audio problem with f8t3

[David L]

On 10/15/07, Will Woods <wwoods at redhat.com> wrote:
>
> On Sun, 2007-10-14 at 19:26 -0700, David L wrote:
> > Every once in a while I try to place a call in skype in f8t3 and I get
> > this error:
> >
> > Call Failed: Problem with Audio Playback
> >
> > lsof tells me this:
> >
> > /usr/sbin/lsof /dev/snd/*
> > COMMAND  PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
> > exe     2643  dl  mem    CHR  116,4      2764 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> > exe     2643  dl   15u   CHR  116,9      2732 /dev/snd/controlC1
> > exe     2643  dl   21u   CHR  116,6      2755 /dev/snd/controlC0
> > exe     2643  dl   27u   CHR  116,6      2755 /dev/snd/controlC0
> > exe     2643  dl   34u   CHR  116,4      2764 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p
> >
> > cat /proc/2643/cmdline
> > /usr/bin/pulseaudio--log-target=syslog
> >
> > killing the pulseaudio app fixes the problem.  I don't remember this
> > in f7 and I don't know what I'm doing to cause it to start.
>
> PulseAudio is the new sound server that's installed and enabled by
> default for Fedora 8. It handles sound input from esound/arts/ALSA/etc
> and does fancy mixing and transporting and generally makes sound support
> totally awesome. You can get more info about it here:
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/FeaturePulseaudio
>
> Since it's a replacement for esound/arts, it's started when you log in
> to GNOME/KDE, just like those programs were.
>
> Here's the problem: Skype apparently still doesn't know how to use ALSA
> properly. Since it's a closed-source app there's not a lot we can do
> about that. There appears to be a workaround mentioned here:
>
> http://developer.novell.com/wiki/index.php/Feisty/HOWTO:_PulseAudio#Running_Skype
> Basically, try running: "padsp skype" and PulseAudio will emulate the
> OSS interface to make skype happy.



I've found that my problems go beyond just skype problems.  After the
latest update, arecord doesn't work.  It creates a 44 byte file that
looks like what used to happen when I had capture disabled.  I used
to run alsamixer to fix this, but now alsamixer has fewer controls
and shows "PulseAudio" as the card and chip.  It used to show
"HDA Intel" as the card and "SigmaTel STAC9200" as the chip.
According to this new alsamixer view, capture is enabled, but
arecord doesn't work.  system-config-sound fails to play a sound
now unless I kill pulseaudio first.  And after I kill pulseaudio, arecord
fails entirely.  Is there a way to disable pulseaudio or otherwise fix
this problem.  I have no working mic anymore. :(

    David

PS - Here is a before (when my audio worked) and after (now,
when arecord captures a 44 byte file):

Before:
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 23 [74%] [-12.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 23 [74%] [-12.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 191 [75%] [-12.80dB]
  Front Right: Playback 191 [75%] [-12.80dB]
Simple mixer control 'LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 31
  Mono: Playback 31 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 15
  Front Left: Capture 10 [67%] [15.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 10 [67%] [15.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture Mux',0
  Capabilities: volume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: 0 - 4
  Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
  Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Digital',0
  Capabilities: cvolume
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 120
  Front Left: Capture 68 [57%] [4.00dB]
  Front Right: Capture 68 [57%] [4.00dB]
Simple mixer control 'Input Source',0
  Capabilities: cenum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Front Mic' 'Line'
  Item0: 'Front Mic'

After:
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 49934 [76%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 48623 [74%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
  Front Left: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 65536 [100%] [on]




amixer used to report
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