Audio issues

Charlie_ said:
The maximum mixer value is 100 up to 13.5R.
In 14.0R, the mixer was modified, and the maximum value became 1.00.
mixer(8)
Click to expand...
The command appears to accept either 100 or 1.00. If I set mixer pcm=100 or mixer pcm=1.00, in both cases I see the same output showing it has been set to 1.00.

Furthermore the pcm.volume fields in /var/db/mixer?-state all get set to 1.00, EXCEPT for mixer0-state which is set to 0.97, which seems like some kind of a bug.

And the setting does not survive a reboot, it gets set back to 0.75. It looks like '/etc/rc.d/mixer start' is never called during boot, despite having 'mixer_enable=YES' explicitly set in /etc/rc.conf. If I call /etc/rc.d/mixer start manually as root after boot, it sets the pcm volumes to match the values in the /var/db/mixer?-state files.

So I think there are some bugs in there somewhere.
 
blackbird9 said:
And this thread about making mixer settings permanent.
E

Thread 'mixer vol permanent solution?'

Is there any way to change the mixer vol permanently? The default mixer vol is 75 which is too low for me. I use
mixer vol 100
which give me good volume. However, once I reboot the computer the mixer vol is set to default 75 again. I'm wondering if there is any configuration file for mixer.
Click to expand...
Not 100% sure (not tried recently), but if varmfs is set to "YES" in your /etc/rc.conf, possibly the saved states vanishes on reboot.

If I recall correctly, at some time window, the default ("AUTO") preferred "YES" and entire /var vanished on first restart after updated main (aka *-CURRENT) environment years ago (several major releases ago).
 
It looks a bit messed up, I'll have to trace what's happening properly to understand it. I don't have the 'varmfs' set in my /etc/rc.conf. I am guessing it's getting the 0.75 default from C code rather than a boot script. Bit too busy right now, I might get a bit of time later.
 
A quick workaround is to call '/etc/rc.d/mixer start' from /etc/rc.local. I just tested that on 14.5R and the setting is now retained across reboots. But of course that is not a proper fix.
 
blackbird9 said:
I can confirm that the saved states in /var/db do survive the reboot. But it looks like '/etc/rc.d/mixer start' never gets called.
Click to expand...
Are you sure you've NOT overridden the default mixer_enable="YES" in your /etc/rc.conf (or /etc/rc.conf.local if exists) with mixer_enable="NO"?
The default is in /etc/defaults/rc.conf.
 
/etc # grep -r mixer_enable *
defaults/rc.conf:mixer_enable="YES" # Run the sound mixer.
rc.conf:mixer_enable="YES"
rc.d/mixer:rcvar="mixer_enable"

Pretty sure it's not getting set to 'NO'.
 
grandpa said:
The more I've been fiddling with computers over the years the more I've caught myself fixing problems with software. Back in the 70s and 80s it was different. The starting point back then was always hardware issues.

I'm just guessing here.

You haven't described what it is that actually produces your sound so I'll just blatantly assume that you have something connected to audio out and I'll also assume, again blatantly, that this something is not a headset but an amplifier of some kind that passes the sound on to a set of speakers.

Having alot of old junk from "yorn" I've more and more often found that potentiometers (volume, bass, treble knobs etc) have a tendency to age and with that age comes reduction of sound. It's very common for electric guitars and old amplifiers.

The quick fix is to turn those knobs back and forth for a while. Sometimes there will be a scraping sound if this is done with power on which will confirm the ageing. The better fix is to get a spray that dissolves the buildup inside the pots.

Anyway, all I want to say is that sometimes it's not the software.

/grandpa
Click to expand...
Hello, "Grandpa"! Well, I am 84, so how old are you? (Just kidding!). Yes. In point of fact, what you have described above is ONE of the issues I am having. I'll dig out some DeOxit Fader Lube to fix that. However, my sound-level problem IS based in software somewhere, which I have not yet figured out. It is dynamic also, meaning it changes, seemingly at random.

I have been involved with the HDD which carries my FreeBSD install beginning to finally fail. I have ordered a new Seagate Iron Wolf drive from NewEgg to replace the old 320GB drive, and will move my install of FreeBSD 14.4 over to that, OR I may decide to bite the bullet and rebuild it from scratch onto the new HDD.

(It is always "fun" to build a new system....and it gives me practice... :-))

I hope I will find the source of the variable audio sound level problem in the process.

Thank you for the encouragement.

God bless.

Ken Gordon
 
Espionage724 said:
I'd disable PulseAudio auto-start in Session settings, and do mixer pcm=100
Click to expand...

Hmmm....so...where do I find an editable "session settings"?

Espionage724 said:
I use mixer to adjust vol, but on fresh installs sometimes see pcm not at 100. I set it to 100 once and it seemingly sticks.
Click to expand...
Mixer is set PCM=.75 to start with. I'll do as you suggest and will wait to see what happens.

What is really bothering me about this audio problem is that it is "dynamic" in that once I have set it to the levels I need, unless I keep playing music (from www.sundaybaroque.org/listen/) or some other source of constant music, or sound, it suddenly drops back to the original almost silent settings, and I must reboot the system to get the sound levels set back to where I like it.

This is highly annoying and due to the other problems I am having, I have not been able to devote the necessary time to fix it...yet.

Thanks again.

Ken Gordon
 
Ken, if you want a cheap audio device that is known to work, as a sanity check, one of these CX31993 usb audio cables is a good bet.
I've tested that exact unit and can confirm that it works fine with freebsd 14.x. (Just to save you buying more expensive soundcards like the audigy...).

The price seems to be higher in the US than it is over here for some reason.


Surprisingly here in England I can get the same thing for just a few pounds. Oh well, who knows how it works, maybe the difference is the postage from shenzhen.


Those little adapters sound pretty good, too. There's a review here https://www.audioreviews.org/conexant-cx-pro-cx31993-lj/ It had enough oomph to drive my Sennheiser HD-560S headphones. It's a shame they don't appear to be $5 in the States though.
 
KenGordon said:
What is really bothering me about this audio problem is that it is "dynamic" in that once I have set it to the levels I need, unless I keep playing music (from www.sundaybaroque.org/listen/) or some other source of constant music, or sound, it suddenly drops back to the original almost silent settings, and I must reboot the system to get the sound levels set back to where I like it.
Click to expand...
This definitely sounds like something that shouldn't be happening. I never get the volume spontaneously changing on my system, once I have set the level it stays set. Very strange, yes it must be incredibly annoying. I can only suggest trying a different motherboard.
 
KenGordon said:
Hello, "Grandpa"! Well, I am 84, so how old are you? (Just kidding!). Yes. In point of fact, what you have described above is ONE of the issues I am having. I'll dig out some DeOxit Fader Lube to fix that. However, my sound-level problem IS based in software somewhere, which I have not yet figured out. It is dynamic also, meaning it changes, seemingly at random.

I have been involved with the HDD which carries my FreeBSD install beginning to finally fail. I have ordered a new Seagate Iron Wolf drive from NewEgg to replace the old 320GB drive, and will move my install of FreeBSD 14.4 over to that, OR I may decide to bite the bullet and rebuild it from scratch onto the new HDD.

(It is always "fun" to build a new system....and it gives me practice... :-))

I hope I will find the source of the variable audio sound level problem in the process.

Thank you for the encouragement.

God bless.

Ken Gordon
Click to expand...

Hi Ken, :)

I'm old enough for hip surgery :)

I agree - setting up new systems is nice and with that comes the challenge to maintain it - which sometimes is even nicer.

I base my audio on jack since I like to record and play audio and midi - if you ever should get into that I have a thread at this link about it.

I have a few different setups, among those a 14.4 but there's kde and plasma6 on that with wayland and I have jack for the Amiga emulation on it with no noticeable sound issues. For recording audio/midi I use an old hp laptop with 15.1, also kde/plasma6/wayland with jack. I do vaguely recall some issues with pulseaudio when installing players but I have no details so it was probably just minor fixes.

I hope you'll find the issue and may your new drive arrive soon!

/grandpa
 
What is needed is to get some trace out of the sound driver to identify what process is setting the volume back to the low level. Someone must be calling the device ioctl to do that. Unless it's genuinly a hardware bug that is happening below the driver.
 
blackbird9 said:
What is needed is to get some trace out of the sound driver to identify what process is setting the volume back to the low level. Someone must be calling the device ioctl to do that. Unless it's genuinly a hardware bug that is happening below the driver.
Click to expand...
Or is it the system has one level (root user doing the mixer command) and then a user application overridding the current value. User value in effect while application running, then when done, system value takes precedent.
 
I am leaning, heavily, towards building a new FreeBSD install from scratch when my new HDD gets here...

However, I am NOT pleased with this decision.

Ken Gordon
 
KenGordon said:
Hmmm....so...where do I find an editable "session settings"?
Click to expand...
I think Settings has it as a green circle icon near the bottom, but the command is xfce4-session-settings
KenGordon said:
I am leaning, heavily, towards building a new FreeBSD install from scratch
Click to expand...
I did a fresh 16.0 install last night and mixer -a had pcm for everything at 100 out-the-box. Not sure what might change that but know it wasn't 100 a couple installs ago. I have basic Realtek HDA on Skylake (built-in speakers + 3.5mm line-out)
 
cracauer@ said:
Get a $10 USB sound"card". Cheaper than a reinstall.
Click to expand...
Well, in my case, the reason I am electing to do a "re-install" is because the present old 320 GB HDD which contains my present working FreeBSD install is failing, finally.

I have a new Seagate Iron Wolf 2TB server HDD coming from NewEGG on the 16th and rather than try to clone my present install onto the new HDD, I, unfortunately, believe it is better for me to build a system "from scratch". The result would certainly be cleaner.

I have used my present install to do a lot of experimenting, and learning, and it has to be pretty cluttered by now.

I also have 2 used 8 TB WD Red Plus HDDs here, but I think a new, never-used HDD is the better way to go. I saved the WD drives from my Qnap NAS when I upgraded that to two 12TB drives.

I am hoping that by building a new system, my audio issues will resolve themselves.

Ken Gordon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top