Intrepid Sound Fixes

[Karl Larsen]

Rashkae wrote:
> Steve Flynn wrote:
>   
>> On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 4:41 PM, Karl Larsen <k5di at zianet.com> wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> The trick works inserting "ifconfig wlan0 down" (or the active network
>>> interface in use) at the begining of the stop) section of /etc/init.d/alsa-utils.
>>>       
>>> Btw, if your alsa-mixer is always mute at system start, and does not
>>> remember the last settings, the trick also fixes it.
>>>       
>> Karl, on the basis that you've probably done more digging into this
>> than most people, have you come across any information which explains
>> *why* dropping ethernet networks fixes a problem with alsa-mixer?
>> Makes absolutely no sense to me at all, and I can't actually come up
>> with a scenario where even a driver bug would cause something like
>> this to happen.
>>
>> I don't suffer from this issue, but from a technical standpoint I'd be
>> quite interested in finding out what the cause of the problem actually
>> was... I'd not be overly keen on shoving ifconfig statements into the
>> shutdown script for the sound subsystem either, as in 2 years time
>> I'll have no idea they are there and if I DO come across them I'll
>> have no idea WHY they are there.
>>
>> Any pointers to relevant webpages/forums/bug-reports would be appreciated.
>>
>>     
>
> I haven't dug into the Intrepid scripts, so I might be off base as to
> the nature of the problem.  However, I have had to deal with similar
> alsa weirdness before, and here's a good hack that probably works in
> Intrepid as well and won't require changing networking.
>
> Basically, the problem (that I know of) is with the comon practice in
> most distributions, icluding Ubuntu, to include "alsactl store" command
> in Alsa shut down script.
>
> In theory, that means alsa will restore the same settings on bootup as
> it was in shutdown.  In practice, if your alsa settings are awry, (and
> I've seen cases where alsa config was rendered broken in ways that
> alsamixer could not fix,) it's *very* hard to get rid of since the
> broken settings get saved again every time you shut down. The
> non-technical way to resolve this was to delete the file where alsactl
> stores configuration, sync, then hard power off.
>
> My suggestion is this.  Modify the /etc/init.d and comment out the line
> that stores the sound levels.. (ex: store_levels "$TARGET_CARD" ||
> EXITSTATUS=1).
>
> Now run alsa mixer, set the volume to how you want it, and sudo alsactl
> store.  Now when you reboot, sound levels will be how you last
> configured them, and will no longer try to save the volume levels at
> every shutdown.
>
> Apologies if this suggestions don't apply to Intrepid.
>
>   
    I found alsactl and man alsactl on Intrepid. I tried saving a good 
alsamixer setup and re-boot. The re-boot messed up the alsamixer 
settings and it did not use the saved good settings. I think you need a 
alsactl use or like that to get it to be used.

    The fix I reported makes alsactl un-necessary.

Karl


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
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