Sound output is not stereo until volume slider is moved

[James]

I have an M-Audio Revolution 7.1. I was happy that under Feisty I now have a joint slider (2 locked together) in GNOME Volume Control for PCM level control. However, when I first boot up and start playing an audio or movie file, sound is only output on the right side. I have to nudge the slider (distance doesn't seem to matter) in order for the sound to properly ouput in stereo. I'm not sure if this is an ALSA bug or GNOME bug.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please add the output requested at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DebuggingSoundProblems as attachments to your bug report? Thanks in advance.

[James (chiisu81)]

In addition to moving the slider, muting and unmuting the output will output properly in stereo.
/*****************************************************************************************************************/
Output of "tail -2 /proc/asound/oss/sndstat ":

Mixers:
0: ICE1724 - multitrack
/*******************************************************************************************************************/
Output of "amixer":

Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 85 [33%] [-9.54dB]
  Front Right: Playback 85 [33%] [-9.54dB]
Simple mixer control 'PCM Center',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-99999.99dB]
Simple mixer control 'PCM LFE',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono: Playback 0 [0%] [-99999.99dB]
Simple mixer control 'PCM Rear',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-99999.99dB]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-99999.99dB]
Simple mixer control 'PCM Side',0
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-99999.99dB]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-99999.99dB]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Output',0
  Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Mono
  Mono: Playback [on]
Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'Deemphasis',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: '44.1kHz' 'Off' '48kHz' '32kHz'
  Item0: 'Off'
Simple mixer control 'Deemphasis',1
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: '44.1kHz' 'Off' '48kHz' '32kHz'
  Item0: 'Off'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',1
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',2
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',3
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',4
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',5
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',6
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'H/W',7
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'PCM Out' 'H/W In 0' 'H/W In 1' 'IEC958 In L' 'IEC958 In R'
  Item0: 'PCM Out'
Simple mixer control 'Mult...

[James (chiisu81)]

I just realized I could've submitted several comments to add all the attachments, but since most were pretty short I included them inline, with the exception of the dmesg output since it was fairly long...

[Chris (chris-redhat-bugs)]

Description of problem: When I first start up and login, there is only sound
coming out of one channel. Until the volume slider is moved, it is stuck like
that. Once the slider in the mixer is moved, sound comes out of both left and
right channels.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 1.0.14-0.4.rc3.fc7

How reproducible: Happens every time I start up the computer and login

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start up and login
2. Play something and listen to sound
3. Move the volume slider and listen again, sound is now stereo

Actual results: Sound is not stereo until slider is moved.

Expected results: Sound should always be stereo since the channels are linked
and they are not muted.

Additional info:

[James (chiisu81)]

Package affected needs to be changed, as I still have this bug when running Fedora 7 which uses 2.6.22.x kernel.

[Chris (chris-redhat-bugs)]

Here is a link to Launchpad report, as I had this problem in Ubuntu Feisty as
well. They have linux-source-2.6.20 marked as the affected package, but since
Fedora 7 uses 2.6.22.x that needs to be changed.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/110481

[Martin (martin-redhat-bugs)]

Aha, okay. There's an updated kernel package for F7 with alsa-drivers 1.0.14.
Anyway, what channel do you have to move? There's a command line utility nammed
alsaunmute what should set all channels to the default values. Does it do that?

Anyway, can you please attach /root/scsconfig.log? It can be generated by
system-config-soundcard.

[Chris (chris-redhat-bugs)]

Created attachment 161716
Sound Config log

[Chris (chris-redhat-bugs)]

The channel I have to move is "PCM". I ran the command "alsaunmute 0", and that
made the volume louder and unmuted the left channel. However it doesn't work if
I reboot, I have to do it again just like moving the volume slider.

[Martin (martin-redhat-bugs)]

Aha. Is the volume of "PCM" preserved during boot? If not, that could be a dupe
of Bug 247468.

Anyway, please report it at upstream (www.alsa-project.org) and file a bug
there. This bug should be fixed there for all distros.

[Greg Unger (mr-ory)]

i have this problem in Ubuntu Gutsy, with my Logitech v20 usb speakers.

[Chris (chris-redhat-bugs)]

Hi Martin, sorry for the delayed response. The PCM level isn't preserved when I
reboot, it goes back to 50%. I believe with the updated alsa-drivers, that the
stereo problem has been taken care of, so this bug can be closed and set to
fixed. I will contribute to Bug 24746 to help with that one. Thanks for all
your help!

[James (chiisu81)]

I still have this problem in Gutsy beta

[Martin (martin-redhat-bugs)]

okay, closing.

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

We were wondering is this still an issue for you in the 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon release? Please let us know. Thanks!

[Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara)]

This bug report is being closed because we received no reponse to the last inquiry for information. Please reopen it if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu release. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Please don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future, we really appreciate it. Thanks again!

[colas (colas-nahaboo-net)]

I recently bought a M-Audio revolution 7.1 and I can confirm this bug is still there on the last 8.04 Hardy Heron Ubuntu.
My system: 2.6.24-16-generic #1 SMP Thu Apr 10 13:23:42 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
Booting in windows the card works, but rebooting in linux after windows do not fix it. Only after touching the volume does it work.
Playing with gnome-sound-properties do not fix it either.

[James (chiisu81)]

Yes, I'm still having this issue in Hardy. Still using my M-Audio Revolution 7.1, which has otherwise worked flawlessly with ALSA and PulseAudio.