HOWTO: PulseAudio Fixes & System-Wide Equalizer Support

[manlypain]

Ok, thanks for the output. I think I know the problem - give me a little while to sort it out. The ia32-libs needs to be updated with the new dependencies.

Just to make sure i know what happened:
-i am without flash basically until you are able to figure it out

i am kinda scared to reboot because i can deal with loss of flash for a while but not sound altogether. Thanks for trying to figure this out

[nick623]

Hi I tried your amendment http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=472
to your how to.

And now I have flash video but no sound. My setup was according to your latest how to. I'm using 32 bit Hardy.

Actually, I have no sound.

Is there a way to revert.

And if so. How?

Thanks.

[psyke83]

Just to make sure i know what happened:
-i am without flash basically until you are able to figure it out

i am kinda scared to reboot because i can deal with loss of flash for a while but not sound altogether. Thanks for trying to figure this out

Try:

$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree/hardy

That will downgrade to the version in the official repositories. Hold off on upgrading until you see that I've fixed the 64bit issues (which I'll post in this thread).

[Theo148]

The PPA works like a charm! (It went flawlessly for me at least)

[psyke83]

Hi I tried your amendment http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=472
to your how to.

And now I have flash video but no sound. My setup was according to your latest how to. I'm using 32 bit Hardy.

Actually, I have no sound.

Is there a way to revert.

And if so. How?

Thanks.

Before you downgrade, can you help out a bit?

1. Post the verbose log of PulseAudio:

$ pulseaudio -k && pulseaudio -vv

2. Try to temporarily disable PulseAudio:

$ pulseaudio -k && asoundconf unset-pulseaudio

Then, try launching an application and playing sound (you will need to restart any open applications).

Let me know if you can get sound after following step 2.

[psyke83]

Thanks for the fast response. Mine had to wait as I am based in Iceland (GMT), so I didn't see your post till I got home (computer involved is my office desktop). Here is the output you requested.

Unfortunately it seems that ALSA isn't detecting your sound card at all - the log suggests that only the USB device/devices were detected. PulseAudio is not to blame here (as PulseAudio itself is an ALSA client, and if your ALSA drivers aren't working, then neither will PulseAudio).

Perhaps look around the Multimedia & Video section: http://ubuntuforums.org/forumdisplay.php?f=334 -once ALSA detects your motherboard's audio chipset (and loads the drivers properly), PulseAudio should also pick it up properly. I can only give you generic advice like "check your dmesg log" and "try disabling PulseAudio" (see my other post above this reply), but I suspect PulseAudio has nothing to do with your problem.

Edit: aaargh! I forgot your later reply where you confirmed the issue was fixed . Glad to hear it's working now.

[psyke83]

Please have a look at this if you will...

$ pkill pulseaudio
$ pulseaudio
W: main.c: RLIMIT_RTPRIO failed: Operation not permitted
ALSA lib pcm_ladspa.c:1275:(snd_pcm_ladspa_parse_controls) Control port 2 has not an float or integer value
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL equalized
ALSA lib conf.c:3952:(snd_config_expand) Unknown parameters 0
ALSA lib pcm.c:2145:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround71:0
E: alsa-util.c: Error opening PCM device hw:0: Device or resource busy
E: module.c: Failed to load  module "module-alsa-sink" (argument: "device_id=0 sink_name=alsa_output.pci_8086_2485_sound_card_0_alsa_playback_0"): initialization failed.
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL front:0

I was hoping to get the eq working on my laptop speakers. My sound is the same as before except now sometimes there is a delay in sounds like when someone IMs me. Thanks for your help

Are you sure the equalizer isn't working? Edit ~/.asoundrc and change the band settings to something ridiculous, e.g.:

controls [ 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 ]

If your speakers sound "blown out" after logging out and back in, the equalizer was always working, but the presets in my guide didn't make your sound better . If it worked, try tweaking the settings to something more reasonable (the 10's above are just to test). Also, there tends to be a slight delay when playing audio streams because of the equalizer, so that's probably normal.

You're on 64bit, and unfortunately I'm not sure if the equalizer works correctly on that architecture.

[psyke83]

Sorry,
Late night that night. By rate I mean "default-fragment".

Unfortunately there may be no ideal settings until we get PulseAudio 0.9.11 (in Intrepid or Intrepid+1, as it has "glitch-free" playback). All I know is that the fragment settings in the guide minimized ~99% of stutters on my system.

[ethos_dacapo]

Are you sure the equalizer isn't working? Edit ~/.asoundrc and change the band settings to something ridiculous, e.g.:

controls [ 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 ]

If your speakers sound "blown out" after logging out and back in, the equalizer was always working, but the presets in my guide didn't make your sound better . If it worked, try tweaking the settings to something more reasonable (the 10's above are just to test). Also, there tends to be a slight delay when playing audio streams because of the equalizer, so that's probably normal.

You're on 64bit, and unfortunately I'm not sure if the equalizer works correctly on that architecture.

I'm not running 64bit actually. This is a dell latitude c610 1ghz processor. I tried adjusting the eq before because it was set to all 0's by default but even after that it still sounded exactly the same. I uninstalled it and applied the updated you just posted to upgrade to the flash 10 candidate and fix the stuttering so i think i'll try the eq again. When i attempted to unistall everything before as you describe it kept saying none of the files existed so maybe something just went wrong initially. I'll let you know whats up as soon as i know whats up. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this stuff

edit: how do i enable the equalizer now after following your most recent post http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=472
when i try to edit the ~/.pulse/default.pa file there isn't anything there probably because this file is long gone now....

[psyke83]

I'm not running 64bit actually. This is a dell latitude c610 1ghz processor. I tried adjusting the eq before because it was set to all 0's by default but even after that it still sounded exactly the same. I uninstalled it and applied the updated you just posted to upgrade to the flash 10 candidate and fix the stuttering so i think i'll try the eq again. When i attempted to unistall everything before as you describe it kept saying none of the files existed so maybe something just went wrong initially. I'll let you know whats up as soon as i know whats up. Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this stuff

Ok, let me clear something up: the testing packages in my PPA (and the included instructions) do *not* configure the equalizer (for the sake of simplicity). In order to get the equalizer working, you need to ensure your ~/.asoundrc matches the one posted in the guide on the first page, and that you also follow Part D.

In other words, follow Part A & D of the guide again.