alsamixer does not remember sound levels

chaosgeisterchen · 2007-12-23 13:26:26

Good afternoon,

I have a recurring problem concerning alsamixer. Everytime my machine starts up, the ALSA sound levels are adjusted back to the level they had before, even if I changed them while running. As the Front Microphone Booster is running on 100%, I get a weird distorted sound when having my speakers turned on while booting - it starts to appear when I have successfully looged into KDEmod.

ALSA is amongst the daemons array in the rc.conf, and I have tried to change the levels and used alsactl store as root. It did not work out as well.

Has anyone an idea, how I get my ALSA to store the levels, towards avoiding the painful distortion on every reboot?

Regards,
cg

benmorgan · 2007-12-23 14:08:06

You could try starting it all over... you know, remove the config files and do alsaconf and all that again
By the way, it sounds like it's not really a problem with alsamixer, but with alsa itself, if I understand correctly...
Perhaps there is another program that is altering the sound settings? KDE perhaps?
Have you tried booting in multi-user and not gui (i.e. 3 and not 5; Console)

What happens when you just restart alsa? Does it go back up to 100% again?
Set your sound levels to how you like them. Then restart alsa.

sudo /etc/rc.d/alsa restart

Hope these help you get further towards the solution.

oli · 2007-12-23 14:22:40

You could set it at with amixer as a last resort.

sykesm · 2007-12-23 14:35:23

I had similar behaviour what you describe start a few weeks ago. I have turned off system sound via the contol_Centre->Sound&Multimedia->System_Notifications->player_settings->no_audio_output. However after the most recent pacman -Syu yesterday I have noticed that under Kmixer if I now have "four channel mode" an mic switch on I no longer get the demented screeming that also seemed to be a symtom of what you described above, when I increased my volume past half way. I also now have alsa daemon dissabled in rc.conf, other sound e.g skype works fine. There was a kernel update as part of my system upgrade yesterday and I was wondering if this may have helped things, have you updated recently.

also note the kdemod updates as of yesterday

2007-12-22 09:43] upgraded kdemod-kdebase (3.5.8-4 -> 3.5.8-5)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-base (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-juk (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-kaudiocreator (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-kmid (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-krec (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-kscd (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdemultimedia-noatun (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44]
[2007-12-22 09:44]
[2007-12-22 09:44] WARNING KDEutils
[2007-12-22 09:44] ----------------
[2007-12-22 09:44]
[2007-12-22 09:44] KDElirc, KJots and KSim are now separate packages (!)
[2007-12-22 09:44] Dont Panic ;) Just install them:
[2007-12-22 09:44]
[2007-12-22 09:44] pacman -S kdemod-kdeutils-kdelirc
[2007-12-22 09:44] pacman -S kdemod-kdeutils-kjots
[2007-12-22 09:44] pacman -S kdemod-kdeutils-ksim
[2007-12-22 09:44]
[2007-12-22 09:44]
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-base (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-ark (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-charselectapplet (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kcalc (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kcharselect (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kdf (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kedit (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kfloppy (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kgpg (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-khexedit (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-klaptopdaemon (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-kregexpeditor (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-ktimer (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-kdeutils-superkaramba (3.5.8-2 -> 3.5.8-3)
[2007-12-22 09:44] upgraded kdemod-tools (3.5.8-1 -> 3.5.8-2)

Last edited by sykesm (2007-12-23 14:44:03)

Pitmairen · 2007-12-24 09:54:04

I have the same problem, it started after the Core Rebuild.

chaosgeisterchen · 2007-12-24 12:17:59

benmorgan wrote:

You could try starting it all over... you know, remove the config files and do alsaconf and all that again
By the way, it sounds like it's not really a problem with alsamixer, but with alsa itself, if I understand correctly...
Perhaps there is another program that is altering the sound settings? KDE perhaps?
Have you tried booting in multi-user and not gui (i.e. 3 and not 5; Console)
What happens when you just restart alsa? Does it go back up to 100% again?
Set your sound levels to how you like them. Then restart alsa.
sudo /etc/rc.d/alsa restart
Hope these help you get further towards the solution.

It's saved after restarting alsa within the current session, however, the levels are 'lost' after the next reboot.

@Pitmairen: Do you really think it's linked to the core rebuild?

@skyesm: Disabling the ALSA daemon is not the solution, I assume, as I want to have it started.

The problem most assuredly lies with some userspace factor, as it starts the same time as logging myself in. Interesting enough, that I am not the only person having these problems.

Regards,
~cg

benmorgan · 2007-12-24 14:55:18

Are the levels lost after the next reboot even if you do not boot into a graphical login manager? Such as kdm?
In other words, if you boot into runlevel 3, are the levels intact?

If so, then it probably is somewhere in KDE that the problem lies.

Consider (perhaps as a near-last resort) auditing the /etc/asound.state file to see what changes it
http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-aud … -file.html

edit2: nevermind; you are probably better off taking lilsirecho's advice

edit:
But, should nothing else work...
As a temporary 'easy' (somewhat resolution, you could back up the /etc/asound.state file with
your preferred levels and restore it using a shell script that you launch in KDE (e.g. auto-started apps).
This way you don't have to worry about amixer.

Backup preferred states

alsamixer
cd /etc
sudo cp asound.state{,.bak}

Then for the shell script, put it in a file and give it executable permission

#!/bin/bash
/etc/rc.d/alsa stop
cp /etc/asound.state{.bak,}
/etc/rc.d/alsa start

And run the script with sudo or gksudo (you might want to change the files ownership
however so that it can be changed -- if you are running a script with sudo and you
never know when it'll change, it is probably good to make sure it can't change!)

You could edit sudoers (with the command visudo if you use Vim) and set it to allow
you to execute it without having to type in a password for sudo, but that is up to you.

--- This is all up to you of course; feel free to make your own decision.

Last edited by benmorgan (2007-12-24 15:33:22)

lilsirecho · 2007-12-24 15:13:33

I solved this problem in .../etc/rc.local.shutdown...added ..... alsactl restore.........

Then the ....alsactl store .....values are restored.

sykesm · 2007-12-25 10:03:53

I have restored everthing I had dissabled, including alsa daemon, to try and quiet the banshees, as described above; all now seems to be fine. My volume settings are also saved on system shutdown and start up. Everything turned on i.e. mic, mic boost and four channel switch. I haven't edited any config files to achieve this, it seems to have come about as a result of updates.
@CG you don't say if you had recently updated you're system, kdemod..?

---update: just did the available kernel & xserver update and the banshee has returned, although my volume settings is still remembered.

Last edited by sykesm (2007-12-25 13:31:17)

Arch Linux

#1 2007-12-23 13:26:26

alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#2 2007-12-23 14:08:06

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#3 2007-12-23 14:22:40

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#4 2007-12-23 14:35:23

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#5 2007-12-24 09:54:04

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#6 2007-12-24 12:17:59

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#7 2007-12-24 14:55:18

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#8 2007-12-24 15:13:33

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

#9 2007-12-25 10:03:53

Re: alsamixer does not remember sound levels

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