Enable module-equalizer-sink by default

[Pali]

pulseaudio has support for built in equalizer, but ubuntu does not have enabled it. pulseudio provides module module-equalizer-sink which needs to be enabled at compile time.

In src/Makefile.am is this code:

if HAVE_DBUS
if HAVE_FFTW
modlibexec_LTLIBRARIES += \
  module-equalizer-sink.la
bin_SCRIPTS += utils/qpaeq
endif
endif

So for equalizer module is needed package fftw-dev. Please add needed fftw packages to pulseaudio build depends for equalizer support.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

fftw-dev is in universe, so it cannot be used as a build-dependency for a source package in main. I believe you mean libfftw3-dev?

[Pali (pali)]

in configure.ac is this line for HAVE_FFTW:
PKG_CHECK_MODULES(FFTW, [ fftw3f ], HAVE_FFTW=1, HAVE_FFTW=0)
so we need file fftw3f.pc which is in package libfftw3-dev:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/oneiric/amd64/libfftw3-dev/filelist

So I think pulseaudio needs depends on libfftw3-dev

[Luke Yelavich (themuso)]

TO properly use the equalizer, a utility called qpeak is needed, and this utility is not currently in Ubuntu. It has also been brought to my attention that this utility and this module use a piece of code from another module that was recently identified to be causing stability problems, and has been disabled.

Given that we are at feature freeze for precise, and given that we want a stable audio experience for the LTS, we have to defer this request until Precise+1, where it can be enabled, and tested along with qpeak.

Thanks for your understanding.

[Pali (pali)]

qpeak utility is in pulseaudio source package. it is in: ./src/utils/qpaeq, so no external package is needed.
but if there is problem with equalizer, enable support after problem will be fixed. could it go to precise backports then?

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

(Clarified Precise decision by marking it as a rejected feature - won't fix)
It's unlikely that a new version will go into precise-backports; bugs in the dbus-proto module need to be fixed before it's considered for precise+1.

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

Are there concrete issues?

Something like the pulseaudio equalizer could be very well used to compensate to an extent for crappy laptop speakers. So it could potentially be commonly usable.

By disabling the building on the pulseaudio equalizer it makes it quite hard to experiment with it (regardless of any bugs), since a full pulseaudio rebuild is required to get the equalizer support.

[Pali (pali)]

So what is status for quantal? Will be equalizer enabled in quantal?

[Eric Appleman (erappleman)]

No clue, but it would be a much nicer alternative to the 3rd party equalizer that can prevent pulse from loading or disable volume hotkeys.

[Pali (pali)]

What is problem to enable equalizer in quantil?

[Jendrik Seipp (jendrikseipp)]

What's the status of this? Will there be a system-equalizer in raring?

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

http://www.webupd8.org/2013/03/install-pulseaudio-with-built-in-system.html

[Raymond (superquad-vortex2)]

are there any limitation of the equalizer ? (e.g. only stereo and not support mono suuround5.1, 7.1 nor AC3 passthrough)

[jnewton (nevion)]

Equalizer creator here, doing my annual review of where this thing managed to go... I'm pretty "impressed" ubuntu still hasn't enabled this at-worst benign module... and it's such a hassle to replace pulseaudio by building from source so it's ultimately a stupid decision, really. Just build it and let users experiment, it's not like it loads itself by default and breaks your system. OpenSUSE, my distro of choice, has had it enabled since Feb 2012.

@Raymond: there's no limitation like that, its however many channels you have and each one has it's own channel specific settings.

[Michael Murphy (mmstick)]

This better be in Ubuntu 13.10

[Phrea (phrea)]

>Given that we are at feature freeze for precise, and given that we want a stable audio experience for the LTS, we have to defer this request until Precise+1, where it can be enabled, and tested along with qpeak.

Precise+3 now.
Still no qpeak.

[Michael Murphy (mmstick)]

So Saucy has released and trusty is on the rise; why not enable it here by default?

[N. W. (nw9165-3201)]

Hello,

could someone please fix this for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr?

It would be much appreciated.

Regards

[kevjonesin (kevjonesin-x)]

Please add a default system wide audio equalizer to Ubuntu releases. It would be a boon for the users as our audio hardware varies widely. While some media player apps have EQ plugins, this still leaves one unable to adjust the mix for web content audio that's playing through a browser. A global default sytem EQ integrated into 'buntu distros would just be so much more elegant. 'Set it -n- forget it'.

The EQ wouldn't have to be enabled by default, just included as an option to toggle on at will. If there were some occasional conflicts or other issues for a minority of users the relevant caveats could be made availble when accessing the settings to toggle it on.

Thanks for your consideration,

—Kevin—

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

It would seem that the pulseaudio equalizer module is available on Trusty:

$ dpkg -L pulseaudio | grep eq
/usr/lib/pulse-4.0/modules/module-equalizer-sink.so

[kevjonesin (kevjonesin-x)]

Pascal, is there an app (prefereably gui) included to access such or is it just a capability without a frontend to interact with it?

I'm endorsing/requesting an openly accessible user interface for audio equalization as a default feature of 'buntu distros.

[floid (jkanowitz)]

It's not clear what themuso was referring to back in 2012, but as nevion alluded to above, qpaeq is 'just' a Python program.
It's the GUI required (absent equivalent software) for the end-user to do something useful with the capability exposed by the modules (which do come stock, but aren't loaded by default).

See: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/plain/src/utils/qpaeq

Perhaps the problematic dependency back then was PyQt4 or sip? Or not, this is what's known as "unfounded speculation" on my part.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

raring has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the raring task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".

[franglais.125 (franglais.125-deactivatedaccount)]

Before this is closed. Doesn't this affect Trusty? A release that won't be EOL until 2019. And Utopic, and even Vivid? AFAIK, this has never been worked on, so in essence it affects all releases.

[Pali (pali)]

Rolf Leggewie (r0lf): this bug is valid for all ubuntu releases, so closing it as WONTFIX is not correct here...

[Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn)]

As I've noted before, Trusty already has the equaliser module available in the standard pulseaudio package:

$ dpkg -L pulseaudio | grep eq
/usr/lib/pulse-4.0/modules/module-equalizer-sink.so

So at least in Trusty this is actually fixed. All the critical "hard to fix" blumping is now in position.

Having a GUI frontend for it, is a completely different matter, which has nothing to do with this bug, and has nothing to do with pulseaudio (to which this bug applies).

If one were to have a proper equalizer GUI frontend in Ubuntu, it would have to be integrated into unity-control-center's sound panel:

$ dpkg -L unity-control-center | grep -i panels | grep -i sound
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/unity-control-center-1/panels/libsound.so

So for that a feature request would have to be filed against the unity-control-center package.

[N. W. (nw9165-3201)]

Hello,

as suggested by Pascal de Bruijn (pmjdebruijn), I filed a feature request against unity-control-center, see:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-control-center/+bug/1421581

Regards

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It appears this was done and is available at least in Ubuntu 17.04 and later. You just have to install package 'pulseaudio-equalizer'