[SOLVED] MPD + OSS ~ can't change volume under ncmpcpp, only hardware

milomouse · 2010-01-11 23:21:43

NOTE: I marked this solved only because it seems my hardware isn't really supported by OSS yet. Whenever OSS starts it spews a bunch of stuff about "not known..." etc, and it seems someone else with my card had problems too. So, yeah.

-Original Post-
I hate to be the guy who posts something that's been posted before but none of the previous 'solutions' I found have worked for me. On my other laptop everything worked great and I had no issues what-so-ever with this but since I got a new laptop I've had to re-figure some things and this is one of them that has eluded me thus far. So, the dilemma is as the title states: I got MPD 0.15.6 working (tried both relver 2 and 3, also mpd-git while attempting to resolve this), and I got it to work with OSS (4.2_2002-2) for the output audio device. I compile everything from source (although I tried using pre-compiled packages in an attempt to resolve this--no luck) with the aid of makepkg so I know what each requires to work, especially since I got it to work on the other laptop.

Anyway, the main problem is that software (or soft-volume) doesn't work. I can manually raise volume for hardware through command-line but programs like mpc and ncmpcpp(-git) say they can't change volume. So, since neither are really related or dependent upon either other I'm assuming it's an MPD directly related problem. My mpd.conf is:

## /etc/mpd.conf
## milomouse

music_directory         "/home/milo/muzk"
playlist_directory      "/home/milo/.mpd/playlists"
db_file                 "/home/milo/.mpd/mpddb"
log_file                "/home/milo/.mpd/mpd.log"
error_file              "/home/milo/.mpd/error.log"
pid_file                "/home/milo/.mpd/mpd.pid"
state_file              "/home/milo/.mpd/state"
user                    "milo"
bind_to_address         "127.0.0.1"
port                    "6600"
log_level               "secure"

audio_output {
type                    "oss"
name                    "oss device"
device                  "/dev/dsp"
mixer_type              "oss"
mixer_device            "/dev/mixer"
mixer_control           "PCM"
#format                  "44100:16:2"
#mixer_type              "software"
}

I tried changing uncommenting "software" and also commenting out everything at a time until there was only "type "oss"" left. Nothing seems to work. Here's the output of ossmix:

Selected mixer 0/High Definition Audio 0x10ec0269
Known controls are:
codec1.jack.int-speaker.mode <mix2|mix3> (currently mix2)
codec1.jack.int-speaker.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.jack.green.mode <mix2|mix3> (currently mix2)
codec1.jack.green.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.jack.pink.mode <mix2|mix3|input> (currently mix2)
codec1.jack.pink [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 29.9:29.9 dB)
codec1.jack.pink.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.record.mix4.mute.mic ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.record.mix4.mute.mix1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.record.mix4 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 37.9:37.9 dB)
codec1.record.select.select <mic|int-mic|mix1> (currently mic)
codec1.record.select [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 37.9:37.9 dB)
codec1.misc.pcm1 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 51.9:51.9 dB)
codec1.misc.pcm2 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 51.9:51.9 dB)
codec1.misc.mic [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 38.9:38.9 dB)
codec1.misc.pcm1-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.misc.mix1-mute1 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.misc.mix2 <pcm1|mix1> (currently pcm1)
codec1.misc.pcm2-mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.misc.mix1-mute2 ON|OFF (currently OFF)
codec1.misc.mix3 <pcm2|mix1> (currently pcm2)
codec4.jack.int-digout.mute ON|OFF (currently OFF)
vmix0-enable ON|OFF (currently ON)
vmix0-rate <decimal value> (currently 48000) (Read-only)
vmix0-channels <Stereo|Multich> (currently Stereo)
vmix0-src <Fast|High|OFF> (currently High)
vmix0-outvol <monovol> (currently 22.0 dB)
vmix0-invol <monovol> (currently 25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm6 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB) ("mpd")
vmix0.pcm7 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm8 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)
vmix0.pcm9 [<leftvol>:<rightvol>] (currently 25.0:25.0 dB)

I also tried changing (in mpd.conf) "mixer_control" to vmix0. The output when I try changing volume via MPC is:

%: mpc volume 10
error: ACK [52@0] {setvol} problems setting volume

And ncmpcpp simply says "Volume: n/a" and "problems setting volume" when I try changing it. Oh, and here's the output of lspci:

%: lscpi | grep -i audio
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)

Last edited by milomouse (2010-01-13 07:21:10)

qubit · 2010-01-13 00:15:10

I had same problem with oss and mpd - somehow mpd couldn't change volume by itself. Don't know the cause, whether it was mpd or oss update. If you are ok with software mixer than put

mixer_type "software"

into your mpd.conf but NOT in the audio_output section, see mpd.conf.example which comes with mpd package.

Edit. Huh, I see that you have even the same sound card as me (Thinkpad T500). I had other sound issues with oss and therefor switched to pulseaudio. It seems to me that oss simply doesn't support well the new hardware which is sad because I was really happy with it on previous Thinkpad models.

Last edited by qubit (2010-01-13 00:24:14)

milomouse · 2010-01-13 07:17:28

Yeah, it will work if I simply use: mixer_type "software" but I was hoping for straight-up OSS support which I guess won't be available in this case as you had the same problem and have same audio card. (Psst, I have an IdeaPad Y450) But yeah, it's a shame cause it worked great on my other laptop and I enjoyed the sound quality. I'll go ahead and mark this as [SOLVED] since it's apparent that my hardware is the issue.

P.S. How does pulseaudio sound on your card? I was actually thinking about switching from OSS when all these issues started to happen.

qubit · 2010-01-13 20:03:37

milomouse wrote:

P.S. How does pulseaudio sound on your card? I was actually thinking about switching from OSS when all these issues started to happen.

I'm no audiophile but I use quality earplugs and from my point of view no difference compared to oss sound. As someone else mentioned on this forum, alsa bad sound was due to dmix. Alsa+pulseaudio is great combo for sound quality. You can change resampler alg. but than CPU goes really high, I'm fine with the default (speex-float-3) and its sound quality. The only problem was clipping when sounds started but that was alsa driver related - adding modprobe option "power_save=0" solved it.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-01-11 23:21:43

[SOLVED] MPD + OSS ~ can't change volume under ncmpcpp, only hardware

#2 2010-01-13 00:15:10

Re: [SOLVED] MPD + OSS ~ can't change volume under ncmpcpp, only hardware

#3 2010-01-13 07:17:28

Re: [SOLVED] MPD + OSS ~ can't change volume under ncmpcpp, only hardware

#4 2010-01-13 20:03:37

Re: [SOLVED] MPD + OSS ~ can't change volume under ncmpcpp, only hardware

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