Sound only plays on left channel, help please

English Multimedia
#1

Ever since the Leap installation I only have sound coming from the left channel. I have a dual boot, and checked in windows, both channels work. So the sound card and speakers are not the issue. I am current on updates and still have mono from one side, but not stereo. The PulseAudio Volume Meter shows both channels, but it doesn’t make it out the speakers that way.

alsa diagnostic is here:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=3040cf5cff678f37f3487f890456834dea0a3e6c

sound test is here:

> aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little
Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo ALSA <-> PulseAudio PCM I/O Plugin
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 22050
  period_size  : 5512
  period_time  : 125000
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  tstamp_type  : GETTIMEOFDAY
  period_step  : 1
  avail_min    : 5512
  period_event : 0
  start_threshold  : 22050
  stop_threshold   : 22050
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 6206523236469964800
#+                                                 | 00%

Any help is appreciated.

#2

From the diagnostic, there are some settings in your PCs mixer that appear unusual :


**Simple mixer control 'IEC958 Rear',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Playback 207 **[81%]** [0.00dB]
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -99999.99dB]
...
**Simple mixer control 'Analog Center/LFE',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Playback 207 **[81%]** [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -99999.99dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Analog Front',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Playback 207 **[81%]** [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -99999.99dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Analog Rear',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Playback 207 **[81%]** [0.00dB] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -99999.99dB] [on]
**Simple mixer control 'Analog Side',0**
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Front Left: Playback 207 **[on][81%] [0.00dB]** 
  Front Right: Playback 0 **[0%]** -99999.99dB] [on]

Consistently in the above in a number of settings, left volume is at 81% and right volume control is muted (at 0%). That suggests to me the mixer on your PC openSUSE install is misconfigured.

I recommend you balance both sides - at say 81%. You can do this with alsamixer. Its possible it can also be done with amixer, but that requires a more advanced command line knowledge, and the alsamixer gui is almost certainly easier to use to configure.
.

#3

I do not know how your PC speakers are connected (digital or analogue ? ) but just to illustrate some amixer commands (below ) sent as a regular user (and NOT as root) …

First I noted your sound device is card-0 from :


!!Amixer output
!!-------------
!!-------Mixer controls for **card 0** [CA0106]
Card hw:0 'CA0106'/'Audigy SE [SB0570] at 0x2200 irq 20'

Note below I have " -c 0 " so to select card-0. And the “on” means to switch it ON.

I’ve selected 81% for the right channel, as that is what you had set for the left

Now to adjust “IEC958 Rear” send the command in a konsole/xterm


amixer -c 0 -- sset 'IEC958 Rear' on 81%,81%

.
Now to adjust “Analog Center/LFE” send the command in a konsole/xterm:


amixer -c 0 -- sset 'Analog Center/LFE' on 81%,81%

.
Now to adjust “Analog Front” send the command in a konsole/xterm


amixer -c 0 -- sset 'Analog Front' on 81%,81%

Now to adjust “Analog Rear” send the command in a konsole/xterm


amixer -c 0 -- sset 'Analog Rear' on 81%,81%

.
Now to adjust “Analog Side” send the command in a konsole/xterm


amixer -c 0 -- sset 'Analog Side' on 81%,81%

Hopefully I have the syntax correct. I can’t say which, if any, of the above will sort the issue.

#4

oldcpu,
Thank you. That did the trick. I don’t know why the gui mixers would not control it. Before running the command prompt lines, both Pulse Volume control and Gmixer showed both channels at 81%. But the diagnostic and what you saw in it, as well as the lack of sound said otherwise. I ran the commands as you mentioned above. Then reran the test from prompt (see below). I have full sound now. Thank you again. Is there a particular mixer you would recommend?

Secondly, while I was reading the forum before I posted, I saw many suggestions to load PAV. Since the Alsa drivers seem to be working, would you recommend I uninstall the PAV so as not to have anything that could conflict or just leave them there?

:~> aplay -vv /usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav
Playing WAVE '/usr/share/sounds/alsa/test.wav' : Signed 16 bit Little Endian, Rate 44100 Hz, Stereo
ALSA <-> PulseAudio PCM I/O Plugin
Its setup is:
  stream       : PLAYBACK
  access       : RW_INTERLEAVED
  format       : S16_LE
  subformat    : STD
  channels     : 2
  rate         : 44100
  exact rate   : 44100 (44100/1)
  msbits       : 16
  buffer_size  : 22050
  period_size  : 5512
  period_time  : 125000
  tstamp_mode  : NONE
  tstamp_type  : GETTIMEOFDAY
  period_step  : 1
  avail_min    : 5512
  period_event : 0
  start_threshold  : 22050
  stop_threshold   : 22050
  silence_threshold: 0
  silence_size : 0
  boundary     : 6206523236469964800
#+                                                 | 01%
#5

Great news. Glad to read its working for you.

I have no mixer recommendations.

Likely mixer selection is desktop dependent. I confess I tend to be lazy and I simply use the mixer that nominally comes with the desktop. In my case I use kmixer that comes with KDE. But of course alsamixer comes with alsa-utils that is nominally included as part of an openSUSE install, so it is available and provides more controls than kmixer.

What is PAV ? Do you mean pavucontrol ? I nominally install pavucontrol, but I only use it to setup pulseaudio to work with an application the first time I run the application.

#6

Yes that is what I meant. Doesn’t sound like it’s an issue. One again, thanks. It’s good to have it all working as it should.