Volume adjustment is extreme

[Ken Pratt]

Binary package hint: pulseaudio

I am using an Altec Lansing USB sound adapter (ID 0d8c:000c C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter). It plays sound just fine but volume adjustment is calibrated incorrectly. 2/3 of scale is loud. One click below (in the horizontal volume slider) is too low to hear, and one click above would make Spinal Tap envious. Mine goes to 12....

I have to manually adjust the volume using my speaker adjustment.

Thanks

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: libpulse0 1:0.9.22~0.9.21+stable-queue-32-g8478-0ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-24.42-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-24-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC2: kpratt 1938 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC2D0p: kpratt 1938 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: kpratt 1938 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: kpratt 1938 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xf6ffc000 irq 21'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9205'
   Components : 'HDA:838476a0,102801f8,00100204'
   Controls : 19
   Simple ctrls : 11
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x46d0x8c9'/'USB Device 0x46d:0x8c9 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.2, high speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:08c9'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 3072
   Mono: Capture 0 [0%] [18.00dB] [on]
Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'default'/'C-Media USB Headphone Set at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1.1.5, full speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB0d8c:000c'
   Controls : 5
   Simple ctrls : 3
CheckboxSubmission: 48d893255053224631a12a7b4064254b
CheckboxSystem: d00f84de8a555815fa1c4660280da308
Date: Mon Sep 13 08:31:30 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100406.1)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: pulseaudio
dmi.bios.date: 05/16/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A10
dmi.board.name: 0WY897
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA10:bd05/16/2008:svnDellInc.:pnPrecisionM6300:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0WY897:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Precision M6300
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

Unfortunately, USB audio devices under Linux are often a pain, because manufacturers don't follow specs properly, so volume information is incorrectly reported. You could try updating your alsa drivers, as outlined here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Audio/InstallingLinuxAlsaDriverModules. Note that there may not be a version of this package available for your kernel version just yet, but give it a day, and it will hopefully be available. (I am not responsible for those packages, but I have asked the person who is to get them fixed up.)

If updating drivers doesn't help, then we need to take steps to try and fix the driver in Linux to allow correct volume adjustment.

Please report back as to whether the update helped.

 affects ubuntu/pulseaudio
 status incomplete

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sergiu Bivol (sergiu-bivol)]

I can reproduce the exact same behaviour using an USB adapter with C-Media Electronics chip (0d8c:000c).
Volume is muted from 0% to 34%, unmutes at 35% and is very loud already at 40%. At 70% it is at maximum loudness.

Kubuntu 11.10, Linux 3.0.0-12-generic, ALSA 1.0.24

[Anton Veretenenko (anton.veretenenko)]

Confirm, the same on 12.10 with 0d8c:000e C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter (Planet UP-100, Genius G-Talk) device.
Alsamixer shows 0% -28.37dB where pulseaudio and ubuntu sound settings shows 34% and sound cuts at this mark.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

post the output of alsa-info.sh

and

lsusb -vvvv

[Anton Veretenenko (anton.veretenenko)]

I did a patch for snd-usb-audio which fixes pulseaudio volume. But alsamixer is still messed up, -17.57dB at 0% and volume is loud.
Attaching alsa-info, lsusb and patch.

[Anton Veretenenko (anton.veretenenko)]

added all possible product ids from CM109 datasheet to patch

[Ubuntu Foundations Team Bug Bot (crichton)]

The attachment "C-Media CM109 pulseaudio mutes at 34% patch" of this bug report has been identified as being a patch. The ubuntu-reviewers team has been subscribed to the bug report so that they can review the patch. In the event that this is in fact not a patch you can resolve this situation by removing the tag 'patch' from the bug report and editing the attachment so that it is not flagged as a patch. Additionally, if you are member of the ubuntu-reviewers team please also unsubscribe the team from this bug report.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by Brian Murray. Please contact him regarding any issues with the action taken in this bug report.]

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

how about the Mic ?

you have to send your patch to alsa development mailing list

control.2 {
  iface MIXER
  name 'Mic Playback Volume'
  value 23
  comment {
   access 'read write'
   type INTEGER
   count 1
   range '0 - 32'
   dbmin 0
   dbmax 4781
   dbvalue.0 3436
  }
 }

[Anton Veretenenko (anton.veretenenko)]

Mic values looks correct to datasheet, but I do not have a mic, so can't test it. Not sure alsa would like this patch, it does mess up alsamixer even more.

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

151 is a prime number

7248 = 48 x151

USB Mixer information
!!-----------------------

USB Mixer: usb_id=0x0d8c000e, ctrlif=0, ctlerr=0
Card: Generic USB Audio Device at usb-0000:00:1d.7-3.2, full speed
  Unit: 9
    Control: name="Speaker Playback Volume", index=0
    Info: id=9, control=2, cmask=0x3, channels=2, type="S16"
    Volume: min=-7264, max=-16, dBmin=-2837, dBmax=-6

control.4 {
  iface MIXER
  name 'Speaker Playback Volume'
  value.0 10
  value.1 10
  comment {
   access 'read write'
   type INTEGER
   count 2
   range '0 - 151'
   dbmin -2837
   dbmax -6
   dbvalue.0 -2650
   dbvalue.1 -2650
  }
 }

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

your dB range 23.37 are just less than 24dB

+
+#define MAX_LINEAR_DB_SCALE 24

http://git.alsa-project.org/?p=alsa-utils.git;a=commitdiff;h=34bb514b5fd1d6f91ba9a7b3a70b0ea0c6014250;hp=70a01748d594ef57a1962e4cb012927faf6d852f

[tuxiano (tuxiano)]

Hi, I have the exact same problem with the following sound card:

lsusb | grep -i audio
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0d8c:000c C-Media Electronics, Inc. Audio Adapter

Has the patch of #9 already be applied?

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Ken,

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) reached end-of-life on May 9, 2013.

See this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Please upgrade to the latest version and re-test.

Others: If you continue to experience problems then please log new bugs.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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