Fwd: [Bug 254016] KMix with Pulseaudio doesn't show channels in config channel dialog after upgrading to Kubuntu 10.10

[Valter Mura]

Hi All,

and thanks to all, again, I've solved for the moment, even if I think this is 
not the way the system should work.

But I want to _underline_ that I assume the position of a normal, average user 
(eg., my mom or the grandpa) who cannot fight against these simple (for geeks) 
but thorny issues. I forward the answer I received from Colin as reply of my 
bug report (I consider it a bug).

In many ways, the workaround is the same other users gave to me, with some 
explanation and link more.

JFYI... cheers! :-)

---------  Messaggio inoltrato  ---------

Oggetto: [Bug 254016] KMix with Pulseaudio doesn't show channels in config 
channel dialog after upgrading to Kubuntu 10.10
Data: mercoledì 13 ottobre 2010, 00:41:52
Da: Colin Guthrie <cguthrie at mandriva.org>
A: valtermura at gmail.com

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=254016

--- Comment #2 from Colin Guthrie <cguthrie mandriva org>  2010-10-13 00:41:51 
---
Hi there,

Everything will work for you but you need to make a couple configuration
changes to get things working really nice :)

Have a look over this page: http://pulseaudio.org/wiki/KDE

In order to get a 5.1 configuration, you need to change the Hardware Profile.
Sadly Kubuntu ships without the utility I wrote to do this in KDE (due to time
constraints). You can see this UI here on my blog:
http://colin.guthr.ie/2010/07/speaker-setup-now-or-forever-hold-your-peace/ 
but
this isn't much use to you right now! This means you need to install another
utility. So use the installer system (I don't use Kubuntu so I don't know the
exact instructions here) and install "pavucontrol". With this utility you can
go to the "Configuration" tab and select an appropriate "Hardware Profile" for
you sound card. I'd imagine you want to pick a 5.1 configuration.

You only have to do this once. It will be remembered.

You can then use KMix to adjust each individual channel by right clicking on
the device and selecting the "Show Channels" option from the context menu. 
This
will give you full control over each channel.

PulseAudio tries to simplify the whole audio process. Most people don't really
understand all the separate ALSA controls that used to be displayed in KMix.
And even for those that did, controls that are not relevant to the current use
(e.g. the rear channels when playing stereo to front speakers only) were
permanently displayed which is not ideal.  Sadly it wasn't that easy to 
squeeze
PulseAudio support into the KMix constructs. For example the Show Channels
dialog that you show in your screen shot it really misnamed when using PA. It
would be better labelled "Configure Devices and Controls" which would be more
representative of its function (even calling it channels in ALSA is an
oversimplification IMO).

Sadly I could not label the individual channels in KMix (front left, front
right etc.), but you can use pavucontrol to see labels if you need them (it's
perfectly safe to run them both at the same time and a change one application
should be immediately reflected in the other.

Hope this helps.

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Valter
Registered Linux User #466410  http://counter.li.org
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