[SOLVED] Problems with PulseAudio 3.0

[Just17]

Yes, it solves the issue.
But I'm trying to figure out how to make it permanent.
It goes back to 0 (mute) on every reboot.

Are you using PA at this point?

If so do you have the controls available to you in PA Vol Ctrl?

[Old-Polack]

Yes, it solves the issue.
But I'm trying to figure out how to make it permanent.
It goes back to 0 (mute) on every reboot.

Have you tried with the headphones disconnected?

Have you tried setting the Restore previous session option in Configure Your Desktop --> System Administration --> Startup and Shutdown --> Session Management , after enabling the sound, and before rebooting?

[agmg]

Yes, it solves the issue.
But I'm trying to figure out how to make it permanent.
It goes back to 0 (mute) on every reboot.

Are you using PA at this point?

If so do you have the controls available to you in PA Vol Ctrl?

Yes, PulseAudio is enabled all the time.
Nothing has changed except I found out that Speakers are muted in Alsamixer.
In pavucontrol, the speakers show at 100% no matter where the slider is in alsamixer.
While a sound is playing, there is activity in pavucontrol sliders for Analog Output.
If "Speaker" is set to 0 in alsamixer, I can't hear sound from speakers.
If "Speaker" is set to 100 in alsamixer, sound comes from speakers.
Pavucontrol activity is showing in both cases.

Have you tried with the headphones disconnected?

Have you tried setting the Restore previous session option in Configure Your Desktop --> System Administration --> Startup and Shutdown --> Session Management , after enabling the sound, and before rebooting?

My headphones are disconnected all the time. I just connected them a couple of times to check if there is sound on the output.

I will try your suggestion O-P
I also thought of trying the setting "Restore volumes on login" in KMix which is currently enabled.

Will report a little later, my wife is busy with housekeeping at the moment

[Just17]

Yes, it solves the issue.
But I'm trying to figure out how to make it permanent.
It goes back to 0 (mute) on every reboot.

Are you using PA at this point?

If so do you have the controls available to you in PA Vol Ctrl?

Yes, PulseAudio is enabled all the time.
Nothing has changed except I found out that Speakers are muted in Alsamixer.
In pavucontrol, the speakers show at 100% no matter where the slider is in alsamixer.
While a sound is playing, there is activity in pavucontrol sliders for Analog Output.
If "Speaker" is set to 0 in alsamixer, I can't hear sound from speakers.
If "Speaker" is set to 100 in alsamixer, sound comes from speakers.
Pavucontrol activity is showing in both cases.

Thanks for that clarification 

So the problem is specific to Alsa it seems ......  as PA is sending the sound stream but Alsa has the speakers muted ..... 

I wonder if there is anything in      asound.state   that might be affecting this ......  there are two instances of that named file ......  might be worth a look .....

/etc/asound.state
/var/lib/alsa/asound.state

[agmg]

I've also tried changing the volume levels in /etc/asound.state but they are reverted on next boot...

/etc/asound.state is actually a link to /var/lib/alsa/asound.state

I changed the "Speaker Playback Volume" values to 100 but as I said, it reverts after restart.
Don't want to mess around more with that file as I really go by luck

[Just17]

I've also tried changing the volume levels in /etc/asound.state but they are reverted on next boot...

/etc/asound.state is actually a link to /var/lib/alsa/asound.state

I changed the "Speaker Playback Volume" values to 100 but as I said, it reverts after restart.
Don't want to mess around more with that file as I really go by luck

Sorry I missed that  

Things I've tried so far:
- Completely removed all pulseaudio related packages, back to ALSA, sound from speakers is back.

Is this still true?
Is PA muting the speakers somehow?

[agmg]

I don't know what to say.
If I uninstall Pulseaudio completely, sound from speakers returns to normal.

Tried deselecting the option "Restore volumes on login" on KMix, nothing changed.
Tried Old-Polack's suggestion, no result.

Tried un-commenting the lines

Code: [Select]

### Automatically restore the volume of streams and devices
#load-module module-device-restore
#load-module module-stream-restore
#load-module module-card-restore
in /etc/pulse/default.pa, still no luck.

I'm out of ideas. Maybe something went wrong during the upgrade or my consequent installations and re-installations of Pulseaudio.
I will find some time to put my old hard disk on the new caddy I ordered and make a new test install of PCLinuxOS.

Something is muting the speakers but I don't know what it is...

[agmg]

I just noticed something.
When I have the Phonon window open and do the testing of the speakers, in KMix window, under output streams appears something like:



when the test sound is playing. What is that?

[Just17]

libcanberra

XDG complient sound event library
A small and lightweight implementation of the XDG Sound Theme Specification
(http://0pointer.de/public/sound-theme-spec.html).

I was about to post to ask if you have looked at, or edited ....  or even renamed .....  any of the files under
/usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/

analog-output.conf.common    might hold some info of use about the settings in the analog-output-speaker.conf  or  analog-output-speaker-always.conf  files  or indeed one of the other files in that directory.

EDIT
          before I forget it, IIUC the config files under  ~/.pulse   are used in preference to the system wide files when PA is installed in user mode (or whatever it is called).

[agmg]

I never edited any of the files you mention.

Would it make any change if I installed PulseAudio from the root account?

[agmg]

Yes! Success!

I edited the file: /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output.conf
and changed:

Code: [Select]

[Element Speaker]
switch = mute
volume = off

[Element Desktop Speaker]
switch = mute
volume = off
to:

Code: [Select]

[Element Speaker]
switch = mute
volume = merge

[Element Desktop Speaker]
switch = mute
volume = merge
Did a reboot and my speakers work!

Many thanks Just17 for giving me the hint on where to look!
I can't express my appreciation with a single post!

[Just17]

I never edited any of the files you mention.

Would it make any change if I installed PulseAudio from the root account?

No, it is installed as root through Synaptic ....  but users get their own config files for their set ups.

It would be of interest to know if the problem is particular to one user account or does it appear in the root or other user account.

[agmg]

I made the edit observing the other entries (100% by guessing).

I'm also wonder what could have caused this.
Is it just something wrong with my setup or is it a misconfiguration in PulseAudio 3.0?

I only have one user in the laptop and the root account.
All this time I haven't checked if root account had this issue.
Just logged in as root and no issues there...

[Just17]

I made the edit observing the other entries (100% by guessing).

I'm also wonder what could have caused this.
Is it just something wrong with my setup or is it a misconfiguration in PulseAudio 3.0?

I only have one user in the laptop and the root account.
All this time I haven't checked if root account had this issue.
Just logged in as root and no issues there...

OK, IIUC there are no problems with the root account, so the problem is in the user settings.


I would rename the ~/.pulse directory, log out and in again.

Check if you have a ~/.asoundrc  file and rename that if the above doesn't work.

log out and in again.

[agmg]

I've just created a new user on my machine. No issues on that user.
I guess it was expected as the /usr/share is common for all users (or not?)

Just17, can you do something for me?
Can you check the entries on your /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output.conf and see what is different in sections [Element Speaker] and [Element Desktop Speaker]?