[GnomeMeeting-devel-list] selecting output device - bug?

[Gour <gour mail inet hr>]

Hello GM devs!

Let me 1st express my thankfullness for your work on Gnomemeeting.

I am very happy that after switching from kde to gnome I've found out such a 
great native program for VoIP.

So, after 'discovering GM, I went and buy Logitech USB 350 headset in
order to use them in companion with GM.

However, soon I discovered that people can hear me, although I cannot
hear them and in the beginning I thought there must be some problem with
my hardware router and it firewall forwarding ports to my Gentoo box.
Then I was looking at the settings on shorewall which runs on my box,
until I discovered that the problem is the GM does cannot use headset as
my output...

Here are the details of the setup:

1) I have onboard sound card:

gaura-nitai ~ # lspci | grep audio
0000:00:06.0 Multimedia audio controller: nVidia Corporation nForce3 250Gb AC'97 Audio Controller (rev a1)

which works in ALSA with the intel8x0 driver

2)  cat /proc/asound/cards gives:

USB-Audio - Logitech USB Headset

for my headset.


After testing all kinds of combinations (Johnny also helped me on #irc),
the conclusion is that GM can use only 'default' sound device as output,
no matter what is selected in GM's preferences.

Let's take a look at different combinations�...

� here I'll focus only on output device 'cause it seems that Input
device & Ring output device are working, i.e. selected properly


a) nVidia is default sound device

ALSA setup: 

alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0
alias snd-card-1 snd-usb-audio

GM setup:

  I) Output device: Logitech USB headset
 
	 i) druid test -- OK, i.e. I can hear myself and msg is played back

	ii) h323.voxgratia.org test-system 
		ring-tone is heard in the headset, but immediately after
		establishing contact, both sliders (output/input) drop to zero
		and no sound in the headset; after disconnect, I hear sound in
		the headset
		
 II) Output device: NVidia CK8S

	i) druid test
		Immediately after performing test I) and selecting NVidia 
		device, GM reports that it cannot open selected device
		for playing, advising to check setup, perms...device is
		not 'released' and test cannot be performed

	ii) h323.voxgratia.org test-system
		ring-tone is heard in the speakers, as well as the voice
		from the test-system, and mic on the headset can be used
		as input

 III) Output device: Default

 	i) druid test
		I can record msg by using mic and the message is played
		back through speaker -- interesting in comparison with the
		II)-i) test!
	
	ii) h323.voxgratia.org test-system
		The same result as under II).
		
		
Now let's try by another setup - swapping the sound cards...

a) Logitech USB headset is default sound device

ALSA setup: 

alias snd-card-1 snd-intel8x0
alias snd-card-0 snd-usb-audio

Let's check if the cards are really swapped:

gaura-nitai ~ # cat /proc/asound/cards
0 [Headset        ]: USB-Audio - Logitech USB Headset
                     Logitech Logitech USB Headset at usb-0000:00:02.0-2, full 
		     speed
1 [CK8S           ]: NFORCE - NVidia CK8S
                     NVidia CK8S with ALC850 at 0xeb001000, irq 18

Yes, let's go on...


GM setup:

  I) Output device: Logitech USB headset
 
	 i) druid test -- OK, i.e. I can hear myself and msg is played back� 

	ii) h323.voxgratia.org test-system 
		ring-tone is heard in the headset, but immediately after
		establishing contact, both sliders (output/input) drop to zero
		and no sound in the headset; after disconnect, I hear sound in
		the headset� 

� results of both tests are identical to those under a) setup


		
 II) Output device: NVidia CK8S

	i) druid test -- OK, i.e. I can hear myself and msg is played
		back through the speaker.
	

	ii) h323.voxgratia.org test-system
		ring-tone is heard in the speakers, as well as the voice
		from the test-system, and mic on the headset can be used
		as input

		
 III) Output device: Default

 	i) druid test
		I can record msg by using mic and the message is played
		back through the headset
	
	ii) h323.voxgratia.org test-system
		Huh, this is interesting or rather confusing in a sense
		that yesterday while testing with Johnny, this setup
		gave sound in the headset, i.e. it was a 'normal'working
		condition, but now even this does not work.

Anyway, now even the premise from the start, that GM can use only 'default'
device as output fails, and I really don't know what to try next.

Something is very strange, so if someone has get some USB headset to try
it out, I'd be very grateful.

I am also aware that there are some problems in new kernel regarding USB
drivers (read about Skype users and their problems...).

Any help is welcome 'cause I'd like to have a working GM setup and avoid
Skype where things simply work (despite Skype not-releasing sound
device, but simple re-start does the job.)

My machine:

gaura-nitai ~ # uname -a
Linux gaura-nitai 2.6.14-gentoo-r2 #1 Tue Nov 22 12:28:21 CET 2005 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

I built GM-1.9.0 snapshot (iirc, 31st Oct), but had the same problems
with 1.2.2.

Sincerely,
Gour

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