[hardy] low sound volume for some applications

[TDB]

Hi!
System: Hardy alpha 3, updated from gutsy. Toshiba Satellite p205.
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

Problem:
Low sound volume from certain applications (exaile, skype) and slightly lower from others (amarok, vlc) compared to edgy/feisty (where I had no problems). Suspects: pulse audio, alsa, kernel.

I can provide any info. Thank you.

[JeSTeR7 (cblocker)]

Wanted to confirm this is happening in Alpha 6.
Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (Rev 02)

All volume sliders need to be at 100% just to hear at a normal level on any app.

[TDB (michael-baranov)]

I have removed all pulseaudio* packages and the sound volume is back to normal.

[Slava (slava-slavix)]

I have same problem with hardy 6. very low volume all around.

[ldng (ldng)]

I can confirm that. This is still happening.
My sound device is :
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

[[e-mail] (mikerin-slava)]

latest beta. still low volume. why is this bug still categorized as new? It has been open for months...

[AndyB (web-mycoted)]

I'm seeing the same problem - from updates in the last week ... suddenly the volume is extremely low. I'll dig around to see if I can find the cause.

[Wong Yong Jie (yjwong)]

This is confirmed on my Acer Aspire 5562 NWXMi. My sound device is the same as the bug reporter:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)

This is on Hardy Release Candidate (or is it the final version? - I'm running the latest Hardy as of the posting time and date). Really needs to be fixed - It's a serious regression for those of us who blare loud music frequently. TDB's method does the trick - but that removes pulseaudio altogether.

[jan_k (wobble-gmx)]

Confirming this for a Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02).

(The Hardy release broke both my sound and video setup although it was updated from a vanilla Gutsy. That's almost as bad as Gentoo when I decided to switch to Ubuntu. ... maybe it's time for a bugfix release instead of frequently putting in more useless and broken features in .. simply annyoing)

[mensenjh (mensenjh)]

I upgraded from 7.10 to 8.04. No sound problems in 7.10 but in 8.04 the normal volume is reached with all switches set to max. As a music and movie user I consider this critical. I'm worried this issue is open for a prolonged period already.

[[e-mail] (mikerin-slava)]

Who needs to be contacted to have this bug looked at? I would like to make somebody at Canonical and/or Ubuntu aware this bug is ignored.

[Frank Niedermann (fbn)]

I have the same issue on a Dell XPS m1330 and according to a thread in the ubuntuusers.de forum some others also experienced this.

Maybe this will help (can not try at the moment):

Go to "System --> Preferences --> Sound"
Click on "Devices" Tab.
Go to "Device" combo. I have the "HDA Intel (alsa mixer)" selected so I click on combo and change to the "Playback:ALSA PCM on front:0 (STAC92xx Analog) via DMA (PulseAudio Mixer)" device.

But it's too bad that no developer has a look at some bugs ;(

[Ben Andersen (ben72)]

I had very low volume after upgrading from 7.10 to 8.04.

It seems the problem is only a low default value of the Front speaker volume. I just had to enable the Front speaker volume control in gnome-volume-control, set it to max and then I could control the volume as normal with PCM/Master. I hope it's not like this if installing from scratch, it can be pretty tricky for a new user to find the problem..

[[e-mail] (mikerin-slava)]

Thank you Ben!
I fixed the problem following Bens's instructions,
right click on volume button, select open volume control, and make sure front volume is set to max.

[tian (nopararas)]

Fixed with Ben's instrucions... I guess this bug should be closed... I does no seem to be a real bug.

Sugestion: Maybe the initial configuration should come with front speakers at max...

[GhostCow (sintzu)]

confirmed with Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller as well... only here i don't have a 'front speaker' under pulseaudio volume config, only 'master'...

[Sam Bristow (sam-bristow)]

If just increasing the 'front' volume doesn't fix it try the 'surround' slider too. That's what I needed to do.

[jcar87 (julius87)]

I'm having the same problem however increasing the 'front' volume doesn't fix it entirely.

THe behaviour is the following:
- The default volume of the front channel is not the maximum. I'd say it was around 75%.
- With those settings, the 'master' volume controls the volume but the highest volume will be that set in the 'front' channel.
- If I set the front volume to the max while listening to something, and have the 'master' volume set to the max too, it will sound as loud as it should.
- If I now lower the 'master' volume, the volume drops a LOT, then when I set it back to the max it won't sound as loud as it used to, it will sound as loud as it sounded when 'front' was set to 75%. But now FRONT is set to the MAX. The only way to get the max volume now will be to manually set the 'front' volume to the max again.

So there is still a bug. If you people are fixing it by upping the 'front' volume, it either doesn't work for me or you just simply stay with both max and front set to the maximum without ever lowering the volume through ubuntu (perhaps you have an external volume control in your speakers?).

The only way I could fix this was to set the "headphone" to the maximum too. I just discovered that the bug works both ways, the behavior I just described works with the 'headphone' channel too. So to sum up:

- Given a volume level of 'master', if either 'front' or 'headphone' are changed using the alsa mixer, the maximum volume will change to that of the channel we have just changed. If after that, we change the volume level of 'master', the maximum volume will change again, to that of the lowest value (meaning that if we set the front volume to the max to get higher volume, but headphone was at a lower value, then when we modify the 'master' volume, it will lower its maximum value to what is set in the 'headphone' channel, and viceversa).

I hope that makes sense

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

It's debatable whether this issue really belongs to PA; after all, we could work around it in the alsa-utils initscript.

[Prakash J Kokkatt (pjkonweb)]

With ICH7 HDA Azalia ,I am also experiencing the same problem.volume is less(slightly).

[torstenaf (afguy)]

Same bug here. ICH6 older Sony VAIO with pulseaudio. I have an inelegant solution.

If I add the first "Input Source" from the volume manager, the click the "options" tab, then change "Mic" to "Front Mic", try to record something (doesn't work), and change "Front Mic" back to "Mic", then try to record (it works). Skype also works after this (it is configured to use pulseaudio).

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

There has been no activity on this bug for a while. is this still an issue with either Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 with all updates installed, or Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 alpha 3?

Thanks.

[Diogo Matsubara (matsubara)]

I have this problem as well on Lucid Beta.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thank you for reporting this bug to Ubuntu. Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy) reached end-of-life on May 12, 2011.

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

Please upgrade to the latest version and re-test.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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