[Gutsy] Usability problems in gnome-volume-control

Thanks for your report, which version of Ubuntu are you running? May you be more clear in the report? it seems to be like 2 or 3 problems there, Thanks.

This affects Gutsy. I've clarified the original report.

I am running Hardy w/latest and have this problem
Dell XPS m1330 with Intel HDA 2.0 Sigmatel 9228

3 "input source" selections in the "options" tab
and
3 "mux" (mux, mux 1, mux 2) and
3 "capture" (capture, capture 1, capture 2)
sliders in the "recording" tab

furthermore, unchecking these options in the preferences only removes the first instance, leaving "capture 1/2" and "mux 1/2" displayed even though they are unchecked (see attached picture).

1) I'm not sure why there are three of each of these options
2) regardless, the options aren't behaving correctly if they cannot be hidden by unchecking them in the preferences menu

the issue seems to be an upstream one, could you open it on bugzilla.gnome.org too?

This has changed *a lot* in gnome 2.26. Could you test a live CD of Ubuntu Jaunty alpha and tell if you still have that problem ?

This has been fixed since Hardy. Closing.

I would disagree...I'm running Hardy and the issues the OP describes are still present, as well as are the related issues I describe

ethanay: I was the OP. With the same hardware as before, under Hardy (gnome-volume-control 2.22.0, alsa 1.0.16-0ubuntu4):

- I now see only one Input Source box in the Options tab (even though the Preferences box contains three checked "Input Source" checkboxes).
- The same is true for the Capture slider in the Recording tab: there is only one, even if all three of "Capture", "Capture 1", and "Capture 2" are checked in the Preferences box.
- There are no more erroneous status bar messages.

So I'm happy now -- but you're still seeing these issues? Shall we re-open the bug report? Could you perhaps test a Jaunty alpha live CD, like Lionel suggested? And open an upstream bug report if it's still there?

I was wrong. Not only is this not fixed, it is not even consistent in Hardy.

- Checking and unchecking various checkboxes in the Volume Control Preferences dialog causes additional sliders to appear in the Playback, Recording and Options tabs somewhat randomly. For example, after some fiddling with the Input Source checkboxes in Preferences, between one and three Input Source text fields appear in the Options tab, all indistinguishable but apparently controlling different channels. Unclearing the Input Source checkboxes in Preferences does not remove the entries reliably.

- Other usability bugs are present, like the Preferences dialog having checkboxes for not only the expected "Line-in", "Front Mic", "Microphone", but also "IEC958 Capture", "Capture", "Capture 1", "Capture 2", and three identical "Input Source" entries. The hardware itself doesn't appear to have more than the first three input-related sockets.

I'll test this on Jaunty, as Lionel requested...

These are exactly the issues I am still experiencing. I am glad, at
least, that the problem seems consistent from person to person :)

Unfortunately, I don't have time right now to do any additional
testing, even with LiveCDs...

Ethan

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 1:26 AM, edschofield <email address hidden> wrote:
> I was wrong. Not only is this not fixed, it is not even consistent in
> Hardy.
>
> - Checking and unchecking various checkboxes in the Volume Control
> Preferences dialog causes additional sliders to appear in the Playback,
> Recording and Options tabs somewhat randomly. For example, after some
> fiddling with the Input Source checkboxes in Preferences, between one
> and three Input Source text fields appear in the Options tab, all
> indistinguishable but apparently controlling different channels.
> Unclearing the Input Source checkboxes in Preferences does not remove
> the entries reliably.
>
> - Other usability bugs are present, like the Preferences dialog having
> checkboxes for not only the expected "Line-in", "Front Mic",
> "Microphone", but also "IEC958 Capture", "Capture", "Capture 1",
> "Capture 2", and three identical "Input Source" entries. The hardware
> itself doesn't appear to have more than the first three input-related
> sockets.
>
> I'll test this on Jaunty, as Lionel requested...
>
> --
> [Gutsy] Usability problems in gnome-volume-control
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/138989
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “gnome-media” source package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: gnome-media
>
> The Options tab in gnome-volume-control has at least two usability problems:
>
> (1) The most glaring problem is that the Options tab for HDA Intel on-board sound chipsets (specs below) has three input boxes all labelled the same ("Input Source"), but apparently controlling different capture channels.
>
> (2) While on the Options tab, the status bar output is incorrect, saying "Volume of right channel on PCM", which bears no relation to any selections made.
>
> Screenshots attached below.
>
> ----------------
>
> Audio is from the Intel G965 chipset. lspci -vv gives:
> 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
>        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 820a
>        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
>        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
>        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
>        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
>        Region 0: Memory at ff9f4000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
>        Capabilities: <access denied>
>
> I suspect the support from alsa 1.0.14 for the onboard Intel sound chipset may be better than that from the obsolete version of alsa (1.0.13) still in Gutsy. Would upgrading alsa fix problem (1) above for free?
>

gnome-volume-control is vastly improved in Jaunty. The Volume Control Preferences menu now lists whether each 'track' pertains to "Playback", "Recording", "Switches", or "Options".

The Alsa mixer still has too many options in the Preferences menu for my on-board Intel audio hardware (see below). See the attached screenshot. "Input Source" is listed three times, and "Capture", "Capture 1", and "Capture 2" are indistinguishable to me. (The UI also gives me no clue about what the IEC958 tracks are ...)

With kernel 2.6.28-ubuntu9, lspci -vv gives:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)
        Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 820a
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 22
        Region 0: Memory at ff9f4000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
        Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel

If I open an upstream bug report, should this be against alsa or gnome-volume-control?