Comment 35 for bug 126333

I have a relatively unique setup in that I currently have three sound 'devices' running on my machine:

- an onboard VIA soundcard. Relevant entry from lspci: 00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)

- An external USB Terratec 'aureon' sound device. Relevant entry from lsusb: '00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)'

- An external USB Creative 'xmod' sound device. Relevant entry from lsusb: 'Bus 003 Device 006: ID 041e:30d0 Creative Technology, Ltd'

I get all sorts of weird and wonderful behavious with this arrangement, and they're different depending upon which soundcard I'm using.

First of all, the gnome-volume-control segfaults the moment I try to run it. (You'll probably want an apport or similar trace from this. I'll sort that out shortly. But I need to learn how to use these tools first, which I'll do when I'm not being paid by somebody else for my time...)

The VIA works reliably in all circumstances. In particular, the volume up and down keys on my keyboard work as expected if System -> Preferences -> Sounds is set to use that device by default.

When I'm using the terratec box as default, keyboard shortcuts have the desired effect upon the volume, but the pop-up volume control display is erratic; the volume bar leaps all over the place with each change in volume. The volume may have just been set to 20%, but it will show 100%, then with another change the display will leap to 0%.

When I'm using the xmod box as default (my preferred arrangement) then it's even stranger; the displayed volume leaps up and down erratically in the same way as the terratec device (terratic? ;) ) above, but the actual volume setting also does the same. I can hear this, but I can also quantify this visually if I have the gnome alsa mixer open at the same time; the volume bar leaps up and down. But even worse, the balance bar, as well as the actual balance setting, leaps about the place too.

I should add that changing settings using the gnome alsa mixer 'gnome-alsamixer 0.9.7~cvs.20060916.ds.1-1' works reliably and as expected on all of my sound devices.

I agree that this is a low priority issue; certainly not a showstopper, but I'd love to get this fixed, so I'm very happy to perform any tests anybody requests of me to help out.

Thanks,

Karl Dane