Volume +/- Keys have no effect on default card ALSA volume control on change of sound card in Dapper

Thanks for your bug. That's somewhat similar to bug #22876. What soundcard is selected as default from the sound capplet? Does it work after restart your session by example?

Yes, it is similar.

Answers to your questions:
1. The Audigy is selected as default.
2. It does not work after session restart; I have the Audigy plugged in most
of the time.

On 24/04/06, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Thanks for your bug. That's somewhat similar to bug #22876. What
> soundcard is selected as default from the sound capplet? Does it work
> after restart your session by example?
>
> ** Changed in: control-center gnome-control-center (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info
>
> --
> Volume +/- Keys have no effect on default card ALSA volume control on
> change of sound card in Dapper
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/40931
>

Difference to bug 22876 is that my keys control the Master on the ICH6, and
it's always the master.

If you change your default sound card to the Audigy one, there should be a 'defaults.pcm.card' setting in ~/.asoundrc (if you use Breezy) or ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf (if you use Dapper). Can you please edit that file and manually add a setting 'defaults.pcm.ctl' with the same value as 'defaults.pcm.card' has? Does it work correctly then? If so, this is just another consequence of bug 35540.

Thank you!

No, that has no effect. However, I do believe I have my
/var/lib/alsa/asound.state or ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf set up wrong, as I
often get these messages when running a program from the console:

ALSA lib confmisc.c:1107:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition
'defaults.ctl.card'
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer
returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:242:(snd_func_getenv) error evaluating default
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_getenv
returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:3962:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or
directory
ALSA lib control.c:817:(snd_ctl_open_noupdate) Invalid CTL default:0
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1107:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition
'defaults.pcm.subdevice'
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer
returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:3951:(snd_config_expand) Args evaluate error: No such
file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2099:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM hw:0,0
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1107:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition
'defaults.pcm.subdevice'
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer
returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:3951:(snd_config_expand) Args evaluate error: No such
file or directory

On 26/04/06, Martin Pitt <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> If you change your default sound card to the Audigy one, there should be a
> 'defaults.pcm.card' setting in ~/.asoundrc (if you use Breezy) or
> ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf (if you use Dapper). Can you please edit that file
> and manually add a setting 'defaults.pcm.ctl' with the same value as '
> defaults.pcm.card' has? Does it work correctly then? If so, this is just
> another consequence of bug 35540.
>
> Thank you!
>
> --
> Volume +/- Keys have no effect on default card ALSA volume control on
> change of sound card in Dapper
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/40931
>

This problem is considerably more involved, and I think several issues are being confused.

I believe the original post identifies a "problem" with the hotkeys not controlling the correct card selected in System> Preferences> Sound> default sound card. This is not a problem per se; I have ICH6 onboard sound, and in Windows I can't control my external M-Audio Transit's volume using the 'increase' or 'decrease' hotkeys, either. In this regard, I believe this bug is incorrectly filed against gnome-control-center _unless_ g-c-c has a way of notifying hotkey-setup to control a different card.

Another issue that has snuck into this discussion is #35540, which deals with alsa-lib throwing errors when !defaults.ctl.card is not set in ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf. This issue is actually orthogonal to the original post. The original poster should test with the older Breezy-style "using card indices in ~/.asoundrc", i.e., ``asoundconf set defaults.pcm.card 1 && asoundconf set defaults.ctl.card 1''.

The last issue that has crept into this discussion is whether the hotkeys actually control the proper mixer element ('Master' versus 'PCM'), but luckily this last case seems moot according to the original poster's testimony.

I can confirm bug 35540 is happening. I can also confirm that I can control
my mixer in Windows using my keys; if I recall correctly (I don't have
Windows installed anymore), the Audigy mixer was controlled when it was in,
and the ICH6 when not.

Mr Chen, you wrote:
"Another issue that has snuck into this discussion is #35540, which deals with alsa-lib throwing errors when !defaults.ctl.card is not set in ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf."

However, I have set !defaults.ctl.card and I still get these errors. I now cannot find any reference to Audigy2 in my asound.state. I do not get any errors when the ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf is not included, but I cannot easily change the sound card if that is the case. I have also found that amaroK will no longer play with this file installed, and I therefore have to manually set the output device every time I change card. I have a bad feeling about asoundconf; but, then again, in Breezy I couldn't even insert my card without a system crash.

I can confirm that bug. I've got two soundcards:
0 [I82801DBICH4 ]: ICH4 - Intel 82801DB-ICH4
                     Intel 82801DB-ICH4 with AD1981B at 0xa0200000, irq 10
1 [Extigy ]: USB-Audio - Sound Blaster Extigy
                     Creative Technology Ltd. Sound Blaster Extigy at usb-0000:00:1d.0-2, full speed

With the volume-up/volume-down/mute-keys on my keyboard I can just controll the internal soundcard (Intel 82801DB-ICH4). I can adjust the volume through the panel applet.

This bug, I have decided, is so similar to bug 22876, that I am marking it duplicate.