Major Feedback Input and Output For Conference Calls

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1

Hey there OpenSUSE Community,

I’m not sure what might be the cause of this and I can’t seem to find a solution with my Duck-fu work so I wanted to reach out to the community for some assistance on an unexpected issue that I am having with my system that started today.

When I join any session in Zoom, Teams, or Google Meet my input values provide an extreme echo that leads into a tapering shriek for the other end. Too, if a user on the other end provides enough audio input of their own my output will provide an echo on my side.

Opening the session and doing a pre-input/output provides no showing of this expected experience. However, once I join or start a session the input/output complication begins.

I have referenced this article by OpenSUSE but i don’t seem to have made any gains using the recommendations provided in the article:

https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Audio_troubleshooting

Playing simple audio from things like YouTube or other media sources provide no complications. Too, I have tried using Brave, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome with the same experience in each browser.

I’m really stumped and can’t figure out what I have changed to cause this issue…

Thanks so much for your suggestions and review of this issue.

2

It sounds like simple feedback loop if I read the above correctly. What happens when you mute your mic? Does the shrieking stop?

If so, try to turn down either your speaker volume, or use a headset, or turn down your mic reception.

3

Good evening OldCPU,

Thanks for the question and I apologize for not providing a more clear understanding of my situation.

You are correct related to the feedback loop that is occurring regarding my experience. Too, I have tried the “mute” button which immediately stops the feedback for those attending and receiving the output.

Another step i have taken is to remove the audio sound card options via YaST then do a full system boot but this did not assist. Next method I have just tested out was using Bluetooth - and this was very positive in both my own and the end user’s experience.

I’m not sure if this is an accurate understanding but it seems that driver for the onboard sound card is not configuring properly. I have checked using YaST and found that Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio as not being assigned nor configured. However, no matter what I do to attempt this it won’t configure… I’m not sure what I am doing incorrect in the configuration process via YaST.

[user]@opensuse:~> inxi -A | grep driver            
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio **driver**: snd_hda_intel

I appreciate your input and help on this. :slight_smile:

4

Hi MoonyGar.

I suspect I don’t understand fully your problem. On every PC and every operating system I have played with (Mac, Windows, Linux) if I am in a voice chat over internet, if I crank up my speakers too loud and/or if I crank up the gain too high on my mic, I get massive feedback that affects everyone else. It can be most annoying. It is also a very common user problem in operating their PC on an OS. Its not openSUSE specific. One must either lower their speaker volume and/or lower their mic record levels, or use a headset preferably with a mic.

If I read your post correctly, you used a bluetooth headset and the problem disappeared?

My apologies if I misread your 1st post and your reply.

5

Good afternoon OldCPU,

No, please let me apologize for not providing clearer details. If you’d be open to providing me communication feedback that could have better assisted in my method of relaying the information, I would greatly appreciate it (DM or thread, I am open to either :slight_smile: )

In a nutshell, I have found that Zoom is the broken application in my use case which only started this week. Previous weeks, Zoom was working without any interruption. Below, I will attempt to provide a breakdown based on system use, browser, and experience; comparing Zoom and Google Meet as well as Chrome and Brave.

Issue Experienced -
System Use: On board mic and video camera
Browser: Google’s Chrome

[ul]
[li]Zoom call was providing frozen video and audio was providing major feedback with long lengths of echo for audience members (analog and bluetooth used)[/li][li]Google Meet - video is without delay but audio is same with major feedback and echo for audience members (analog only)[/li][/ul]

Attempted Solutions -
[ul]
[li]Analog:[/li][LIST]
[li]Zoom -[/li][LIST]
[li]Google Chrome: video feed is frozen and audio input provides feedback and echo issues[/li][li]Brave: video feed is no longer frozen but audio provides feedback and echo issues[/li][/ul]

[li]Google Meet - video feed is still stable but audio feedback and echo still an issue (equal in both Brave and Chrome)[/li][/LIST]

[li]Bluetooth:[/li][ul]
[li]Zoom -[/li][LIST]
[li]Chrome: video feed is frozen and audio feedback and echo issues persist[/li][li]Brave: video feed is no longer frozen but audio won’t recognize bluetooth headset mic (no input recognized)[/li][/ul]

[li]Google Meet -[/li][ul]
[li]Chrome/Brave: video feed is not broken and audio input is recorded without issue[/li][/ul]
[/LIST]
[/LIST]

Noticed Possible Reason:

[ul]
[li]System wide, I can’t change or add the connected Bluetooth device as the recording device[/li][LIST]
[li]However, Google Meet recognizes the Bluetooth device as the input & output[/li][/ul]

[li]Locally, I have downloaded and implemented Zoom’s application to my OpenSUSE 15.3 system.[/li][ul]
[li]However, Zoom is unable to detect the Bluetooth device as the microphone input[/li][li]Too, Zoom local application does not recognize the local system input microphone so no sound is recorded in a session so attending members do not hear my vocal input[/li][/ul]

[li]Possible system level firmware issue that I can’t figure out?[/li][/LIST]

I hope that this new communication read out is much simpler to understand and help diagnosis as the complication I am having with this system experience.

I appreciate your involvement and patience with me :slight_smile:

I hope you are having a great day!

6

I run some pretty professional level meetings with Zoom and find my main Tumbleweed KDE machine to be pretty flawless.
I’m using the the snap version, however it shouldn’t matter.

I never play video that I’m sharing from a browser that’s streaming
I would add a caveat to that though. That I have previously used Firefox to play back .mp4 video files because if you use the picture in picture mode your shared screen is borderless.
However, mostly I use MPV because it neatly does the same.
Always sharing is by individual app window and of course you must check the box share computer audio/sound

Feedback will always be a problem if you don’t Mute your microphone in the Zoom interface for meeting interaction.

I also only use hardwired devices, never bluetooth.

On another note, I once a week use Jitsi, which bizarrely seems to require you leave yourself unmuted in order to share your video audio/sound - Good app though

7

Good evening caf4926,

Thanks for the sharing and information. It was very helpful and gave me some new perspectives.

I believe that this problem has something to do with my own erroring but I am just not sure where yet. However, tomorrow, I am planning a new idea.

I’m going to jump off of my laptop (source for this thread) and move to my tower (lab) which is LEAP 15.3 as well. Too, I am going to plug in a webcam with mic and see if that has any improvement. While playing around with the laptop today, I couldn’t help but think that likely I have created some kind of complication for myself and that testing on a different OpenSUSE box could help me consider that thinking.

I hope to have a positive response tomorrow after I conduct this separate system test with a different piece of hardware as the device.

crosses fingers :smiley: Here’s to learning :slight_smile:

8

I’ve never used google meet. I have used zoom many times, not with chrome but with the zoom app for GNU/Linux.

Its worked fabulous. Of course as caf4926 pointed out, one needs to be careful to avoid feedback. Keep one’s mic on mute when not talking, and when talking its best not to have one’s mic set too high (sensitive) and do not have one’s speakers set loud. IMHO by far the easiest way to avoid feed back is to use a headset with a mic. That is what I have done, and never a problem.

This was with openSUSE LEAP 15.1 and 15.2. I have not tried LEAP-15.3 yet.

9
  1. Check settings with
alsamixer

Arrow keys, “m” key for mute/unmute, etc.

  1. Try to use Leap 15.2.
    Leap 15.3 starts to use PipeWire instead of PulseAudio. And Leap 15.3 is in beta stage.
10

@MoonyGar:

Is there enough memory installed on your machine?

Video conferencing has some timing issues – related to network bandwidth and latency; Voice-over-IP constraints; Video reception and transmission constraints …

  • Insufficient network bandwidth, excessive network latency, CPU bottlenecks, available memory for the packet buffers – all add up to timing problems leading to system (audio and video) instability …