HOWTO: PulseAudio Fixes & System-Wide Equalizer Support

[ShirishAg75]

Some notes for Intrepid:

1. In Part A, this is the list of packages to install:

$ sudo apt-get install libasound2/hardy-proposed libasound2-plugins/hardy-proposed libasound2-dev/hardy-proposed padevchooser swh-plugins libao-pulse libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio ladspa-sdk

That won't work for Intrepid because it's explicitly asking for packages in the "hardy-proposed" repository. Use this instead:

$ sudo apt-get install libasound2 libasound2-plugins libasound2-dev padevchooser swh-plugins libao-pulse libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio ladspa-sdk

2. For Part B, it's not necessary to manually install the "flashplugin-nonfree" package (it's from the Intrepid repository anyway), but it *is* required to remove the "libflashsupport" package.

Hi Pyske83 thanx for getting back to me. I actually did this in Intrepid

$ sudo apt-get install libasound2 libasound2-plugins libasound2-dev padevchooser swh-plugins libao-pulse libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio ladspa-sdk

Now getting back to your specific problem - it seems the pulseaudio server isn't running on your system.

Try booting with the old 2.6.24 kernel and see if sound works. If it still doesn't work, kill the PulseAudio server and relaunch it with verbose output:

$ pkill pulseaudio
$ pulseaudio -vv

Please paste its output here.

I am able to hear the drums whenever I'm logging in so somehow the sound system works. I ran your commands and this is the output on kernel 2.6.26-1

shirish@Mugglewille:~$ pulseaudio -vv
I: main.c: We're in the group 'pulse-rt', allowing real-time and high-priority scheduling.
I: core-util.c: Successfully gained nice level -11.
W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
I: main.c: This is PulseAudio 0.9.10
I: main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes
I: main.c: Fresh high-resolution timers available! Bon appetit!
E: module.c: Failed to open module "module-alsa-sink=equalized": module-alsa-sink=equalized.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
E: main.c: Module load failed.
E: main.c: Failed to initialize daemon.
I: main.c: Daemon terminated.

Some additional notes :- I didn't do Part B because I don't want nonflashplugin-free . I am looking and waiting for swfdec or gnash whenever they're ready and I'm ready to wait for them as well as your notes how to work with either of them.

Looking forward to your comments on the same.

[psyke83]

I noticed a difference, I was just hoping for a way to adjust it easily. I'm not on a laptop, I'm on a desktop with cheap speakers that are receiving pollution from the rest of the system's signals. It sounds fine now, but I'd love to tweak this if need be. Do I have to adjust those numerical values in that .pa configuration file?

No, not in "default.pa". You need to edit the "controls" values in your .asoundrc. I explain this in the guide, Part D.

[YaroMan86]

My bad. I wasn't sure which one.

[ShirishAg75]

/me bangs his head against the desk.

I was able to fix the pulseaudio error it was showing but ran into a segfault

shirish@Mugglewille:~$ pulseaudio -vv
I: main.c: We're in the group 'pulse-rt', allowing real-time and high-priority scheduling.
I: core-util.c: Successfully gained nice level -11.
W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
I: main.c: This is PulseAudio 0.9.10
I: main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes
I: main.c: Fresh high-resolution timers available! Bon appetit!
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Successfully opened device equalized.
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Successfully enabled mmap() mode.
ALSA lib control.c:909:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL equalized
I: alsa-util.c: Unable to attach to mixer equalized: No such file or directory
I: alsa-util.c: Unable to attach to mixer hw:(null): No such device
I: sink.c: Created sink 0 "alsa_output.equalized" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
I: source.c: Created source 0 "alsa_output.equalized.monitor" with sample spec "s16le 2ch 44100Hz"
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Using 8 fragments of size 880 bytes.
D: module-alsa-sink.c: Thread starting up
D: rtpoll.c: Acquired POSIX realtime signal SIGRTMIN+29
I: module-alsa-sink.c: Starting playback.
I: module.c: Loaded "module-alsa-sink" (index: #0; argument: "device=equalized").
D: cli-command.c: Checking for existance of '/usr/lib/pulse-0.9/modules/module-hal-detect.so': success
I: module-hal-detect.c: Trying capability alsa
D: module-hal-detect.c: Not loaded device /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer_alsa_timer
D: module-hal-detect.c: Not loaded device /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer_alsa_sequencer
D: module-hal-detect.c: Loading module-alsa-source with arguments 'device_id=2 source_name=alsa_input.pci_1131_7130_alsa_capture_0'
D: alsa-util.c: Trying front:2...
Segmentation fault

The issue was I didn't write correct the stuff at /etc/pulse/default.pa

The line instead of

load-module module-alsa-sink device=equalized

was

load-module module-alsa-sink=equalized

The segfault is worrying though.

[psyke83]

I am able to hear the drums whenever I'm logging in so somehow the sound system works. I ran your commands and this is the output on kernel 2.6.26-1

shirish@Mugglewille:~$ pulseaudio -vv
I: main.c: We're in the group 'pulse-rt', allowing real-time and high-priority scheduling.
I: core-util.c: Successfully gained nice level -11.
W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_NICE, (31, 31)) failed: Operation not permitted
W: main.c: setrlimit(RLIMIT_RTPRIO, (9, 9)) failed: Operation not permitted
I: main.c: This is PulseAudio 0.9.10
I: main.c: Page size is 4096 bytes
I: main.c: Fresh high-resolution timers available! Bon appetit!
E: module.c: Failed to open module "module-alsa-sink=equalized": module-alsa-sink=equalized.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
E: main.c: Module load failed.
E: main.c: Failed to initialize daemon.
I: main.c: Daemon terminated.

You made a typo in Part D. It seems you changed the line in /etc/pulse/default.pa to:

load-module module-alsa-sink=equalized

When it should be:

load-module module-alsa-sink device=equalized

Edit: I just saw your reply . You figured it out.

[psyke83]

The segfault is worrying though.

Try disabling the equalizer and checking the verbose output. See this post for how to disable it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=230

[eryksun]

If your per application settings get messed up and it's hard to modify in pavucontrol (e.g. Pidgin has short audio samples), one way to solve the problem is to either edit or delete the following file:

~/.pulse/volume-restore.table

If you delete the file, all your application volume settings will be reset at the next login. If you edit it, just search for the program name and adjust the value. It's a 16-bit unsigned number [1, 65536].

[ShirishAg75]

Try disabling the equalizer and checking the verbose output. See this post for how to disable it: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=230

When I disabled the equalizer I got no sound . This is on 2.6.26-1-generic kernel. Didn't try the 2.6.24-17 kernel. Didn't even the drum sound and none of the players played any of the songs.

With the equalizer while it does take some time or pauses a bit between 2 songs it works.

Dunno if any more info. is required or any tests need to be done. Lemme know if you need anything else done as well.

[psyke83]

When I disabled the equalizer I got no sound . This is on 2.6.26-1-generic kernel. Didn't try the 2.6.24-17 kernel. Didn't even the drum sound and none of the players played any of the songs.

With the equalizer while it does take some time or pauses a bit between 2 songs it works.

Dunno if any more info. is required or any tests need to be done. Lemme know if you need anything else done as well.

The drum sound (in GDM) does not play through PulseAudio - so you have a kernel/ALSA problem. Boot to the Hardy kernel like I suggested (and you should always keep previous kernels until you verify the new one works completely).

[ShirishAg75]

psyke83,
Thank you for your responses. Would be waiting for fixes in the 2.6.26 -tree. I do have the previous kernels installed