[karmic] 100% volume corresponds to +128 dB gain (distorted sound)

[Rune K. Svendsen]

Setting the volume to 100% on the Master channel of my Terratec Aureon 7.1 Space (ICE1724) equals a gain of +128 dB which makes the sound distorted:

rune@runescomp:~$ amixer -c 1 sset Master 100%
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [128.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [128.00dB] [on]

0 dB gain is around 50% (but not quite):

rune@runescomp:~$ amixer -c 1 sset Master 50%
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 128 [50%] [1.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 128 [50%] [1.00dB] [on]
rune@runescomp:~$ amixer -c 1 sset Master 0dB
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 255
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 127 [50%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 127 [50%] [0.00dB] [on]

rune@runescomp:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

rune@runescomp:~$ apt-cache policy alsa-base
alsa-base:
  Installed: 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
  Candidate: 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: rune 2436 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: rune 2436 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfdff8000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC888'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,147b0000,00100001'
   Controls : 40
   Simple ctrls : 22
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'T71Space'/'Terratec Aureon 7.1-Space at 0xbf00, irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'ICE1724 - multitrack'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 56
   Simple ctrls : 33
Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdcfc000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100000'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card2.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Date: Wed Sep 30 22:12:52 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: kvm_intel kvm fglrx
Package: alsa-base 1.0.20+dfsg-1ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_DK.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.36-generic
SourcePackage: alsa-driver
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686
UserAsoundrc:
 # ALSA library configuration file

 # Include settings that are under the control of asoundconf(1).
 # (To disable these settings, comment out this line.)
 </home/rune/.asoundrc.asoundconf>
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: ubuntu 4549 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/pcmC0D0c: ubuntu 4549 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: ubuntu 4549 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfdff8000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC888'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,147b0000,00100001'
   Controls : 40
   Simple ctrls : 22
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'T71Space'/'Terratec Aureon 7.1-Space at 0xbf00, irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'ICE1724 - multitrack'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 56
   Simple ctrls : 32
Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdcfc000 irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'ATI R6xx HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002aa01,00aa0100,00100000'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card2.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta i386 (20100318)
Package: alsa-driver (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-16.25-generic
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[madbiologist (me-again)]

If this problem is still occurring in Karmic updated to the latest Karmic Kernel (2.6.31-19), you might like to try the 2.6.33-rc7 kernel available at http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

It contains the following comment:

commit 9d4c7464458770d309169f7a7ce1ea6f8a4a7de5
Author: Jaroslav Kysela
Date: Fri Feb 5 10:19:41 2010 +0100

    ALSA: ice1724 - aureon - fix wm8770 volume offset

    The volume register is from 0..0x7f and 0..0x1a range is mute.
    Also, fix mute combining in wm_vol_put(). The wrong behaviour was
    noticed by Peter Christensen.

    Signed-off-by: Jaroslav Kysela

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

Please, if you are still having issues, test 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 alsa-base 439619

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.

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

apport information

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

This is still an issue with a live version of Lucid Beta 1 running from an USB drive.
Also, the command you mention gives an error:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ apport-collect -p alsa-base 439619
Usage: apport-gtk <report number>

apport-gtk: error: no such option: -p

So I just ran it without the -p option.
I haven't tried installing an upstream kernel yet as I haven't gotten around to actually installing the development release of Lucid on my system. But I (probably) will at some point. Especially if you say it is necessary to solve this bug (ie. that the information I just added isn't sufficient to solve this bug).

[Rune K. Svendsen (runeks)]

I just tried with the newest kernel available:

rune@runescomp:~$ uname -a
Linux runescomp 2.6.34-020634rc3-generic #020634rc3 SMP Tue Apr 6 18:29:59 UTC 2010 i686 GNU/Linux
rune@runescomp:~$ amixer -c 1 sset Master 100%
Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch penum
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 100
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 100 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 100 [100%] [0.00dB] [on]

it's been fixed :D

[dino99 (9d9)]

There is no support on such deprecated version; that one has died long time ago.