This didn't appear to make it through to the list when I tried a few days ago to send it, so I'll try again. ---

It's been about 7 months since I last brought this up, and didn't really get any success at the time, so I thought I'd check and see if anybody has any insights again.

About a year ago I posted my original request here for any suggestions in getting a set of USB speakers from Altec Lansing, model# FX5051, working with ALSA. They're a set of 5.1 speakers with a built in USB sound card. Sound does appear to work, but the mixer is locked at 100%. There is no analog manual mixer, and the digital control dial exhibits the same problem as alsamixer, so I have to find a way to adjust the usb device's mixer volume in order to make the speakers usable.

The speakers work fine in Windows XP, without installing any drivers, so it would seem that this device is operating based on some standard.

In windows, adjusting the mixer via the digital control dial, or via the windows mixer control both result in the LED display moving in sync to indicate the new volume setting.

In alsa, adjusting the digital control dial doesn't appear to have any effect, other then waking the LED display from its low-light mode. Attempting to adjust volume from alsamixer likewise wakes the display from low-light mode, but also fails to significantly change the mixer setting. When I say significantly, I mean that the mixer flips between about 98% and 100%, when using the Up/Down keys (or PgUp or PgDown). End appears to drop the volume to 0%, but Home doesn't restore it.

Pressing the device's 'Power' button also behaves strangely. I can turn the device off, but it is turned back on shortly afterward. No usb connect/disconnect events appear here, instead, the power button seems to function more like a mute.

amixer -c 2 contents yields:

atrus@kedri:~$ amixer -c 2 contents numid=3,iface=MIXER,name='Tone Control - Bass' ; type=INTEGER,access=rw------,values=1,min=0,max=10,step=0 : values=1 numid=4,iface=MIXER,name='Tone Control - Treble' ; type=INTEGER,access=rw------,values=1,min=0,max=10,step=0 : values=3 numid=1,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Switch' ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw------,values=1 : values=on numid=2,iface=MIXER,name='PCM Playback Volume' ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---R--,values=2,min=0,max=49,step=0 : values=48,48 | dBscale-min=-49.00dB,step=1.00dB,mute=0

I'm attaching the contents of 'lsusb -v'.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, and any requests for further information about this device will be accomodated ASAP.

Thanks in advance.

-- Jeremy Nickurak