Sound Recorder - microphone recording regression in Intrepid Ibex

[William Fulton]

The Sound Recorder application does not work with my Intel hardware. When pressing 'Record' the Length reported rises rapidly showing 20 minutes of recording within about 3 seconds. After pressing 'Stop' it takes a minute or so for the application to respond again. Nothing gets played back when pressing 'Play'. I've observed this with the 8.10 beta and release candidate on two systems. Both have Intel hardware. Some details of the first system which works very well with Hardy 8.04:

Details taken using the 8.10 release candidate live cd...

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Wed Oct 22 00:29:18 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/version_signature
Ubuntu 2.6.27-7.13-generic

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ aplay --list-devices
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: STAC92xx Analog [STAC92xx Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: STAC92xx Digital [STAC92xx Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

TEST CASE:
=======
 * select "ALSA" in the 'Sound Capture' dropdown of the Sound Preferences dialog
 * open gnome-sound-recorder
 * start recording
=> reported length in the UI rises way too fast
 * stop recording and close g-sound-recorder
 * select 'PulseAudio-Soundserver' in the 'Sound Capture' dropdown of the Sound Preferences dialog
 * open gnome-sound-recorder
 * start recording
=> shown length is correct

Please consider the last steps also as a workaround

[Anthony Noto (angusthefuzz)]

Thank you for filing this bug report and helping to make Ubuntu better.

[William Fulton (william-fultondesigns)]

Some sound hardware details from the 2nd system I alluded to also taken from the 8.10 release candidate live cd and having the same problem...

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ aplay --list-devices
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC883 Analog [ALC883 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 1: ALC883 Digital [ALC883 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[William Fulton (william-fultondesigns)]

A third system of mine exhibits the same problem. It can't be related to Intel hardware as I originally thought as there is no Intel hardware in this box.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ aplay --list-devices
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: V8233Pre [VIA 8233-Pre], device 0: VIA 8233-Pre [VIA 8233-Pre]
  Subdevices: 4/4
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
  Subdevice #1: subdevice #1
  Subdevice #2: subdevice #2
  Subdevice #3: subdevice #3
card 0: V8233Pre [VIA 8233-Pre], device 1: VIA 8233-Pre [VIA 8233-Pre]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

[William Fulton (william-fultondesigns)]

I ran http://alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh on the 3rd system (VIA 8233-Pre) as suggested in the duplicate of this bug (#288252) resulting in:
http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=1c1bfa3427214f95fd9d26ee22e4605e684fd9aa

Hope that helps.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

Marking triaged/medium after chat with triager on #ubuntu-bugs.

[Markus Korn (thekorn)]

I can confirm this bug on a fresh install of intrepid. For information about my audio device please see the attached output of alsa-info.sh
One important note: I only can reproduce this bug if ALSA is selected for 'Sound Capture' in Sound Preferences. For any other selection (pulseaudio, HDA Intel Digital or Analog) the shown length is exact.

Markus

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

length recording issue is known and a duplicate of bug 282316, marking it as such, thanks.