USB Sound Card always full volume

[tgalati4]

Well, it looks like you have a cm6206 sound chip. The cm106 driver will probably work with some issues--as you have discovered. Try getting some documentation on the cm6206 chip.

[inshadow]

You need the registers (memory locations) and what each register does. It's called a specification sheet. To write or modify an existing driver, you need a lot of information from the manufacturer.

Chapter 6.1 of the datasheet is named 'internal registers'.
But is this all information needed? If not what is information is missing?

http://www.datasheetarchive.com/pdf/...SAE0027622.pdf

[tgalati4]

It looks like you are making progress. The documentation looks recent as well. When you plug in your usb card, go to a terminal and output:

lsmod

We need to determine what specific module gets loaded.

Searching alsa-project.org gives only one reference to cm6206. It appears to be a module called snd-usb-cm6206. You need to find the source code for that module and print it out. Find out who wrote the code. That's your contact.

The alsa hardware support card does not show the cm6206, but does show a similar card:

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.p...Vendor-C-Media

So compare the driver for the cm6501 and see how it differs for the cm6206. USB recognition support for the cm6206 was only recently added to ALSA. So someone may already be working on a driver for it, or you may be the first. This is a good way to learn some programming.

[inshadow]

It looks like you are making progress. The documentation looks recent as well. When you plug in your usb card, go to a terminal and output:

lsmod

We need to determine what specific module gets loaded.

snd_usb_audio

Searching alsa-project.org gives only one reference to cm6206. It appears to be a module called snd-usb-cm6206.

Where do you find a snd-usb-cm6206 module?

You need to find the source code for that module and print it out. Find out who wrote the code. That's your contact.

Ok - I will try that.

The alsa hardware support card does not show the cm6206, but does show a similar card:

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.p...Vendor-C-Media

So compare the driver for the cm6501 and see how it differs for the cm6206. USB recognition support for the cm6206 was only recently added to ALSA. So someone may already be working on a driver for it, or you may be the first. This is a good way to learn some programming.

My spare time is very limited as I became a father 3 monts ago. So even though I program PHP in my daily work, I don't have time left programming a driver. So what I can do is trying to find information and find someone who is willing to do some programming. - Cross my fingers.

[VertexPusher]

Some assistance in going about doing that?

First I need some info about the device. Enter these commands and post the output here:

aplay -l
arecord -l
amixer -c 0

[inshadow]

First I need some info about the device. Enter these commands and post the output here:

Here you go:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: default [USB Sound Device        ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: default [USB Sound Device        ], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Intel [HDA Intel], device 6: Si3054 Modem [Si3054 Modem]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

amixer -c 0
Simple mixer control 'PCM',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 6928
  Front Left: Capture 5543 [80%] [-16.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 5543 [80%] [-16.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM Capture Source',0
  Capabilities: enum
  Items: 'Mic' 'Input 1' 'Input 2' 'Mixer'
  Item0: 'Mic'
Simple mixer control 'PCM',1
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 6928
  Front Left: Capture 5543 [80%] [-16.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 5543 [80%] [-16.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'PCM',2
  Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Mono
  Mono: Capture [on]
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: pvolume cvolume pswitch pswitch-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 8065 Capture 0 - 6928
  Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-24.00dB] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [-16.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-24.00dB] [off] Capture 0 [0%] [-16.00dB] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 8065
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 8065 [100%] [-24.00dB] [off]
  Front Right: Playback 8065 [100%] [-24.00dB] [off]
Simple mixer control 'Speaker',1
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right - Rear Left - Rear Right - Front Center - Woofer - Side Left - Side Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 197
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Rear Left: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Rear Right: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Front Center: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Woofer: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Side Left: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]
  Side Right: Playback 197 [100%] [-1.47dB] [on]

[tgalati4]

Post the output of:

modinfo soundcore

Some info on the generic USB driver:

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.p...dule-usb-audio

Also, try turning off your internal Intel HDA sound card in the BIOS. We don't want to confuse things with having two active sound cards. It's bad enough trying to get one to work correctly.

Also, read up on .asoundrc file. It contains settings that get loaded when the sound module gets loaded. You might be able to fix the behavior with appropriate settings in .asoundrc.

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc

[inshadow]

Post the output of:

modinfo soundcore
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.31-17-generic/kernel/sound/soundcore.ko
alias:          char-major-14-*
license:        GPL
author:         Alan Cox
description:    Core sound module
srcversion:     3A50BBE947364A4D9DB6A97
depends:        
vermagic:       2.6.31-17-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 586

Some info on the generic USB driver:

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.p...dule-usb-audio

Also, try turning off your internal Intel HDA sound card in the BIOS. We don't want to confuse things with having two active sound cards. It's bad enough trying to get one to work correctly.

I have already tried finding a setting in the bios for disabling the internal soundcard, but there doesn't seem to any. It's a Toshiba Qosmio F30-114.
Any other options?

Also, read up on .asoundrc file. It contains settings that get loaded when the sound module gets loaded. You might be able to fix the behavior with appropriate settings in .asoundrc.

http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc

I was under impression that .asoundrc isn't available anymore in Karmic Koala?

[tgalati4]

I'm running Jaunty so I can't speak to what changes have been made to the ALSA framework (from Jaunty to Karmic). I presume creating a .asoundrc file in your home directory (with the appropriate magic settings) will get loaded when you reboot. Try doing a search on .asoundrc and USB sound cards. Look for settings that might be appropriate to the problem that you are having.

[VertexPusher]

I was under impression that .asoundrc isn't available anymore in Karmic Koala?

As long as ALSA is the kernel's sound system, .asoundrc will be available. PulseAudio won't change that.

However, there is something that leaves me puzzled: Your card has a working main volume control called "Speaker". If I understand you correctly, your problem is not that this control isn't working but that it isn't called "Master".

In Ubuntu up to version 9.04, the Gnome mixer applet was configurable to use any volume control as the main volume control, regardless of its name. In Ubuntu 9.10, the old mixer applet was replaced with a PulseAudio mixer panel. I see that you filed a bug report to the alsa-driver project. However, if PulseAudio is unable to use "Speaker" as the main volume control, this is clearly not an ALSA problem.

Adding the missing "Master" control is not a big deal, but I doubt that it will work with PulseAudio. If you want to try anyway, here's the .asoundrc:

pcm.!default {
    type asym
    playback.pcm {
        type softvol
        control {
            name "Master"
            card "default"
        }
        slave.pcm {
            type pulse
        }
    }
    capture.pcm {
        type pulse
    }
}