Ubuntu
gnome-applets package

Mixer applet randomly decides to consider my sound card to be "muted" when changing volume

Bug #136837 reported by Alexander Jones
46
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GNOME Applets
Expired
Medium
gnome-applets (Debian)
Fix Released
Unknown
gnome-applets (Fedora)
Invalid
Low
gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Ubuntu Desktop Bugs
Ubuntu ubuntu-8.04

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-applets

I have tried recreating the applet (default settings) and it still happens. The icon changes to muted at random times when i change the volume up and down.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Sep 2 20:24:29 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
Package: gnome-applets 2.19.1-0ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: i386
SourcePackage: gnome-applets
Uname: Linux flash 2.6.22-10-generic #1 SMP Wed Aug 22 08:11:52 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

See original description
Tags: apport-bug
Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for your bug. How do you change the volume? Using the slider? With the mouse scroll button? Is the sound really muted or is only the icon wrong? Does it do the same if you change the volume in the mixer dialog?

Changed in gnome-applets:
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :

"How do you change the volume? Using the slider? With the mouse scroll button?"

Both.

"Is the sound really muted or is only the icon wrong?"

The sound isn't muted, but both the icon AND the tooltip text say "muted".

"Does it do the same if you change the volume in the mixer dialog?"

No.

Just to clarify, this only seems to be happening with my SB Live (emu10k1 ALSA).

Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Incomplete → New
Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :

Whoops, should have been more specific. Changing the volume in the mixer dialogue does NOT cause the applet to show "muted" states.

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

not confirming, maybe it depends of the soundcard. Is the bug new (since the gst mixer api usage)?

Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :

I know that it depends on the sound card, it only happens on my Emu10k1 device on the "master" channel.

The bug is new as of Gutsy.

Revision history for this message
TJ (tj) wrote :

Confirmed on Gutsy Tribe-5 64-bit with snd-hda-intel and SigmaTel STAC9872AK, Volume applet 2.19.91 using gstreamer 0.10.

Actual mute status of sound card isn't affected, but the applet icon randomly shows 'muted' status (both Icon and menu-item) in response to adjusting the slider. The control method can be dragging the slider, pressing the +/- buttons, or using the keyboard up/down keys.

I ran alsamixer in gnome-terminal to see if I could identify some commonality in the step-values but there doesn't appear to be one. Sometimes the mute indicator won't be effected; other times it will.

The indicator is toggling, so for example, the volume slider might start at 100% with the mute indicator 'off' (no mute). I press the down key a couple of times and the mute indicator shows 'on'. I press the down key a couple more times and the mute indicator goes off. A few more key presses and the same thing happens.

Moving the volume slider up causes the same effect.

Revision history for this message
TJ (tj) wrote :

Interesting result: I've built the mixer applet from source and installed it and can't reproduce the random mute indicator.

I've compared the build logs from buildd and my local build and can't see anything different in the mixer build. The only thing I can see si that buildd used gcc 4.2.1 whereas I used 4.1.3.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :

This happened on my ICE1712 yesterday. Updated description to reflect that this affects other cards.

description: updated
Revision history for this message
In , Ugo (ugo-redhat-bugs) wrote :

Description of problem:
just updated my devel system to today rawhide release, and
gnome-applets-2.20.0-1.fc8 was updated, now when i change the volume level via
mixer applet, the tooltip doesn't update the current volume any more... always
show the old one (the volume level at user logon)

i think this could be a symptom of a wider problem caused by the latest gtk2
tooltip's framework rewrite... i also noted a increase of delay when showing
tooltips and updating his contents in realtime (in Fedora7 it's almost immediate)

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
gnome-applets-2.20.0-1.fc8

How reproducible:
click in the volume mixer applet and change the volume

Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Actual results:
the tooltips remain stucked to login volume

Expected results:
change the volume tooltip content in realtime as volume change from the mixer

Additional info:

Revision history for this message
In , Matthias (matthias-redhat-bugs) wrote :

I don't think that GTK is to blame for this; there is other brokenness in the
mixer applet right now, e.g. the values dont' always go from 0 to 100, and
the muting/unmuting happens semi-randomly when changing the level. This may
be fallout from the switch from polling to notification.

Revision history for this message
In , Ugo (ugo-redhat-bugs) wrote :

Yes i agree, i verified other apps and the tooltips visualization is working fine.

Best Regards

Revision history for this message
In , Bastien (bastien-redhat-bugs) wrote :

(In reply to comment #1)
> I don't think that GTK is to blame for this; there is other brokenness in the
> mixer applet right now, e.g. the values dont' always go from 0 to 100, and
> the muting/unmuting happens semi-randomly when changing the level. This may
> be fallout from the switch from polling to notification.

I've fixed those bits, should be in 1:2.20.0-2. The problem also exists upstream
(without the notification patch) when changing the volume fast, some calls to
alsa-lib fail, but we don't know that. So we ignore the failed gets/sets and
just use the value that's in the UI.

The obvious problem is that the hardware and the UI might get out of sync, but
that's better than the UI going bananas and the mute state switching all over
the place. I filed http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=478498 against
GStreamer, and http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=478485 against the applet.

Let me know how the new build works for you. Should be at:
http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=166805

Revision history for this message
In , Ugo (ugo-redhat-bugs) wrote :

Hi Bastien,

just tried your patch and now the mixer applet is working good!

i also noted the out of sync mixer bug, but it happened only on fast volume
change... however the mixer applet is now fully usable...
many thanks for your light fast patch, very very good job Bastien.

Best Regards

Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=295311

"I don't think that GTK is to blame for this; there is other brokenness in the
mixer applet right now, e.g. the values dont' always go from 0 to 100, and
the muting/unmuting happens semi-randomly when changing the level. This may
be fallout from the switch from polling to notification."

Revision history for this message
In , Bastien (bastien-redhat-bugs) wrote :

Excellent, thanks for testing Ugo.

Sebastien Bacher (seb128)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Lee Maguire (leemaguire) wrote :

I get the false panel "mute" indications in gutsy. Soundcard is onboard intel (SigmaTel STAC9200).

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
TJ (tj) wrote :

Not had this issue since:

a) Building from source gnome-applets-2.19.91
b) Updates to gnome-applets-2.20.0

Revision history for this message
In , Bastien (bastien-redhat-bugs) wrote :

*** Bug 251433 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Thomas (thomas-redhat-bugs) wrote :

Is this patch supposed to be in rawhide yet? The referenced packages are older
than what's currently there.

Revision history for this message
In , Bastien (bastien-redhat-bugs) wrote :

(In reply to comment #7)
> Is this patch supposed to be in rawhide yet? The referenced packages are older
> than what's currently there.

It might have been stuck in the rawhide queue. I've made another update to it to
fix the crasher in bug 302881.

Revision history for this message
In , Thomas (thomas-redhat-bugs) wrote :

I'm still having this problem. As far as I can tell, the fix has never been
pushed into rawhide, or if it did, it doesn't work. I can't reopen this bug as I
am not the owner.

Revision history for this message
In , Matthias (matthias-redhat-bugs) wrote :

What is "this problem", exactly ?

The updating of the tooltip works correctly now for me.

Revision history for this message
In , Thomas (thomas-redhat-bugs) wrote :

See the original bug I hopped on: #251433 from comment #6. Sound volume is
changed in random ways when using the scroll button on the mixer applet or using
volume control keys.

Revision history for this message
evilregis (bradleybanks) wrote :

I just experienced this with an onboard intel card (82801G [ICH7 Family] High Definition Audio Controller). I get the random muting/unmuting when the applet is set to track (both by dragging slider and by mouse wheel but not when adjusting in mixer):

Headphone
Front
Front Mic
Line-in
CD
Mic
Aux-in
Capture

Only two options (PCM and iSpeaker) can be increased/decreased with no unexpected results.

If you would like any particular output let me know.

Revision history for this message
In , Matthias (matthias-redhat-bugs) wrote :

This was broken for me too; it works fine now with gnome-media-2.20.1-2.fc8
What version of gnome-media do you have ?

Revision history for this message
In , Thomas (thomas-redhat-bugs) wrote :

raptor> rpm -q gnome-media
gnome-media-2.20.0-2.fc8.x86_64
gnome-media-2.20.0-2.fc8.i386
raptor>

Rawhide of today should have this update. I'll retest later this morning.

Revision history for this message
In , Thomas (thomas-redhat-bugs) wrote :

raptor> rpm -q gnome-media
gnome-media-2.20.1-2.fc8.x86_64
gnome-media-2.20.1-2.fc8.i386
raptor>

Not fixed for me. Scrolling the mouse wheel over the mixer applet changes the
sound in non-linear ways. Using the volume knob on my Dell USB keyboard has the
same problem. Clicking on the mixer applet so the slider pops up and then
dragging volume works but you can hear the random changes along the way.

Revision history for this message
In , Thomas (thomas-redhat-bugs) wrote :

This is now better for me. The strange thing is that the version of gnome-media
hasn't changed since the 11th. I wonder if it was related to pulseaudio? Things
are not perfect (seems graphic representation of level and actual level are not
always in sync) but at least the actual sound levels change linearly without the
random muting, channels becoming unlocked, etc.

Revision history for this message
In , Bastien (bastien-redhat-bugs) wrote :

I guess this is "fixed" then. I have no idea why it wouldn't have worked before...

Revision history for this message
galtbug (galt280) wrote :

I have this issue on Gutsy64 with an on-board sound card from the nforce4 chipset, and I just wanted to add an interesting detail to this report:
With two instances of the Volume Applet, they are not synchronized in when they appear mute. So i can play with the volume, and one applet turns mute, but the other does not. It doesn't matter which applet I use to control the volume.

Revision history for this message
Micke Karlsson (mickek) wrote :

I have this problem also (speaker icon randomly appearing muted when changing volume level). lspci says I'm using this soundcard:
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 02)

It's a built-in soundcard. Please let me know if you want more info from me.

Revision history for this message
Jeffrey Baker (jwbaker) wrote :

Yet another confirmation with Intel HD Audio. The icon says mute, the tooltip says mute, but the volume is at arbitrary levels and the output is not in fact muted.

Revision history for this message
Tim McIntyre (salfordfred) wrote :

i can confirm this bug using a stock dell optiplex gx280 desktop. (intel ich6)

Revision history for this message
Alexander Jones (alex-weej) wrote :

There are fixes for against Fedora if you follow the link to the GNOME bugzilla.

We could pick these up, too, if we want to get this sorted.

Revision history for this message
Jean Azzopardi (aragorn-waldonet) wrote :

I confirm this bug too, on a Sony Vaio FE-48E, and using Intel 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02). Using Ubuntu 7.10.

Revision history for this message
TJ (tj) wrote :

Confirmed on Hardy 64-bit Beta-1 (2008-03-03 LiveCD AMD64) with snd-hda-intel and SigmaTel STAC9872AK, Volume applet 2.21.92 using gstreamer 0.10.17-3.

Revision history for this message
Suco (sucotronic) wrote :

Another confirmation for ubuntu 7.10 and this soundcard:
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)

Revision history for this message
Suco (sucotronic) wrote :

Enough confirmations

Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Triaged → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Changing to Confirmed is wrong, Triaged means that the bug has been confirmed and has the informations requested to be worked too and is correct there

Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Suco (sucotronic) wrote : Re: [Bug 136837] Re: Mixer applet randomly decides to consider my sound card to be "muted" when changing volume

Ooops sorry, I confuse the order

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> wrote:
> Changing to Confirmed is wrong, Triaged means that the bug has been
> confirmed and has the informations requested to be worked too and is
> correct there
>
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Triaged
>
>
>
> --
> Mixer applet randomly decides to consider my sound card to be "muted" when changing volume
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/136837
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

Revision history for this message
MadCow (grzechu-maluch) wrote :

Same problem on debian lenny:
ii gnome-applets 2.20.1-2 Various applets for GNOME 2 panel - binary f
ii gnome-applets-data 2.20.1-2 Various applets for GNOME 2 panel - data fil

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

custom kernel 2.6.24.3

when changing volume in alsamixer all works ok, but in gnome it muting/unmuting and doing crazy things like that

Sebastien Bacher (seb128)
Changed in gnome-applets:
milestone: none → ubuntu-8.04
James Westby (james-w)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: New → Unknown
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Unknown → Invalid
Revision history for this message
James Westby (james-w) wrote :

Hi,

I have an update to the package with the upstream
patch attached.

The upstream bug report suggests that this may
cause problems due to bug 215086, so we should
consider fixing that as well. However there is no
patch for that one yet.

Thanks,

James

Revision history for this message
Daniel Holbach (dholbach) wrote :

Sébastien: can you please take a look at it?

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-applets - 2.22.1-0ubuntu2

---------------
gnome-applets (2.22.1-0ubuntu2) hardy; urgency=low

  * Stop the mixer applet from randomly muting when the volume is adjusted.
    Fix taken from http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=478485.
    (LP: #136837)

 -- James Westby <email address hidden> Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:48:59 +0100

Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Unknown → New
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: New → Confirmed
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
importance: Unknown → Medium
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: New → Incomplete
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Incomplete → Expired
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets (Debian):
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets (Fedora):
importance: Unknown → Low
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