sound volume control broken on dell inspiron 9300 laptop

Thanks for your bug report. Could you please add the output of 'lspci -vvn', 'asoundconf list' and 'amixer' to your bug report? Thanks in advance.

As requested:

$ lspci -vvn
00:00.0 0600: 8086:2590 (rev 03)
        Subsystem: 1028:0189
        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
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 0604: 8086:2591 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        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: 64 bytes
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
        Memory behind bridge: dd000000-dfefffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: c0000000-cfffffff
        Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
        BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:2658 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: 1028:0189
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 4: I/O ports at bf80 [size=32]

00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:2659 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: 1028:0189
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 18
        Region 4: I/O ports at bf60 [size=32]

00:1d.2 0c03: 8086:265a (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: 1028:0189
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 19
        Region 4: I/O ports at bf40 [size=32]

00:1d.3 0c03: 8086:265b (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: 1028:0189
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 17
        Region 4: I/O ports at bf20 [size=32]

00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:265c (rev 03) (prog-if 20 [EHCI])
        Subsystem: 1028:0189
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
        Region 0: Memory at ffa80800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:1e.0 0604: 8086:2448 (rev d3) (prog-if 01 [Subtractive decode])
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMas...

does changing the volume with alsamixer work?

I have a similar problem on a Dell Latitude D610 running Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake). Running 'alsamixer' and adjusting the volume for "Headphone" worked.

Attached is the output from this script:

 true ; ( set -x
uname -va
lspci -vvn
asoundconf list
amixer
) >& output.txt

Regards,
- Robert

I tried this in Dapper which worked for adjusting the headset volume:

Right click on the "Volume Applet"
Click on "Open Volume Control"
Adjust the Headset volume

Let us know if it works for you.

Regards,
- Robert

Hey There

I seem to be having a volume issue with my Dell Inspiron 6000. When I try and turn up the volume using my custom controls at the front of my notebook it will go up one block and mute the volume, and not go past that point... If I try and turn it down, the volume becomes un-muted but goes back to no blocks.

The mute button works, the play, stop and skip buttons do not work.

 Please let me know if I should be providing further information.

Cheers, Johnny

It appears that on my Dell Inspiron 9300 with Ubuntu 7.04, the front panel volume up, volume down, and mute buttons affect ONLY the "Master" track. However, sound output uses both the "Master" track (Front left and Front right channels) and the "Master Mono" track (Mono channel). For example, pressing the mute button will mute ONLY the Master track, leaving the Master Mono track at it's previous volume (which sounds terrible :\ ).

I have the same issue on Dell Inspiron 9300, feisty. Just wanted to keep this alive. I use the volume a lot and its a pain to adjust 2 diff. controls.

Thanks.

just installed feisty thingy today on my inspirion. and i found the solution, just simple go to system >preference> sound
at the screen go down and you can select wich channel it will control, hold ctrl and select the master,master mono and pcm. that will fix the problem :)

For me, combining the sound controls is not the solution. The volume of the mono or bass speaker is much stronger than the two normal speakers. If the volume gets low, all you hear is the low not that nice to hear sound from the speaker at the bottom.

What I find even stranger is, that I did not have this problem with this laptop when I was using 6.10. Even more, after doing a dist upgrade to feisty I didn't have this problem. But after doing a clean install lately I encounter this problem.

 I am running a Inspiron 9300. The Master volume seems to control the two main speakers (located on the front edge) and the Master Mono controls the subwoofer (located on the bottom of the unit). I have found that setting System - Preferences - Sound to control just the PCM is a decent work-around. I then go into the Volume control and set the Master and Master Mono levels at the correct value. This allows you to control the amount of bass from the master mono channel and have it set at a consistent level.

I would also like to confirm what localhost was saying. My original install of feisty was an upgrade from edgy. Using this install I never had this problem. Only after performing a fresh reinstall did this problem occur.

Details can be provided upon request.

anders, can you try ac97_quirk=hp_only and retry the multimedia keys?

i.e.,
kill $(lsof -t /dev/dsp* /dev/audio* /dev/mixer* /dev/seq* /dev/snd/*) && sudo rmmod snd-intel8x0 && sudo modprobe snd-intel8x0 ac97_quirk=hp_only

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300 running with Fiesty and have the same problems and I did a fresh install. I wanted to re-iterate what others have said to be clear about what the problem is really (at least what the problem is for me).

1. GGrigsby says above that the problem is "The Master volume seems to control the two main speakers (located on the front edge) and the Master Mono controls the subwoofer (located on the bottom of the unit)." This is what the problem is IMHO for the Dell 9300 Inspiron. You cannot use the multi-media keys to control the volume but you can manually do it via setting the three sliders mentioned by GGrisby. So if someone could fix the sound driver in relation to this problem or provide a work-around that uses the multimedia keys that would be great!

2. Shinoku (et. al.) mention the same problem but I think Shinoku (et. al.) must be using the line-out on the laptop with external speakers. The problem Shinoku says is the that three sliders need to be bonded together via the ctrl key in the sound settings. The solution to use the ctrl key to select all three sliders works perfectly for me when using the line-out on my laptop going to external speakers. But it does not solve the problem of using the internal laptop speakers as mentioned in #1 of my post. But I am grateful anyway since this does work when using external speakers.

So to sum up my comments if I am using the line-out on my laptop and I use the solution mentioned by Shinoku all my multimedia keys on the front panel work with no problem. If I remove the line-out cable from the laptop and use the internal laptop speakers then I have the problem mentioned by GGrigsby and I have to manually fiddle with the sliders in the sound panel. I know the priority of this bug is low but I hope someone can come up with a fix or workaround.

Thanks.

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 alpha?

Not sure if someone is gonna try this, but I could give this a try over the weekend. Just received my new Dell and the old one will be reinstalled anyway.

I tested this with Intrepid Alpha (just prior to the Alpha 6 release) and it was still an issue.

This problem is still confirmed for ubuntu intrepid beta. I attach useful logs.

I have same problem in the current Ubuntu 8.10 release.
I'm using a Dell 9300.
I'm using the PCM workaround for the moment.

patrick@patrick-laptop:~$ lspci -vvn
00:00.0 0600: 8086:2590 (rev 03)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 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
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel modules: intel-agp

00:01.0 0604: 8086:2591 (rev 03)
 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: 64 bytes
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
 Memory behind bridge: dd000000-dfefffff
 Prefetchable memory behind bridge: c0000000-cfffffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:2658 (rev 03)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 4: I/O ports at bf80 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:2659 (rev 03)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 17
 Region 4: I/O ports at bf60 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.2 0c03: 8086:265a (rev 03)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 18
 Region 4: I/O ports at bf40 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.3 0c03: 8086:265b (rev 03)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin D routed to IRQ 19
 Region 4: I/O ports at bf20 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.7 0c03: 8086:265c (rev 03) (prog-if 20)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 0: Memo...

This may be bogus, because I may have misunderstood what the issues are here -- I came looking for an answer for my XPS M1330, where the multimedia volume controls stopped working.

Anyway, I checked the Sound Preferences and changed Default Mixer Tracks driver from HDA to Playback: ALSA PCM - and now they work!

I'm on Intrepid BTW.

I'm closing this bug based on the last comment. Please reopen if this is still an issue for you.

This bug isn't fixed. Steve Thomas spoke about a different hardware than initial bug reported. The bug is still confirmed for dell inspiron 9300 laptop.

I have the same problem with Dell Inspiron 6400 / E1505 and Kubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10 .

I'll also attach the requested logs:

'asoundconf list' offers the following information:

$ asoundconf list
Names of available sound cards:
Intel

The log from the command 'amixer' is attached.

I also had the same problem. I run Kubuntu 8.10 on dell inspiron 6400. the volume hot keys did not seem to work. I noticed that when they are pressed the PCM channel volume goes up and down.

So I just selected the PCM channel as the master channel, cranked up the front channel to full...now the hot keys work perfect!!

Wow, thanks for not fixing it, I guess someone will start to use a different distro.

On Thu, Jun 04, 2009 at 07:27:26AM -0000, danifv wrote:
> Wow, thanks for not fixing it, I guess someone will start to use a
> different distro.

The change of assignment is not likely related to whether the bug is or
is not being worked but an administrative change. It seems to have
occured on a very large number of bugs.

pavucontrol doesn't have the workaround specified above that was in the old GNOME tool. Running 12.04.1.

In alsamixer, when I press the volume up hardware button, Master goes up a bit, but Master Mono goes to the max. Volume down moves Master down in expected increments, and moves Master Mono from 100 to 51 to 0, but only if Master is already 0, otherwise it does nothing. This is very weird!

anders, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Fiesty reached EOL on October 2008.
Please see this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We were wondering if this is still an issue in a supported release? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested and remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the text:
needs-upstream-testing

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested.

Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful Bug Reporting Tips:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

Just wanted to jump in on this. I cannot supply all of the requested information because I am not running the devel distro. However this bug is still current. The symptoms I experience are identical to those Ryan Lovett expressed on 2012-09-02.

This is the machine:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******************************************************************************************************
Dell Inspiron 9300
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

charles@darkdeltu:~$ uname -a
Linux darkdeltu 3.2.0-32-generic-pae #51-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 26 21:54:23 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
*******************************************************************************************************
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please inform if there are indeed further steps I might take to assist the solving of this bug. Below output from 'lspci -vvn', and 'amixer' (not asoundconf because it was not available for installation).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******************************************************************************************************

charles@darkdeltu:~$ lspci -vvn
00:00.0 0600: 8086:2590 (rev 03)
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 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
 Capabilities: <access denied>

00:01.0 0604: 8086:2591 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
 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: 64 bytes
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=0
 I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
 Memory behind bridge: dfd00000-dfefffff
 Prefetchable memory behind bridge: d0000000-d7ffffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR+ NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: pcieport
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 0c03: 8086:2658 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 4: I/O ports at bf80 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd

00:1d.1 0c03: 8086:2659 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
 Subsystem: 1028:0189
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium ...

Charles Sammons, if you have a bug in Ubuntu, could you please file a new report by executing the following in a terminal:
ubuntu-bug sound

For more on this, please see the Ubuntu Audio Developer team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingSoundProblems

the Ubuntu Kernel team article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies#Filing_Kernel_Bug_reports

the Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad article:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices#X.2BAC8-Reporting.Focus_on_One_Issue

and Ubuntu Community article:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#Bug_reporting_etiquette

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Please note, not filing a new report may delay your problem being addressed as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding.

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