Default sound device isn't used as default by several programs.

[Joe_Bishop]

I have two soundcards:
1) ESI Juli@ (used as default, snd-ice1724, no microphone input)
2) HDA Intel (snd-hda-intel)
Juli is set as default through /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
Everything is OK with mplayer, flash, gstreamer apps are also OK.
Some apps, like empathy, works well with gnome sound settings. I mean, they used ESI Juli@ for playback and HDA Intel for microphone input when voice chatting as I set them up through System->Preferences->Sound.
But some playback through build in HDA Inte doesn't workl - absolutely all games I've ever tried: Sauerbraten, Worsow, Wormux, X-Moto, etc. Ekiga doesn't work too, inspite of the fact I've set up alsa, then ESI for playback and HDA Intel for input. Absolutely no sound.

PS When I was installing Ubuntu 8.10, I didn't turn off integrated card in the bios, and it usually was the first device after reboot.
I've managed to reproduce similar behaviour with Ekiga at another computer: It has ASUS Xonar DX and HDA Intel. I switched off integrated sound card when installing and there were no such issues. But I can't use my Dr.Dac2 USB Audio device in Ekiga too, although everything is OK with the music playback through gstreamer apps.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

If the problem is that sound is played back (or recorded) through the wrong soundcard, you might be able to solve this by either:

1) deleting (or backup) the files in the .pulse directory (under your home directory), especially volume-restore.table (which contains per-application soundcard and volume settings), or

2) move the stream with the application pavucontrol.

If this worked for you, please set the bug status to "Invalid", if it didn't, set it back to "New". Thanks!

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Note: after having deleted/moved volume-restore.table, you must log out and in again for changes to take effect.

[Joe_Bishop (denis-cheremisov-gmail)]

Hm, this works for Ekiga and my USB Dr.Dac2. I didn't try it on machine with Juli.

[Joe_Bishop (denis-cheremisov-gmail)]

I don't understand the reason why should I mark it as invalid if this issue solves through removing ~/.pulse/*?
I think it should be found a way to automatically avoid this issue, not just making another bearer of sacral knowledge.
// This trick doesn't work with Juli. Linux sound system is horrible, it's not ready :(

[Joe_Bishop (denis-cheremisov-gmail)]

Suggested approach works for my USB audio (but I can't call it user friendly), but doesn't work for PCI Juli. I've spent more than a week trying to resolve this issue: alsa configs (seems doesn't work at all), than pulse audio gui approach (very buggy, crashes, etc), works, but not stable and always in different way (sometimes works, sometimes doesn't). Before this expirience I though Linux is ready, today I see it doesn't.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Linux is more complex than Windows in many cases due to the enormous amount of configuration you can make, that is both good and bad. If you think Linux sound is not ready, the best thing you can do is try to make it ready.

As for the pavucontrol utility, it will be replaced in Jaunty, so bugs in there are not likely to be fixed unless you report them directly to pulseaudio (www.pulseaudio.org). Pulseaudio has a lot of features but not all of them are easily configurable through a GUI.

If removing .pulse/* helps you, then the behaviour is most likely by Pulseaudio design (call it a design flaw if you wish).

Okay, back to the actual bug. Is the bug still that sound is being played back through HDA-intel instead of through the Juli? And are you saying that moving the stream in pavucontrol sometimes work and sometimes doesn't? Please clarify.

[Joe_Bishop (denis-cheremisov-gmail)]

Just a bug: no sound through device after stream has been moved. Sometimes
pavucontrol crashes after that and cannot
connect again, sometimes audio app hangs up, sometimes both work but no
sound, I haven't found any regularity yet.

2009/1/14 David Henningsson <email address hidden>

> Linux is more complex than Windows in many cases due to the enormous
> amount of configuration you can make, that is both good and bad. If you
> think Linux sound is not ready, the best thing you can do is try to make
> it ready.
>
> As for the pavucontrol utility, it will be replaced in Jaunty, so bugs
> in there are not likely to be fixed unless you report them directly to
> pulseaudio (www.pulseaudio.org). Pulseaudio has a lot of features but
> not all of them are easily configurable through a GUI.
>
> If removing .pulse/* helps you, then the behaviour is most likely by
> Pulseaudio design (call it a design flaw if you wish).
>
> Okay, back to the actual bug. Is the bug still that sound is being
> played back through HDA-intel instead of through the Juli? And are you
> saying that moving the stream in pavucontrol sometimes work and
> sometimes doesn't? Please clarify.
>
> --
> Default sound device isn't used as default by several programs.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/316510
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>