[Alsa-user] PCM slider ineffective

[Torquil M. S. <to...@gm...>]

Hi!

My alsamixer PCM slider has no effect on volume, e.g. from mplayer or 
flashplugin. Also, in alsamixer there is no opportunity to mute the PCM slider. 
The Master slider in alsamixer works fine, so the mixer device chosen by 
alsamixer is the correct one.

My sound card is hw:1 (defined as the default device), and there is no hw:0 at 
the moment. I'm reserving hw:0 for my USB sound card when it is plugged in, 
using the "slots" module option.

$ lspci -v -s 02:00.1
02:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)
	Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device 1312
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 17
	Memory at faf7c000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel

These details are probably also relevant:

$ uname -a
Linux asus 2.6.37 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jan 29 12:58:20 CET 2011 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ ls /dev/snd
by-path  controlC1  controlC2  hwC1D0  hwC2D0  hwC2D1  hwC2D2  hwC2D3  pcmC1D0c 
  pcmC1D0p  pcmC2D3p  pcmC2D7p  pcmC2D8p  pcmC2D9p  seq  timer

While using mplayer:

$ fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                      USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC1:  tmac       2713 f.... mixer_applet2
/dev/snd/pcmC1D0p:   tmac       7097 F...m mplayer
/dev/snd/timer:      tmac       7097 f.... mplayer

So mplayer funnels it sound through /dev/snd/pcmC1D0p.

While flashplugin is playing a youtube video:

$ fuser -v /dev/snd/*
                      USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/dev/snd/controlC1:  tmac       2713 f.... mixer_applet2
/dev/snd/pcmC1D0p:   tmac       3274 F...m plugin-containe
/dev/snd/timer:      tmac       3274 F.... plugin-containe

Some more info:

$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 0/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia_1 [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia_1 [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia_1 [HDA NVidia], device 8: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: NVidia_1 [HDA NVidia], device 9: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ aplay -L
null
     Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
front:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
     HDA NVidia, ALC269 Analog
     Front speakers
surround40:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
     HDA NVidia, ALC269 Analog
     4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
     HDA NVidia, ALC269 Analog
     4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
     HDA NVidia, ALC269 Analog
     5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
     HDA NVidia, ALC269 Analog
     5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=NVidia,DEV=0
     HDA NVidia, ALC269 Analog
     7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
hdmi:CARD=NVidia_1
     HDA NVidia, HDMI 0
     HDMI Audio Output

Best regards
Torquil Sørensen