Re: [gentoo-user] Skype now will only work with pulseaudio?

[Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com>]

On 22 June 2014 21:51, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 22/06/2014 18:53, Mick wrote:
>
> > Are you using PA and how would you suggest I go about installing and
> > configuring it (if I must) for minimal interference with my audio usage?
>
>
> Why don't you rather peg skype at the last version know to work with
> alsa, and mask everything newer?

I could do just that, but for how long?  Eventually, older version(s)
of skype could/would break and I will then be forced to upgrade.


> If it were me, I'd switch to PA because I wanted to, not because skype
> made me. And I don't think you'd be running any additional security risk
> - skype is rather likely to be riddled with bugs that never get fixed
> anyway...
>
> OK, my cynic side is showing, but you get the drift

I've switched to PA and I'm now rebuilding umpteen packages inc.
firefox and chromium!  O_o

The switch was mostly successful, except for:

After a reboot all worked fine and the pulseaudio migration appeared
to be uneventful.  The morning after things went sideways.  The HDMI
sound device was selected as the default audio and not analogue sound
was available.  For some reason the default beep was loud enough to
wake up the neighbours!  PCM, headphones and other controls had
disappeared and some new monitor-* controls were available.

This was fixed by adding:

load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0
load-module module-alsa-source device=hw:1,0

in /etc/pulse/default.pa

I have not yet tried the microphone in Skype to see if the above combo
is correct.  This is what aplay and arecord show:
============================================================
$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: 92HD73C1X5 Analog [92HD73C1X5 Analog]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 0: 92HD73C1X5 Analog [92HD73C1X5 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: MID [HDA Intel MID], device 2: 92HD73C1X5 Alt Analog
[92HD73C1X5 Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

$ aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
pulse
    PulseAudio Sound Server
default:CARD=MID
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=MID
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=MID,DEV=0
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    Front speakers
surround40:CARD=MID,DEV=0
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=MID,DEV=0
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=MID,DEV=0
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=MID,DEV=0
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=MID,DEV=0
    HDA Intel MID, 92HD73C1X5 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output
============================================================

The other thing that puzzled me was that the second jack for the
headphones is muted every time I re/start an application and the
volume setting is zeroed - e.g.

I start mplayer - no sound.
I unmute the second headphone jack and raise the volume setting - sound is back.
I stop and then start again mplayer - no sound.
I unmute the second headphone jack - sound is back.

and so on.  I cannot understand why the second jack is muted.  The
first jack stays unmuted in each case.
-- 
Regards,
Mick