I left my Windows a week ago and now I’m on openSUSE 11.4. I’ve solved a lot of problems but the sound is still my nightmare. The sound was crystal and good in Windows and now it’s kinda… flat in openSUSE… Well, I don’t like it at all. Moreover, I can count 6 holes under the lattice - presumably, speakers. Two at the left (a round one and a rectangular one), two at the center (round ones) and two at the right (a round one and a rectangular one). Honestly, I don’t know if all of them are speakers (especially rectangular ones), but as I felt in Windows they all used to work. And here they don’t. I couldn’t find the technical documentation for my laptop with the number of speakers indicated. Anyway, if my memory serves me, Windows defined the audio system as a system of two speakers. But what’s the function of other holes? I got a fact - the sound is worse.
Did anyone face this problem? I’d be glad to get any info and help. Thank you.
Configuration
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
Codec: Realtek ALC262
Sony VAIO FW-series
I am assuming that you still have Pulseaudio active. So if you did not change anything in YaST regarding sound, then this is the case (Pulseaudio is active) and this is fine. If you disabled it, please tell us.
I would recommend, that you go into the KDE Systemsettings and choose “Multimedia” and in there on the lefthand categories, you choose “Phonon”. In there you find a screen which lets you switch around with different sound profiles (depending on your hardware) and different kinds of sound output. You also can set different soundcards as priority (the one which is the highest in the list, is the one which will be used). But my guess is that you just need to choose the right sound profile.
Additionally I really recommend to switch the Audio Backend (this is one of the tabs in the Phonon-screen, named “Backend”) from Gstreamer to Xine. Here also applys: the higher one in the list will be used first.
If this does not work out, you could open the terminal and type
alsamixer
then some kind of “Equalizer” comes up. There you can try to adjust the settings. This is done by choosing the channels with the arrow-keys of your keyboard (left/right) and turning the volume up and down with up and down arrow keys. Afterwards, exit with ESC to save the new settings.
I tried to do it using htorp but I couldn’t kill the process even with SIGKILL. Now there are 4 pulseaudio processes (there were only two processes when I tried to kill pulseaudio, i.e. two-three days ago).
All the profiles have the same device set:
Built-in audio Analog output (it’s my Intel HD Audio but why isn’t it called like it should be?)
RV710/730 Digital Stereo (HDM) (ATI graphics card, and the same question)
Fictious output (this one is disabled)
Interesting thing: in the Speakers Configuration tab the RV710/730 is chosen in both lists. I can’t understand it.
Did it, rebooted. No changes.
There’s only one Master channel. Pulsaudio is defined as a card and as a chip.
Thanks, but I don’t need an equalizer. I suppose that not all of my audio channels are used or at least they are used in a wrong way, not like it was in Windows.
Maybe its just my lack of understanding english, but it reads like you are uncertain if all audio channels are used … If all channels are used then an equalizer is likely the best option.
If you want help wrt audio channels then you must provide much more detailed information. You can do that by running the diagnostic script alsa-info.sh (which uploads your PC’s audio config to the web) and then provide the website address where your audio config has been uploaded to. The command is:
/usr/sbin/alsa-info.sh
and select the UPLOAD/SHARE option. The rest (for posting the website address) should be intuitively obvious. Once we have that address we can check the audio configuration of your PC.
Have you tried installing Pulse Volume Control? Use Yum or GUI which ever you are more comfortable with and install pavucontrol. Then run the program from terminal or shortcut whichever suits you and see if that gives you more options and solves your problem.
Built-in audio Analog output (it’s my Intel HD Audio but why isn’t it called like it should be?)
RV710/730 Digital Stereo (HDM) (ATI graphics card, and the same question)
Fictious output (this one is disabled)
Interesting thing: in the Speakers Configuration tab the RV710/730 is chosen in both lists. I can’t understand it.
doesn´t matter how the hardware is named. You know that it is the card, you want to use. Fine, that´s all you need.
In the speakers Tab, can you choose different profiles for each of the soundcards? If so, then choose this soundcard “Analog output” under “Hardware” and the right profile (I guess Stereo Duplex or if there are more, just test them !!!) Under “Output” you then choose the appropriate soundcard and the proper connection (most likely “analog output”).
There are two buttons (front left, front right), for testing the speakers. You can not break anything - so please test in the settings menu with these buttons and fiddle around with your settings and options. I don´t know how many options you have. You just can try to find the right one by trial and error.
Pavucontrol also just has the options, which the systemsettings have. The only advantage of pavucontrol, I found was, that you can adjust microphone settings for skype and the like.
I find pulse very useful for both recording and playback. I also found it useful for selecting the optimal device output configuration for one’s sound device. For example, on my Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard, where I have a Logitech webcam attached (the webcam has a mic) I see this in the Configuration tab of pulse audio (with the motherboard device on top and webcam on the bottom): http://thumbnails21.imagebam.com/15598/1f4563155971219.jpg](ImageBam)
Now if there should be options there and there are not, it could be because the alsa sound driver is misconfigured which is why I asked the user run the diagnostic script alsa-info.sh and provide us the output web address where their PC’s audio information is uploaded to and located.
And finally here is an example of pavucontrol at work where I am playing back audio from smplayer (in the middle) and playing back flash audio from youtube (on the bottom) at the same time, with separate volume controls for each. Note system sounds volume control is on top: http://thumbnails57.imagebam.com/15598/daf749155971230.jpg](ImageBam)
Now NOT shown is what this would look like if I had multiple sound devices on this PC. If I had multiple sound devices I would have a drop down menu associated with each media playback in that playback tab, and I would be able to select for each application WHERE it sends its audio to. Thus with pulse audio one can play media-file-A with application-X and send it speaker-system-1, and play media-file-B with application-Y and send it to a different speaker-system-2, each with their own volume controls. And its EASY to do because the GUI is so simple. … or with a simple edit of a configuration file, one can mix the two, and play media-file-A with application-X and send it to both speaker-system-1 and speaker-system-2. Very flexible !
The same applies with recording. If one has more than one sound device mic, one can take the input of one mic (say #1) and send it to record application-A,and one can the input of another mic (say #2) and send it to record application-B, ALL at the same time.
For those of us who like to play with multimedia but we do not have the time to learn ‘jack’ this is a very easy way to obtain some flexible sound capabilities.
Update: Windows uses only left and right speakers too (so central holes are not speakers). But anyway, sound is better there. Can it be connected with some codecs? Maybe I should install a codec pack?
OK, so you previously rejected my suggestion to look at the pulse audio equalizer because you thought those holes were speakers not being used. Based on that you stated an equalizer would not help. Perhaps reconsider ?
codecs ? unlikely. I suppose if you are a KDE destkop user, its possible you are using the gstreamer backend, and might be better off using the xine backend.
I note an ALC262.
The model options for the ALC262 are:
ALC262
======
fujitsu Fujitsu Laptop
hp-bpc HP xw4400/6400/8400/9400 laptops
hp-bpc-d7000 HP BPC D7000
hp-tc-t5735 HP Thin Client T5735
hp-rp5700 HP RP5700
benq Benq ED8
benq-t31 Benq T31
hippo Hippo (ATI) with jack detection, Sony UX-90s
hippo_1 Hippo (Benq) with jack detection
sony-assamd Sony ASSAMD
toshiba-s06 Toshiba S06
toshiba-rx1 Toshiba RX1
tyan Tyan Thunder n6650W (S2915-E)
ultra Samsung Q1 Ultra Vista model
lenovo-3000 Lenovo 3000 y410
nec NEC Versa S9100
basic fixed pin assignment w/o SPDIF
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)
I suppose you could try forcing one of those for the alsa configuration. But first I recommend you check your desktop backend, and also investigate my equalizer suggestion.
No-no, I started equalizer but didn’t find there anything about speakers. Yes, thank you for the advice, but I’d like to try to solve this problem without using an equalizer because I don’t want to improve the sound of one certain music genre, you know. I want the default settings to sound better.
Yes, I use KDE. I tried to use both Gstreamer and Xine. I don’t feel any specific difference (if there is any).
Sorry, I don’t know where to check out which setting is used and to change it…
In the past some users claimed the Xine front end provided superior sound to Gstreamer front end, … but I have not noticed that myself. I think it also possible to obtain a phonon backend of vlc (in addition to xine and gstreamer) from Packman: PackMan :: Informationen zum Paket phonon-backend-vlc
Am I the only one who posted about that? Maybe it’s not even a problem and I should be less demanding and use equalizers / other players? I don’t really know. Honestly, I think that’s the situation.
That makes no sense to me. The equalizer provides various frequency settings. You already stated you were incorrect and misidentified holes as being speakers.
There are MANY options for an equalizer. Some (not all) can be for a specific music genre, but others can be across all genre. You get to tune it to your taste to remove what ever this flat is ??? … (as I have NO idea as to what you mean).
ALC262
======
fujitsu Fujitsu Laptop
hp-bpc HP xw4400/6400/8400/9400 laptops
hp-bpc-d7000 HP BPC D7000
hp-tc-t5735 HP Thin Client T5735
hp-rp5700 HP RP5700
benq Benq ED8
benq-t31 Benq T31
hippo Hippo (ATI) with jack detection, Sony UX-90s
hippo_1 Hippo (Benq) with jack detection
sony-assamd Sony ASSAMD
toshiba-s06 Toshiba S06
toshiba-rx1 Toshiba RX1
tyan Tyan Thunder n6650W (S2915-E)
ultra Samsung Q1 Ultra Vista model
lenovo-3000 Lenovo 3000 y410
nec NEC Versa S9100
basic fixed pin assignment w/o SPDIF
auto auto-config reading BIOS (default)
So lets say you wish to try ‘sony-assamd’. Then you would add this line to the START of that file:
options snd-hda-intel model=sony-assamd
such that the file now looks like:
options snd-hda-intel model=sony-assamd
options snd slots=snd-hda-intel,snd-hda-intel
# u1Nb.bSSl6xlW2d9:82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller
alias snd-card-0 snd-hda-intel
# NXNs.n4Hwc59OXdE:R700 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4000 Series]
alias snd-card-1 snd-hda-intel
save that, restart your PC and test the sound. That could break your sound. It may make it worse. It may make it better. No worries. If it does not help, remove the line.
You can also replace ‘sony-assamd’ with another option, such as ‘fujitsu’, save the change, restart and try again. You can try each one to see if one gives better sound than the others.
Oh I’m not such a dumb to not to know how to use equalizer and what’s it’s function Thanks. I just wanted to know what could my problem be connected with. You told me various ways to check my drivers/hardware, and now I know: my problem is my software. That’s all. Thank you again.
What about alsa settings: yes, it may help. I will try it soon. Merci.
Thanks. I just wanted to know what could my problem be connected with. You told me various ways to check my drivers/hardware, and now I know: my problem is my software. That’s all. Thank you again.
