[Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

ant1 · 2012-06-27 13:23:04

I installed the latest version of alsa-utils today from the main repository. The usual utf pipe symbols on the command line get translated into 3 random ascii symbols. This only happens on the default terminal ($TERM = linux) and not on the xterms. I've seen people have the same issues on Debian but I'm not sure how to get the relevant ncurses library on arch, I just installed the whole package and it did not fix it.

While this isn't critical I would really like to fix it since it will be awhile before I get a fully usable x-environment going on arch.

Last edited by ant1 (2012-06-27 14:47:57)

Trilby · 2012-06-27 13:44:09

There have been countless threads on this. Please search the forums and you will quickly find the solution.

Edit: hint, it has nothing to do with alsamixer, it has to do with line drawing characters in the console and your locale settings.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-06-27 13:45:01)

ant1 · 2012-06-27 13:57:38

I've been through 5 pages of google results for the problems in alsamixer, the only distro to have them is debian from three years ago and the solution is to rebuilt alsa-utils with libncursesw5 as opposed to libncurses5. The only thread to have anything to do with either suggests using ncurses as a blanker replacement and that is from a year and a half ago.

Somehow I don't see how 1 thread is "countless".

Edit: seeing what you said in your edit and looking around I found your post with the "solution" of putting DAEMON_LOCALE="yes". That's a patch to hide something the last stable release of initscripts update broke. Having read so many people talk about the Arch way: "places precedence upon elegance of design as well as clean, correct, simple code, rather than unnecessary patching" and being told to do exactly the opposite with my first post here is very underwhelming.

The actual solution is to use the initscripts from testing as detailed here.

Last edited by ant1 (2012-06-27 14:51:09)

Trilby · 2012-06-27 14:13:35

Note the edit, this has nothing to do with alsa mixer. It is the locale settings in your rc.conf affecting line drawing characters in the console.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-06-27 14:13:59)

Gcool · 2012-06-27 14:19:57

Technically, it's a bug (related BR).

Nonetheless, Trilby's right about there being several recent threads dealing with this issue.

ant1 · 2012-06-27 14:47:25

Solution:
Don't update initscripts to the current version in the core repositories or add testing repositories at the end of your pacman.conf and only pull the initscripts from there. Either way works and doesn't break anything else.

Changing DAEMON_LOCALE="yes" will most likely also work but might screw you up if you try and debug anything.

Trilby · 2012-06-27 15:11:02

WTF?

OK, glad it's solved. But for the record if others search for this problem, the above advice does not sound wise.

ant1 · 2012-06-27 15:45:09

Hardly anyone ever will since this got broken last month. The current testing initscripts is stable and works well, it will probably be fixed sooner rather than later.

Everyone who has followed your advice should change back DAEMON_LOCALE="yes" to DAEMON_LOCALE="no" as soon as the next version is released.

altbdoor · 2012-06-27 15:45:39

edit: i was too late

Last edited by altbdoor (2012-06-27 15:46:24)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-27 13:23:04

[Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#2 2012-06-27 13:44:09

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#3 2012-06-27 13:57:38

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#4 2012-06-27 14:13:35

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#5 2012-06-27 14:19:57

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#6 2012-06-27 14:47:25

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#7 2012-06-27 15:11:02

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#8 2012-06-27 15:45:09

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

#9 2012-06-27 15:45:39

Re: [Solved] Alsamixer garbeled screen.

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