[SOLVED] HELP! Default sound device does not do what I want!!

[Nick in Wales]

Hello PCLOS Heroes,

I'm running PCLOS with a KDE desktop and I can't get the default sound device to stick where it should!!

I recently changed my graphics card to a MSI Radeon HD 6670 with HDMI  output (although I'm not using that), this card has usurped the default sound device over my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS, result ........SILENCE!!!

I've searched the forum and found a solved thread about a similar problem, I tried the fix suggested by Old-Polack and yes it worked but only temporarily  Huh. The fix involved editing the modprobe.conf file in \etc, here is the contents of said conf file:

install scsi_hostadapter /sbin/modprobe ahci; /sbin/modprobe ata_piix; /bin/true
install usb-interface /sbin/modprobe ehci_hcd; /sbin/modprobe uhci_hcd; /bin/true
alias sound-slot-0 snd_emu10k1
alias pci:v00008086d000027DCsv00001028sd000001A7bc02sc00i00 e100
alias sound-slot-1 snd_hda_intel
alias eth1 r8169
alias pci:v000010ECd00008169sv000010ECsd00008169bc02sc00i00 r8169
alias sound-slot-0 snd_emu10k1
alias sound-slot-1 snd_hda_intel
alias snd-0 snd_emu10k1
alias snd-1 snd_hda_intel
alias snd-card-0 snd_emu10k1
alias snd-card-1 snd_hda_intel

Which seems all fine but still HW:0 (the default) reverts to the snd_hda_intel according to QasMixer with HW:1 as my sound card after a reboot.

This is getting tiresome!!

I'm using ALSA drivers and Pulse is not enabled, I'm obviously missing something here, can anybody help.

Diolch / thanks.

Nick in Wales

[Just17]

My preferred solution is to install pavucontrol and enable PulseAudio ......  and after reboot play some audio and open PulseAudio Volume Control and if necessary, on the Playback tab, direct the sound to the correct sound device.

[Nick in Wales]

It's not elegant but it works!!

Since I don't use the hdmi output on my AMD Radeon HD6670 graphics card (snd_hda_intel) I've just blacklisted it so PCLOS ignores it and defaults straight to my sound blaster (snd_emu10k1), I did this by:

Using Konqueror - super user mode I went to: /etc/modprobe.d

Opened: blacklist-pclos

And added: blacklist snd_hda_intel  

Now every things works as it should, I can listen to music and watch the BBC.

Very simple really, why did it take me days to figure it out??  

I've gone to PCLOS KDE 64bit and love it, no issues except that I can't use Foxit for pdfs yet.

Nick

[Just17]

Being the lazy type and preferring GUI .......  I use PA Vol Control and with a click on the button disable the HDMI .....  and if needed, turn it on again in similar fashion. 

[Nick in Wales]

Umm, that does sound easy but my track record with Pulse is very bad, I've tried to install it a few times and failed on every occasion, once I had do a complete OS reinstall to get my noises back. I'm sure Pulse is very useful but either me or my PC have got a major circulatory problem i.e. can't get a Pulse! 

Thanks for the tip but all seems well now.

Nick

[Just17]

Umm, that does sound easy but my track record with Pulse is very bad, I've tried to install it a few times and failed on every occasion, once I had do a complete OS reinstall to get my noises back. I'm sure Pulse is very useful but either me or my PC have got a major circulatory problem i.e. can't get a Pulse!  

Thanks for the tip but all seems well now.

Nick

Not that I either wish to drag this thread on now that you have solved the problem, or to encourage the use of PA (a lot of people have no need of it), but I wondered if your experience with PA installation was on PCLOS or other distro?

The recommended way to install it on PCLOS is to install the  task-pulseaudio  meta package, and  pavucontrol ......  then close all apps; enable PA in PCC- Hardware - Sound  and reboot immediately.

After the desktop has settled, launch PulseAudio Volume Control to check it is functioning.
If yes, then all is OK.

regards.