[alsa-devel] Audinst HUD-mx2 covertly muting itself

[Tobias Klausmann]

Hi! 

On Thu, 31 Oct 2013, Clemens Ladisch wrote:
> Tobias Klausmann wrote:
> > I have gotten a temporary workaround: use the secondary PCM
> > device (hw:0,1) instead of the primary (hw:0,0)
> 
> Oops, I didn't notice that there are two devices.
> 
> The first PCM device is only for Dolby-encoded data, so muting the
> analog output would be correct.
> 
> > Maybe something along the lines of PCI device "quirks" would be
> > the right thing to do? I.e. swapping the two PCM devices from
> > ALSA's point of view.
> 
> The driver should never make the non-PCM device the first one.

My concern is just that I have found at least 5 different forum,
blog and mailing list posts where people were unable to diagnose
this or fix it. There was exactly one thread that shed light:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.alsa.devel/109855

The fix (using hw:0,1 as default) is not obvious to the average
person and sort-of forcing them to dig around the internet and
happen upon that thread strikes me as not exactly user friendly.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that the way things are has
mostly to do with the myriad of ways in which USB audio devices
are built. But making it easy/easier for user to get them working
properly "out of the box" seems worthwile.

Regards,
Tobias