karmic: volume muted on login

[Leandro]

Binary package hint: libao-pulse

I'm experiencing this in different machines. When I login (from restart or not), the
master volume is muted.

The worst thing, that will cause a very bad impresion, is that if one tries to unmute it,
it doesn't work, because the master volume is at minimum. To restore sound, one
needs to increase master volume.

I've been observing this in at least three karmic instalations, 64 and 32 bit.

[Dave Jones (dgjones)]

I can confirm this bug on a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop with ESS Technology Maestro hardware.

On start up, the sound level is reduced to 0, to get sound I have to increase the volume level rather than unmuting it.

I'll try and give more details/info when I get back to laptop later today.

[Dave Jones (dgjones)]

Just an update with some more specific details.

LSPCI lists the sound as

02:03.0 Multimedia audio controller: ESS Technology ES1983S Maestro-3i PCI Audio Accelerator (rev 10)

On checking this evening, and opening sound preferences, the sound level was muted.

Unmuting doesn't change anything, I still have to adjust the volume upwards to get any sound out.

Sound theme is set at Ubuntu - Default
Hardware is listed as above
Profile is set as Analog Stereo Duplex

On the output tab, the ES1983S is selected, with the connector as Analog Output/Amplifier

If you need any further information, let me know

Dave

[Richard_Cocks (richard-cocks)]

01:08.0 Multimedia audio controller: C-Media Electronics Inc CM8738 (rev 10)

I'm also getting this problem (since upgrading to karmic RC from Jaunty) with the above card.

[Dave Jones (dgjones)]

Another update, after unmuting last night and raising the volume, at boot up this morning, I found that the setting has stayed and the volume had stayed at about 65% as set last night.

I don't if there'd been an update yesterday that had fixed it, but seems fine now for me.

Dave

[Leandro (leandromartinez98)]

This bug is solved for me as well.

[Enrico Battocchi (lopo)]

It happens to me as well, both on Ubuntu (on an Asus EEE PC 1000H) and Xubuntu (on a different, older laptop from an Italian assembler).

They're up to date with the last updates, but that still happens.

[Dave Jones (dgjones)]

This looks like a duplicate bug report to https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/352732

The advice I've been given is

sudo cp /etc/init.d/alsa-utils /etc/init.d/alsa-utils_old; gksudo gedit /etc/init.d/alsa-utils

scroll to line 378 which reads: mute_and_zero_levels "$TARGET_CARD" || EXITSTATUS=1

and comment it out and reboot

I've not tried it yet, thats a job for tonight

[Leandro (leandromartinez98)]

I'm not experiencing this bug anymore. Does anyone? Can we mark it as fixed?

[ofb (cottlestonpie)]

It is not fixed. This morning my Karmic booted with the volume muted again. Sometimes it boots that way, other times it doesn't, unfortunately.

[Dave Jones (dgjones)]

Mine was booting muted almost everytime, but after using the solution in post 7, the problem has been solved/worked around.

That worked for me.

[benpicco (benpicco)]

#7 does not work for me, the volume is still muted, as well are all volume settings for the individual channels in alsamixer (they are not available in the audio applet) reset. They are however not reset to 0 but to -6db altogether now - except Master.

[benpicco (benpicco)]

I have to correct me, #7 did indeed work.

[ofb (cottlestonpie)]

Funny. I've been running a second Karmic box for a week without this bug, almost.

Only instance also had broken sound - turning mute off & level up only gave very low, crunchy sound, which soon went to none. Both machines feed the same amp, so it wasn't an exterior hardware problem, and yes I checked cables. This cleared up with reboot.

Otherwise a prime difference between the boxes is the new one's a fresh install, while the afflicted box is an upgrade.

=box 1=
karmic upgrade

00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce2 AC97 Audio Controler (MCP) (rev a1)

- boots muted with levels down about half the time, in a random pattern.

=box 2=
karmic fresh install

00:04.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)

- only booted muted once, noted above.

...so, are the other afficted machine upgrades or fresh installs? Perhaps there's a conflict with something carried over in the configs.

[kounryusui (kounryusui)]

#7 fix worked here
This problem persisted on a fresh install of Karmic regardless of updates till now.

[nabilalk (nabilalk)]

# 7 worked for me as well ;-)