[SB Audigy 2 ZS] Invalid dB data, and recognized as SB Audigy 1

[David Henningsson]

I'm experiencing issues with pulseaudio whereby randomly the volume swells up and down. I think this has something to with pulseaudio trying to normalize the volume in real time and getting it wrong.

On karmic I removed pulseaudio and it solved my problems. I have now upgraded to (with a clean install) lucid alpha-1 and I would like to keep pulseaudio but I can't abide this volume swelling issue.

My question is whether my assumption about the normalization is correct and how I can turn it off or improve the way it works.

I hear this problem whilst playing mp3s, watching videos and playing flash content. I can't use pulseaudio on QuakeLive either without the game performance taking a massive hit.

My system set up is AMD64 lucid alpha-1, SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

I converted your question into a bug, can you please run this terminal command: "apport-collect 535529"

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

apport whinged that I wasn't the bug owner and then said no additional information to collect. What now?

Thanks

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

Hmm...I added ubuntu/pulseaudio, try again with "apport-collect 535529"

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: mary 1398 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0p: mary 1398 F...m pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Audigy'/'Audigy 1 [Unknown] (rev.5, serial:0x20051102) at 0xdf00, irq 20'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9750,51'
   Components : 'AC97a:83847650'
   Controls : 199
   Simple ctrls : 34
CheckboxSubmission: 747fb8e876b564a76d76df120327e040
CheckboxSystem: 6ce041aeed0a2c17b3343b66d157175d
CurrentDmesg:
 [ 23.060031] eth0: no IPv6 routers present
 [ 83.140039] Clocksource tsc unstable (delta = -170852877 ns)
 [ 526.160036] usb 1-6: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 5
 [ 526.316546] usb 1-6: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha amd64 (20091209)
Package: pulseaudio 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu11
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=C
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-14.20-generic
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-14-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
mtime.conffile..etc.pulse.default.pa: 2010-03-09T20:13:34.329287

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

apport information

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

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[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

You'll see that I modified my default.pa file.

This was done on advice from this page

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems/KarmicCaveats#Volume%20range%20anomalies

However, the changes made no effect :(

Thanks for looking into this.

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

Additionally, it reports my audio card as Audigy 1. This is incorrect it is an Audigy 2 ZS

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

I assume you have also tried:

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so
load-module module-udev-detect ignore_dB=1
.else
### Alternatively use the static hardware detection module (for systems that
### lack udev support)
load-module module-detect
.endif

instead of your current (which does not make sense):

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so ignore_dB=1
load-module module-udev-detect ignore_dB=2
.else
### Alternatively use the static hardware detection module (for systems that
### lack udev support)
load-module module-detect
.endif

?

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

My back up of that file says:

### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so ignore_dB=1
load-module module-udev-detect

I will try your suggestion now.

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

Sounds good now. I have no way of testing this bug for sure aside from playing a bunch of media and listening out for it. So can I get back to you in a while after I have run my "tests"?

Question is now why my file looked the way it did? If memory serves me correctly this occurred on or around the 8th/ 9th of March 2010.

Thanks for your help

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

Nope sorry :(

Hasn't fixed things. Looked good for about 20 minutes. I played one mp3 (via Banshee) and two Flash videos (via Firefox). Watching a third now and the same problem keeps happening.

Please help me fix this. Thanks

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

You're erroneously attempting to use module-udev-detect after explicitly loading module-alsa-sink. Don't do that. Instead, revert your changes to the module-udev-detect line and combine the intended change into the module-alsa-sink one: control=PCM ignore_dB=1

Also, the kernel isn't lying. Your card may be branded an Audigy 2, but it very clearly uses the same chip as that of an Audigy 1 for which the quirk was written. (Creative is notorious for rebranding.)

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

Hi Daniel thanks for the suggestion. I *think* I've made the change correctly. Stupidly I stopped making backups so I forgot what I should be reverting to.

I've attached my new default.pa file.

Same problem still occurs, the volume is going crazy. Hopefully you can have a look at it and suggest where I've gone wrong. Thanks.

[David Henningsson (diwic)]

In your latest default.pa, you commented out the module-alsa-sink line. Uncomment it again by removing the #.

[piratemurray (mez-pahlan)]

I tried your suggestion on Saturday and after two days it seems to be going well. So far so good!

How can I conclusively test this without just listening to lots and lots of media like I'm doing now?

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi David,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 535529

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Monstara (monstara)]

Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027)
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.36-0.4-generic 2.6.36-rc7
Tags: maverick
Uname: Linux 2.6.36-0-generic x86_64
UnreportableReason: The running kernel is not an Ubuntu kernel
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom conquest dialout lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare video www-data

[Monstara (monstara)]

this seems to be the same bug. However, I *only* experience it when playing games. Video and music are fine.
I will try to remove pulseaudio and see if that fixes it.

[Monstara (monstara)]

I should add, that in messages I get tons of lines like this:
pulseaudio[2329]: ratelimit.c: 1054 events suppressed
http://pastebin.com/dCRbFZZu

My laptop is an HP dv3 with a touch sensitive strip for volume control. At first I thought the strip caused the problem, before seeing this report.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 535529

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]