Initial volume settings - please test! (Re: Release8 reportinstallation)

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 11:31:36AM -0700, Matt Zimmerman wrote:

> Unfortunately, I don't think this is trivial enough to get it right for the
> preview release.  A scriptlet like this works for me:
> 
> for control in "PCM" "Synth" "Master"; do
>     amixer -q set "$control" "$volume_level%" unmute
> done
> 
> but my understanding is that the control names vary from one sound card to
> the next, as well as which ones need to be set in order to get sound, and I
> don't know whether this does the right thing for multiple sound cards.

OK, I've tested this on a few machines:

- ThinkPad T42, onboard intel8x0 sound and built-in speakers
- GigaByte motherboard with onboard via82xx sound and external amplified
  speakers
- amd64 board with onboard intel8x0 sound and external amplified speakers
  (same ones)
- Macintosh G4 desktop

It does the right thing on all of them except the Mac, which doesn't seem to
produce any sound from the built-in speaker until the volume level is close
to 100%.  For the others, it gives a reasonable volume level which lets me
know that sound is working and invites me to adjust it if needed.

At least it's a start.  I am considering adding this code to the alsa-base
init script so that if there are no saved settings, it initializes the
volume to this preset level.  I would appreciate if everyone would test it
out and let me know if the results are useful.  To test:

1. Log out (otherwise the mixer applet's use of the device will cause the
next step to fail)

2. Switch to a text console, and unload the driver for your sound device:

# lsmod | grep '^snd'
# rmmod snd-intel8x0 # or snd-via82xx, or snd-emu10k1, etc.
# modprobe snd-intel8x0 # or snd-via82xx, or snd-emu10k1, etc.

3. Run the script:

# sh unmute

4. Log back in, do something that makes noise.  e.g., from a terminal
window:

$ aplay /usr/share/sounds/gaim/arrive.wav

Tell me if you hear a sound or not.  If you don't, adjust the mixer levels
until you do, and make notes about what you did.  Either way, send your
findings to the list.

Thanks!

-- 
 - mdz
-------------- next part --------------
#!/bin/sh

volume_level=70

for control in "PCM" "Synth" "Master"; do
    amixer -q set "$control" "$volume_level%" unmute 2>/dev/null
done