Re: [Bug 623] New: Volume not remembered.

Martin J. Bligh (mbligh@aracnet.com)
Fri, 25 Apr 2003 10:59:29 -0700


>> The OSS audio drivers ac97 code now starts up with record muted.
>
> Okay, so I guess this will then cover all cases ? (Changebar
> marks OSS addition.)
>
> ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) is now the preferred
> architecture for sound support, instead of the older OSS (Open
> Sound System). Note that, in ALSA, all volume settings default
>| to zero, and all channels default to being "muted". Also some
>| OSS drivers in 2.5 initialize certain mixer settings to zero.
>
> User space therefore needs to explicitly increase the volume,
> and "unmute" the respective audio channels before any sound
> can be heard.
>
> Mixers not explicitly supporting the "mute" functionality will
> usually "unmute" sources when setting the volume to a value
> above zero.
>
> More information about ALSA, including configuration and OSS
> compatibility, can be found in Documentation/sound/alsa/
>
> (I guess a simpler rule would be "if there's no sound, check the
> mixer - and you don't want to know why you have to do this" :-)

BTW, I realised there's a much simpler solution to the "but there's no
sound coming out" problem .... xmms and friends should just give the user a
warning on startup (or on play) if the main volume or pcm channel is at 0
(or muted).

M.

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