[alsa-devel] What does 0dB refer to? (Logitech USB Speakers)

[Aldrin Martoq]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2008 at 7:43 PM, Lennart Poettering <mznyfn at 0pointer.de> wrote:
> On Mon, 14.04.08 18:08, Aldrin Martoq (amartoq at dcc.uchile.cl) wrote:
>  > Lennart: while I definitely agree on what you try to achieve, I
>  > strongly disagree the way it's being solved.
>  Uh? Nothing is solved. We have this discussion on this ML because it
>  needs to be solved.

Yup, I know it's *being* solved.

>  > Initial volume setup is an *installation* issue, not a *boot or daemon
>  > startup* issue. When you buy a notebook with linux pre-installed, it's
>  > the manufacturer who must make sure the notebook has the appropiate
>  > volume levels, factory default. When you install Fedora, it's the
>  > fedora install program who must make sure the appropiate volume
>  > levels. Both ways, when the user starts its new shiny linux, it just
>  > works.
>  It's not installation issue. It's a "seeing for the first time"
>  issue. For hotplug devices this might be much later than on installation.

Hotplug devices should start muted (read below).

>  In one of the first emails of this thread I already explained that I'd
>  like to see a new command for alsactl called "reset" or suchlike which
>  implements the logic to initialize the dB scales properly. We'd then
>  call this program from the udev rules if "alsactl restore" fails
>  because the device was unknown before and has no configuration file
>  yet.
>  Right now we have this really awful program in Fedora called "salsa"
>  and "alsaunmute" which implements this logic, but is really really bad
>  in doing so, because it just initializes everything to 70% for unknown
>  devices. Also, while it is able to restore the volume settings, it is
>  not capable to save them on hot-unplug. Which makes the whole thing
>  pretty pointless.
>  But anyway, isn't this exactly what you are looking for? I am not sure
>  what you are asking for more than this?

No, I am not asking for a solution. Mi distro (ubuntu 7.10) remembers
the state of my (hotplug pc-card) soundblaster audigy2 notebook, so
actually this is not a problem for me.You may check how the
"alsa-utils" package handles hotplug through udev.


What I am suggesting is that the way to handle initial volume is
wrong, it must not be done in PA or other daemon:
1. Initial volume must be configured at install time. Maybe the
manufacturer or the install procedure of your distro.
2. After that, the computer must remember the last change.
3. If I plug a new card, it must start muted unless i want to change that.
4. If I plug the card again, it should remember my last settings.

This is (mostly) how it works here, and it works fine.