Re: [orca-list] ALSA Card Ordering [Was: I hate pulse]

From: Janina Sajka <janina rednote net>
To: Peter Vágner <pvdeejay gmail com>
Cc: chrys <chrys linux-a11y org>, orca-list <orca-list gnome org>
Subject: Re: [orca-list] ALSA Card Ordering [Was: I hate pulse]
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2017 11:21:27 -0500

Thanks, Peter. I will play around with your suggestions sometime soon.
For now I just want to acknowledge your email and thank you for taking
the time to provide concrete suggestions.


Part of the problem with trying out new things on a machine with 4-5
audio cards, is that there's a reason for putting so many cards on one
system in the first place. They're doing very specific things for me,
and it's a bit hard to find the time to put all that at risk while
trying out something new. But, I will get there sometime before year's
end, and I will happily rely on your good advice when I do that.

Thanks again. To be continued!

Best,

Janina

Peter Vágner writes:

Hello Janina,

By default pulseaudio is configured through its main configuration file at
/etc/pulse/default.pa to dynamically load all the modules corresponding
with your hardware taking over all the available sound devices.
If you only would like to configure it to load concrete driver modules for
a few devices you would like it to hijack you can create your user specific
~/.config/pulse/default.pa commenting out parts which are controlling the
autodetection and manually loading those driver modules and those feature
specific modules you do care about.
The file /etc/pulse/default.pa contains usefull examples with some comments
alongside them so I think you will realize how the puzzle will stick
together when you combine it with the knowledge on alsa device ordering you
have explained to us a few months ago.
For example you might like to comment out this...
### Automatically load driver modules depending on the hardware available
.ifexists module-udev-detect.so
load-module module-udev-detect
.else
### Use the static hardware detection module (for systems that lack udev
support)
load-module module-detect
.endif
and you might like to uncomment and modify this instead
### Load audio drivers statically
### (it's probably better to not load these drivers manually, but instead
### use module-udev-detect -- see below -- for doing this automatically)
#load-module module-alsa-sink
#load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:1,0
And depending on what you are trying to do you may also like to optionally
uncomment
#load-module module-null-sink
#load-module module-pipe-sink

By learning this and making pulse work for you, combining it with its
ability to be controlled via pacmd cli utility pulseaudio might become your
new Mackie if you will have problems finding a device featuring classic
radio style controls and knobs.
I am occassionally thinking about your sound setup as you have described it
a few months ago and this is definatelly one of the directions you should
try exploring.
I have always wanted to point it out gently so you might like to consider
something like this however I was not sure you will like it so depending on
my current mood I was putting it aside all the time.
Now you have shown your interest in this direction so I've changed my mind
a bit.
I don't have much more experiences with setting up a sound system, however
I do like pulseaudio so if you are happy to talk with someone else who is
thinking from the other end to yours please just ask. I think we may have
fun trying out new ways on how to make it work.

Greetings

Peter


2017-11-15 16:03 GMT+01:00 Janina Sajka via orca-list <orca-list gnome org>:

Chrys:

I've kept your message from August around because I've found it useful.
Thank you.

Quick question: Do you know of a cli way of telling pulse to ignore
certain cards and use certain others instead? For instance, how can I tell
pulse to
limit itself to cards 2 and 3, and leave 0, 1 and 4 alone?

Thanks,

Janina

chrys writes:

Howdy,

you can get all your soundcards with
pactl list short sinks
or more detailed with:
pacmd list-sinks

to set a new default device use:
pacmd set-default-sink <Index>
the index is the number on the beginning of the line of pactl list short
sinks

if the wrong soundcard is set you can run those commans via SSH.
it remembers the default but if you dont trust and want to be sure that a
special device is set you can place it as start script

i also wrote a small script and bound it to an bash and gnome shortcut to
cycle between all soundcards (maybe its useful for you or others)
---- script start ------
#!/bin/bash

sinks=(`pacmd list-sinks | sed -n -e
's/\**[[:space:]]index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p'`)
sinks_count=${#sinks[@]}
active_sink_index=`pacmd list-sinks | sed -n -e
's/\*[[:space:]]index:[[:space:]]\([[:digit:]]\)/\1/p'`
newSink=${sinks[0]}
ord=0

while [ $ord -lt $sinks_count ];
do
    echo ${sinks[$ord]}
    if [ ${sinks[$ord]} -gt $active_sink_index ] ; then
        newSink=${sinks[$ord]}
        break
    fi
    let ord++
done

# move current running streams to the new device
pactl list short sink-inputs|while read stream; do
    streamId=$(echo $stream|cut '-d ' -f1)
    echo "moving stream $streamId"
    pactl move-sink-input "$streamId" "$newSink"
done
pacmd set-default-sink "$newSink"
--- script end----

Am 20.08.2017 um 18:01 schrieb John G. Heim:

Well, it's kind of hard to reconfigure pulse when you have no sound.
Again, at least 3 times in the past year or 2, I've lost sound, had to
use ssh to get into my computer, and remove the ~/.config/pulse/

folder.

I didn't make up the solution, I found it on this list. So I am not the
only one. It's a problem. Lets not act like it's not.


I don't know, I speculated pulse's problems were due to it not being
possible to guarantee the order in which hardware devices are
discovered. Maybe that's wrong but it's not really to the point.
Somebody says pulse has a prioritizing algorithm which seems reasonable
to me. But that algorithm probably at least somewhat depends on the
order in which ards are discovered. I don't know how it could be
otherwise and there certainly seems to be amount of randomness in it.




On 08/19/2017 01:39 PM, chrys wrote:

Howdy,

sorry but that is just bullshit lol. Also PA does not choose an
random sound card. it uses that one that you defined as default.
You also can set output devices and prioritys by scripting or
configuration like in alsa... so that argument is just wrong.
 cheers chrys
Am 19.08.2017 um 20:24 schrieb Janina Sajka via orca-list:

Micha:

For me this is yet another reason to stay away from pulse. The last
thing I need with 5 sound cards is having some bot deciding which

ones

should do what, and in what order. I have no use for machines that
ignore my specified configurations to make up their own.


In other words, this is just another way for things to break.

Janina

Michał Zegan writes:

actually from what i know, pulseaudio does not go by ordering,

but it

prioritizes cards based on type like internal card vs usb card vs
whatever... etc

W dniu 19.08.2017 o 19:56, Janina Sajka via orca-list pisze:

Hi, John:

I noted one comment in your post re pulseaudio that I want to

respond

to.

John G Heim writes:

... you can never guarantee that hardware
devices are discovered in the same order. ...

No, but you can control the card order they're assigned, e.g.

via

/etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf using vid= and pid= params for

multiple USB

sound cards.

The best on line summary of available approaches I've
found to date is
at:

http://alsa.opensrc.org/MultipleCards

I'm currently working through the above as I have a nagging

problem

every time I'm forced to reboot, e.g. after installing a new

Linux

kernel.

My problem is that my hda device isn't always
discovered. This morning I
ran a system update and had to reboot some 30 times
before my Intel-810
hda device was discovered. I've looked in the logs. The
problem is the
system is literally not seeing the device on most boots, yet

once

loaded, it runs perfectly for days and weeks.

According to the above referenced article, there are
approaches I might
try to resolve my problem without rebooting. And, it seems my

current

ordering config code could be updated, too.

Nevertheless, I offer my current code because it does
work to reliably
order my 5 sound devices. The always come up in the
order defined below.
My only issue is whether, or not card 0 has been found, else

the

remaining devices are shifted by 1--which doesn't help
my situation as I
need the headset to match my configured FreeSwitch
config, just as one
example.

<begin config file code>
alias snd-card-0 snd-hd-intel
options snd-card-0 index=0
options snd-hda-intel id=PCH index=0
alias snd-card-1 headset
options snd-card-1 index=1
options snd-usb-audio index=1 vid=0x1395 pid=0x3556
alias snd-card-2 cmedia
options snd-card-2 index=2
options snd-usb-audio index=2 vid=0x0d8c pid=0x000c
alias snd-card-3 ice
options snd-card-3 index=3
options snd-ice1724 index=3
alias snd-card-4 hdsp
options snd-card-4 index=4
options snd-hdsp index=4
<end config file code>

_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
GNOME Universal Access guide:
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org


_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
GNOME Universal Access guide:
https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org


_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/

gnome-help/stable/a11y.html

Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org


--

Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
                        sip:janina asterisk rednote net
                Email:  janina rednote net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures        http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

_______________________________________________
orca-list mailing list
orca-list gnome org
https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
Orca wiki: https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Orca
Orca documentation: https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/
GNOME Universal Access guide: https://help.gnome.org/users/
gnome-help/stable/a11y.html
Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org


-- 

Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
                        sip:janina asterisk rednote net
                Email:  janina rednote net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures        http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

Follow-Ups:
- Re: [orca-list] ALSA Card Ordering [Was: I hate pulse]
  - From: Fernando Botelho

References:
- Re: [orca-list] ALSA Card Ordering [Was: I hate pulse]
  - From: Janina Sajka
- Re: [orca-list] ALSA Card Ordering [Was: I hate pulse]
  - From: Peter Vágner

[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Thread Index] [Date Index] [Author Index]