 100%
0.00 dB
Monitor of Sink: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec

Flags: DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
device.description = "Monitor of Internal Audio Analog Stereo"
device.class = "monitor"

alsa.card = "0"

alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe1a30000 irq 41"

alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"

device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "1c20"
device.product.name = "6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"

device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "0"

module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"

Source #1
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

Description: Internal Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz

Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 4
Mute: no
Volume: 0: 84% 1: 84%

0: -4.63 dB 1: -4.63 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 79%
-6.00 dB
Monitor of Sink: n/a
Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec

Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"

alsa.name = "CONEXANT Analog"
alsa.id = "CONEXANT Analog"

alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "0"

alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xe1a30000 irq 41"

alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "8086"

device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
device.product.id = "1c20"
device.product.name = "6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller"

device.form_factor = "internal"
device.string = "front:0"

device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"

device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"

device.description = "Internal Audio Analog Stereo"
alsa.mixer_name = "Intel CougarPoint HDMI"
alsa.components = "HDA:14f150a1,102804f5,00100100 HDA:80862805,80860101,00100000"

[J G Miller]

On Monday, August 20th, 2012, at 06:21:44h -0700, Harry observed:

> No, I don't see any Ports section.

Hmm, what does

cat /proc/asound/card0/id

and

cat /proc/asound/card1/id

say? The second, I expect just wil result in
"no such file or directory".


Perchance it says SB, then try editing the
modprobe.d conf file again and change the line to

options snd-hda-intel id=SB index=0,1

instead of using card=auto.

If it is not SB, then you could try with whatever
string cat /proc/asound/card0/id reports.

Then reboot and try again and see if the microphone and line in
ports appear in the pactl list sources.

If that does not work, then you are going to have to work through
the page at

<http://ubuntuforums.ORG/showthread.php?t=1043568>

to find the appropriate module parameter(s) for your particular
hardware (which I do not think you have mentioned -- is it a laptop?).

[Harry]

On Monday, August 20, 2012 7:59:56 PM UTC+5:30, J G Miller wrote:
> On Monday, August 20th, 2012, at 06:21:44h -0700, Harry observed:
>
>
>
> > No, I don't see any Ports section.
>
>
>
> Hmm, what does
>
>
>
> cat /proc/asound/card0/id
>
>
>
> and
>
>
>
> cat /proc/asound/card1/id
>
>
>
> say? The second, I expect just wil result in
>
> "no such file or directory".

$
$ cat /proc/asound/card0/id
PCH
$ cat /proc/asound/card1/id
cat: /proc/asound/card1/id: No such file or directory
$

> Perchance it says SB, then try editing the
>
> modprobe.d conf file again and change the line to
>
>
>
> options snd-hda-intel id=SB index=0,1
>
>
>
> instead of using card=auto.
>
>
>
> If it is not SB, then you could try with whatever
>
> string cat /proc/asound/card0/id reports.
>
>
>
> Then reboot and try again and see if the microphone and line in
>
> ports appear in the pactl list sources.

No trace of Ports, still.

> If that does not work, then you are going to have to work through
>
> the page at
>
>
>
> <http://ubuntuforums.ORG/showthread.php?t=1043568>
>
>
>
> to find the appropriate module parameter(s) for your particular
>
> hardware (which I do not think you have mentioned -- is it a laptop?).

Mine is a desktop. Will give this thread a try.

Even though nothing has worked so far, can't tell you how much I appreciate your *simply* taking the time even to suggest these various things, sharing URLs, etc.

I will update you/others as soon as I have any luck. Till then, you can safely assume that I'm sitting with a non-functional mic :-(

[J G Miller]

On Monday, August 20th, 2012, at 20:20:56h -0700, Harry explained:

> cat /proc/asound/card0/id
> PCH

Okay.

> Till then, you can safely assume that I'm sitting with a
> non-functional mic :-(

But I thought from previous postings that you had proved that
the microphone was working and that you could use arecord to
successfuly record sounds at the ALSA level?

The problem is that at the pulseaudio level, the ALSA sub-devices
for the microphone and line in are not shewing up.

This could be either a bug in pulseaudio or something in the
ALSA kernel module. A web search reveals that people have had
lots of problems with the intel HD ALSA module for a wide
range of different chips.

My suggestion at this point would be to get a live CD for
Fedora 17 and to boot off that and see if the microphone
still fails to shew up as a port under the input devices
tab of pavucontrol (or ports from "pactl list sources").

My experience of the Fedora project in the past was that the
developers generally take no interest in fixing bugs in current
versions (and thus none at all for older versions) and are only
interested in getting out the next release with the bugs fixed.

What you really need to find out though are the hardware details
of your on board sound card and the codec being used, so fo
this you should download and run the script

<http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa/raw-file/tip/alsa-info.sh>

which will present all the information in a useful format.

The problem I think with your message on the Fedora forum
is that you have not identified your hardware in the
title of the thread, and so I would recommend starting
a new thread there with a title which includes the
sound card chip name and the symptom of microphone
not present in pulseaudio.

[Harry]

On Tuesday, August 21, 2012 4:14:30 PM UTC+5:30, J G Miller wrote:
> On Monday, August 20th, 2012, at 20:20:56h -0700, Harry explained:
>

> > Till then, you can safely assume that I'm sitting with a
>
> > non-functional mic :-(
>
>
>
> But I thought from previous postings that you had proved that
>
> the microphone was working and that you could use arecord to
>
> successfuly record sounds at the ALSA level?

I meant, I cannot use an app like Skype that uses PulseAudio. The primary use-case that made me seek urgent help on this forum was my inability to use Skype. Otherwise, I don't use mic that much and, thus, wasn't even aware that I had a problem since my F16 upgrade. (I may not have used mic even in my previous F14 install.)

Now, as an aside: Since I'm not a Linux systems-level 'hacker' and merely a Linux end-user, I thought, there's no way I can possibly figure out Linux sound architecture and its software issues at such a short notice, so why not ask more knowledgeable folks in the community. Hence this thread.

> The problem is that at the pulseaudio level, the ALSA sub-devices
>
> for the microphone and line in are not shewing up.
>
>
>
> This could be either a bug in pulseaudio or something in the
>
> ALSA kernel module. A web search reveals that people have had
>
> lots of problems with the intel HD ALSA module for a wide
>
> range of different chips.
>
>
>
> My suggestion at this point would be to get a live CD for
>
> Fedora 17 and to boot off that and see if the microphone
>
> still fails to shew up as a port under the input devices
>
> tab of pavucontrol (or ports from "pactl list sources").
>
>
>
> My experience of the Fedora project in the past was that the
>
> developers generally take no interest in fixing bugs in current
>
> versions (and thus none at all for older versions) and are only
>
> interested in getting out the next release with the bugs fixed.
>
>
>
> What you really need to find out though are the hardware details
>
> of your on board sound card and the codec being used, so fo
>
> this you should download and run the script
>
>
>
> <http://hg.alsa-project.org/alsa/raw-file/tip/alsa-info.sh>
>
>
>
> which will present all the information in a useful format.

The above seems to be a dead link. I already have an alsa-info.sh sitting on my system. Do you a think upgrading just this one file from the Net will do a better job in identifying the h/w details?

>
> The problem I think with your message on the Fedora forum
>
> is that you have not identified your hardware in the
>
> title of the thread, and so I would recommend starting
>
> a new thread there with a title which includes the
>
> sound card chip name and the symptom of microphone
>
> not present in pulseaudio.

I'll first try out your F17 Live CD suggestion. It may take me a while to get back with results. Since you're the only one who has shown sustained interest in this thread so far -- thank you! -- I'd request you to just hold on. If F17 works out of the box, I may decide to to just upgrade.

Thanks, JG, for being patient and helpful all this time!

[Harry]

On Tuesday, August 21, 2012 7:52:56 AM UTC-4, Harry wrote:

> I'll first try out your F17 Live CD suggestion. It may take me a while to get back with results. Since you're the only one who has shown sustained interest in this thread so far -- thank you! -- I'd request you to just hold on. If F17 works out of the box, I may decide to to just upgrade.
>
>
>
> Thanks, JG, for being patient and helpful all this time!

Update: My mic in Fedora 17 Live CD works out of the box!

All I had to do was: In the Gnome Sound Settings, set the Input Volume from the default 'Off' to '100% (On)', and that's it. No more fiddling with alsamixer.

The 'pactl list sources' output also shows the Ports section with 3 entries for microphone-front, microphone-rear, and linein. Likewise, the Input tab in Gnome Sound Settings shows me a Connector dropdown with the same 3 items.

I can't tell you, HOW HAPPY I AM NOW!

THANKS A LOT, man. This thing called Internet is running just because of the spirit of folks like yourselves.

PS: I hope you won't mind my choosing to /not/ log the F16 bug in the right forum(s) and seeing it fixed. What I can and will certainly do is update the thread I created on fedoraforum.org with this update. It won't be of help to F16 users who can't immediately upgrade to F17 but will certainly encourage them to soon enough.

[J G Miller]

On Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 06:09:07 -0700, Harry wrote:

> The 'pactl list sources' output also shows the Ports section with
> 3 entries for microphone-front, microphone-rear, and linein.

This is the critical issue that was identified earlier.

I would suggest that in the upgrade to Fedora 17 both the ALSA
version (kernel modules and user library) and the pulseaudio
versions have been upgraded; possibly pulseaudio to version 2.0

A lot of bugs were cleaned up in going from the last version 1
of pulseaudio to version 2 and the interface and user utilities
cleaned up considerably.

So you can see now how important it was to trace through all the
steps both at the ALSA level to check that things were in order
there and to locate the problem area -- lack of ports shewing
in the sources list.

Now that you can access the microphone and line in sub devices
in pulseaudio, you of course have cracked the problem of
being able to use the microphone in pulseaudio programs such
as Skype.

It is good that you persevered to the end and not only
found the problem but eventually resolved it, so I hope
you will be able to apply the principles to solving any
other problems with sound that you may experience -- first
check at the ALSA level with alsamixer and then check at
the pulseaudio level with pavucontrol (and perhaps
pactl list sources, pactl list sinks).

If you do have some USB sound devices that you intend to
use as well (eg USB phone, USB headset etc) I strongly
urge you to configure the ALSA configuration file in
/etc/modprobe.d to ensure that you sound card is index=0
and that the USB devices are index=1,2,3 according to
your preference. With the USB devices you also need
to specify the product id and vendor id (easily
found from lsusb) to get the mapping to work.

Here are my entries which you can use as an example,
you must of course use your own values, and perhaps
start numbering from 1, if you do not use your PC speaker
device.

#.............................................................................#
#
options snd cards_limit=5
#
alias snd-card-0 snd-sbawe
options snd-sbawe index=0
#
alias snd-card-1 snd-pcsp
options snd-pcsp index=1
#
alias snd-card-2 snd-bt87x
options snd-bt87x index=2
#
alias snd-card-3 snd-usb-audio
alias snd-card-4 snd-usb-audio
alias snd-card-5 snd-usb-audio
options snd-usb-audio index=3,4,5 pid=0x0329,0xb001,0x3042 vid=0x0471,0x6993,0x041e
#
#.............................................................................#

> I can't tell you, HOW HAPPY I AM NOW!

Well this is what is the reward for perserverance,
and thank you once again for your patience.

> PS: I hope you won't mind my choosing to /not/ log the F16 bug
> in the right forum(s) and seeing it fixed.

Well, as I hinted, I think you would just be wasting your time
since the stock reply that would be forthcoming would be

"fixed in FC17, please upgrade"

Fedora being a bleeding edge distribution is all about moving
onwards to new bugs and not caring about the old ones.

PS if you do start using multiple USB sound devices and want a
quick command line way to change your default pulse audio sound
device input/output without having to go through pavucontrol,
I can e-mail you my set_pulse script ...

[cmoz...@gmail.com]

i have problems with my internal speakers they do not produce any sound but headphones work fine in fedora 18 a hp laptop...thank you in advance

[rfen...@gmail.com]

I solved the same problem in fedora 19 xfce install paman and open it then reinstall chrome then add --user data dir to the chrome cfg file, this for me is the solution to the issue.