gnome-sound-recorder does not record

[markling]

gnome-sound-recorder not working.

Failure was, initially, an attempt to get it recording streaming audio out of the box.

That having failed, I tried changing its options, and my (alsa) sound options. Failing that I started looking for help online: the problem looked horribly complex and the way to a solution looked frought with difficulty, with a horrendously steep learning curve. It looked like I might have to learn all about Linux's underlying sound system just to get the recording device to work. I gave up and went back to my work without the hope that I might go an as before, doing the recording of streaming audio that had been an essential part of it.

That was nearly a year ago when I upgraded to Xubuntu, and I have recovered the same steps again occassionally, just to check it still wasn't working, and just to check that I've not seen an easy solution because I'm stupid. I think I have come to understand that I'm not stupid; I'm a user. And the sound recorder doesn't work.

In the sound-recorder interface, the options are stuck.

'Record from input' offers only one option: Master
'Record as' offers no options: it is blank.

Pressing record does nothing. The sound level indicator is flat.

I have played with some of the settings in the user interface for (Alsa) sound preferences. But it has acheived nothing. Most of the settings in the Alsa interface are not written in English anyway. They are written in some sort of arcane sound architecture language that can be understood by nobody but sound software experts, programmers and perhaps linux computer administrators.

The Alsa output options are actually refreshingly comprehensible. They are written in plain English. But it's input options are gibberish. The Campaign for Plain English are worth a ganders. The idea of plain English is not that you have to write everything in goo-goo baby-language, or spell it out as if it is thought that users are idiots. You just have to write user interfaces in a way that allows people not immersed in the arcane world of sound architectures to use them.

This is a bug because it doesn't work and because there is no way for a sensible user to find any reasonable way of getting it working.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: gnome-media 3.4.0-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-30.44-generic 3.8.13.6
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-30-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8.3
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Sep 25 10:15:30 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-11-28 (300 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.1)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: gnome-media
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-05-14 (133 days ago)

[markling (markling)]

Woah there though. My description of Alsa user interface settings is only the *impression* I have after being unable to make any sense of them. The input settings are actually described in fairly plain English. All of the settings are not. And in combination, the effect is to overwhlem the user with technical gibberish. The programmers have obviously put a lot of effort into making an user-friendly interface. It just seems there's work to be done because it doesn't work and the interface doesn't help. So you are left with two choices: blame the sound interface or blame the sound recorder. I blame both. The one fails to work, the other fails to make any sense. And that is the crucial thing about the sound interface - it's hard to make sense of what should be a simple thing. I simply need to record streaming audio.

[markling (markling)]

Something else of note regarding the actual bug.

The user interface for my (alsa) sound settings seems to only offer options when there is a sound programme active.

The 'Recording' tab in my sound settings interface says: "No application is currently recording audio".

It says this even after I open Sound Recorder. Opening Audacity doesn't make any difference.

Input devices has a thicket of options.

So try this: You are a user. You want to record streaming audio. You find the recorder doesn't work.

You go to input devices in the sound settings user interface. It has two lots of options. I.e. each option has a multitude of options. Ok, Fine. So lets see the 'Show' options:

'
All input devices
All except monitors
Hardware input devices
Virtual input devices
Monitors
'

So your first question is, where's streaming audio? I consider it a sign of my relative technical sophistication that the phrase 'streaming audio' makes sense to me. Just think how many people don't. How far would they get?

Anyway, back to me. I can't see streaming audio. I don't even have any input device as far as I know. I have a computer. I don't have a microphone. I have an earphonse socket. I record my music on it. I listen to it in my earphones. I use the web. That's it. Devices? I dread to know the difference between hardware, virtual and monitor devices. I'm sure its interesting. But I don't have the luxury of spare time. Would that I had.

So you select 'All devices' of course.

It offers you then two other options. It offers you a volume control for "Monitor of built in audio analogue stereo". And one for "Built in audio analogue stereo".

I don't even know what that is. Is it my sound card? Does my computer even have a sound card? I consider it a mark of my technical superiority over most nobby users that I even know that my computer *probably* doesn't have a sound card. It *probably* has a sound chip! Aren't I clever. If I had time to spare, I even might look it up. But I don't, so I'll get back to trying to get my sound recorder to work.

As for what "built in audio analogue stereo is", the prospect of looking it up online fills me with despair. This is just the first option. That could take a whole evening on its own. There's a whole thicket of options to get through yet. I mean, elsewhere it offers me an option for digital stereo. Isn't it all digital? How do I get it to record streaming audio?

Anyway, "built in audio analogue stereo is" offers me some other options: microphone 1, microphone 2, line in, analogue input, video. None of them seem to describe anything I know.

As far as I'm aware, I don't have any analogue input devices. What is an analogue input device? I don't have any microphones (being a superior sort of computer user, I know my computer *probably* has a mic built in somewhere, but I don't use it). I don't have a video connected. I don't even have a DVD playing. And 'line in' - is that like if you have an audio line going *in* to the back of your computer. I think I may have a line in. But I think last time I looked there may have only been a mic input. I don't remember. But I just need to record streaming audio anyway.

I tried various o...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Tomislav (hefest)]

Confirming:

'Record from input' offers only one option: Master
'Record as' offers no options: it is blank.

Although I'm a technical user, I must say that although the above comments suggest it is a configuration issue, I don't see anything wrong in sound settings. Whatsmore, it just used to work before I upgraded my system from 12.04 to 14.04.

In short:

- sound recording should "just work"
- is there a temporary workaround I could use?