[gentoo-user] Poor sound quality

[gentoo-user] Poor sound quality

[Chris Stankevitz]

Hello,

My sound started sounding like crap ~6 months ago.  Imagine someone
has control of my volume knob and is quickly (~5Hz) turning the volume
knob up and down.  That is a rough idea of what it sounds like.

This happens whether I am listening a beautiful song or whether I'm
listening to 'white noise'.  Happens with my laptop speakers or with
headphones.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what is wrong?  FYI I'm using a Dell
M6600 with the same amd64 gentoo install for ~2 years.

Thank you,

Chris

Re: [gentoo-user] Poor sound quality

[Neil Bothwick]

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On Sun, 2 Jun 2013 21:34:21 -0700, Chris Stankevitz wrote:

> My sound started sounding like crap ~6 months ago.  Imagine someone
> has control of my volume knob and is quickly (~5Hz) turning the volume
> knob up and down.  That is a rough idea of what it sounds like.
> 
> This happens whether I am listening a beautiful song or whether I'm
> listening to 'white noise'.  Happens with my laptop speakers or with
> headphones.
> 
> Can anyone hazard a guess as to what is wrong?  FYI I'm using a Dell
> M6600 with the same amd64 gentoo install for ~2 years.

Eliminate hardware failure as a cause by trying it from a live CD.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

This man is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot

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[gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[James]

Neil Bothwick <neil <at> digimed.co.uk> writes:



> > My sound started sounding like crap ~6 months ago.  

> Eliminate hardware failure as a cause by trying it from a live CD.

Agreed. Try first to use other components.

Also, if your wiring is a mess, try to separate wires that
carry power, from those that primarily carry signals.

GROUNDING is often a source of problems. It could be
a pseudo charging/discharging  from a failing component,
like a  small ampliflier. It could be the build up
of capacitance (evicenced by volume variations) followed
by a discharge of the built up capacitance. Hard to say.

So swap out components as practical, move wires around,
check for intermittant brokend cables and check groundings.

Sometimes the plug in transformer used to power external speackers
does not have a ground wire (avoiding loop currents). Moving
those modules to a different circuit in your home/office
might help.

Good luck, Good Hunting!

hth,
James

Re: [gentoo-user] Poor sound quality

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Jun 02, 2013 at 09:34:21PM -0700, Chris Stankevitz wrote
> Hello,
> 
> My sound started sounding like crap ~6 months ago.  Imagine someone
> has control of my volume knob and is quickly (~5Hz) turning the volume
> knob up and down.  That is a rough idea of what it sounds like.
> 
> This happens whether I am listening a beautiful song or whether I'm
> listening to 'white noise'.  Happens with my laptop speakers or with
> headphones.
> 
> Can anyone hazard a guess as to what is wrong?  FYI I'm using a Dell
> M6600 with the same amd64 gentoo install for ~2 years.

  At the risk of starting a flamewar, did you recently install a "sound
server" (e.g. pulseaudio/phonon/whatever)?  Can you temporarily disable
it and see how the sound comes out?

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications

Re: [gentoo-user] Poor sound quality

[Chris Stankevitz]

On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 12:52 AM, Neil Bothwick <neil@digimed.co.uk> wrote:
> Eliminate hardware failure as a cause by trying it from a live CD.


Neil,

Thank you.  I tried with a xubuntu 12.04 64bit live cd.  There was no
problem.  I conclude that there is no problem with my hardware.  I
also conclude that there is a problem with my gentoo setup.

So...

Can anyone help me figure out why my Gentoo crapped up my sound ~6 months ago?

Thank you,

Chris

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Chris Stankevitz]

On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 10:28 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> Good luck, Good Hunting!


James,

Thank you for your tips.  I tried to reproduce the problem on the same
hardware using a different OS (xubuntu 12.04).  The problem did not
occur on the different OS.  Therefore I rule out hardware problems.
Do you have any gentoo-specific suggestions as to the source that I
can try?

Thank you,

Chris

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

Am 03.06.2013 22:51, schrieb Chris Stankevitz:
> On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 10:28 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>> Good luck, Good Hunting!
>
> James,
>
> Thank you for your tips.  I tried to reproduce the problem on the same
> hardware using a different OS (xubuntu 12.04).  The problem did not
> occur on the different OS.  Therefore I rule out hardware problems.
> Do you have any gentoo-specific suggestions as to the source that I
> can try?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Chris
>
>

less /var/log/emerge.log

have fun.

Re: [gentoo-user] Poor sound quality

[Chris Stankevitz]

On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 1:07 PM, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
>   At the risk of starting a flamewar, did you recently install a "sound
> server" (e.g. pulseaudio/phonon/whatever)?  Can you temporarily disable
> it and see how the sound comes out?

Walter,

Thank you for your tip.  This is the sort of thinking that will
ultimately lead to a solution.

I installed audio a couple years ago when setting up Gentoo on this
machine for the first. time.  I followed the handbook.  Since that day
I never again looked at my sound card setup.  I do not know what is a
"sound server" and I certainly never installed one (unless part of the
install handbook has me install one).

Assuming for a moment that I did install a "sound server" and that I
want to disable it in order to perform your test, 1) How do I
determine which sound servers, if any, are installed?  2) How do I
disable them?

FYI it appears I have phonon installed but not pulseaudio:

*  media-sound/pulseaudio
      Latest version available: 2.1-r1
      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]

*  media-libs/phonon
      Latest version available: 4.6.0-r1
      Latest version installed: 4.6.0-r1

Thank you,

Chris

[gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 03/06/13 07:34, Chris Stankevitz wrote:
> Hello,
>
> My sound started sounding like crap ~6 months ago.  Imagine someone
> has control of my volume knob and is quickly (~5Hz) turning the volume
> knob up and down.  That is a rough idea of what it sounds like.

Are you using a self-configured kernel?  What sound chip is in your 
laptop?  What driver are you using?  If it's an Intel codec, have you 
tried enabling all different variants of that codec in the kernel?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Chris Stankevitz]

On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@gmail.com> wrote:
> Are you using a self-configured kernel?  What sound chip is in your laptop?
> What driver are you using?  If it's an Intel codec, have you tried enabling
> all different variants of that codec in the kernel?

Nikos,

Thank you for your help.

1. I am using a self-configured kernel (I have been doing this since I
installed Gentoo two years ago)

2. My sound card is an Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset
Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)

3. I am using the driver CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL

4. I have not tried enabling all intel codec in the kernel, but I will.

===

While gathering the answers to your questions, I discovered something
interesting:

5. /etc/init.d/alsasound was not running

6. Eventhough /etc/init.d/alsasound was not running, I am getting
audio (just crappy audio)

7. Eventhough /etc/init.d/alsasound is listed as an rc-update boot
service, it still wasn't running

8. While /etc/init.d/alsasound was not running, alsamixer still works

9. If I execute "/etc/init.d/alsasound start", alsasound will start.
Sound quality improves but still has low quality.

Can anyone explain 6, 7, or 8?

Thank you,

Chris

[gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Nikos Chantziaras]

On 04/06/13 01:47, Chris Stankevitz wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Are you using a self-configured kernel?  What sound chip is in your laptop?
>> What driver are you using?  If it's an Intel codec, have you tried enabling
>> all different variants of that codec in the kernel?
>
>[...]
> 3. I am using the driver CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL

OK, that one is the generic driver.  You most probably need to also 
enable the specific codec driver for your chip (not all "Intel HD" chips 
are the same.)

The way I figured out which one to enable was to boot Ubuntu from a CD 
and then examine the output of "lsmod".  There I found which codec 
driver it uses.  I then enabled that driver in my kernel.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Dale]

Chris Stankevitz wrote:
> Nikos, Thank you for your help. 1. I am using a self-configured kernel
> (I have been doing this since I installed Gentoo two years ago) 2. My
> sound card is an Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family
> High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04) 3. I am using the driver
> CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL 4. I have not tried enabling all intel codec in
> the kernel, but I will. === While gathering the answers to your
> questions, I discovered something interesting: 5.
> /etc/init.d/alsasound was not running 6. Eventhough
> /etc/init.d/alsasound was not running, I am getting audio (just crappy
> audio) 7. Eventhough /etc/init.d/alsasound is listed as an rc-update
> boot service, it still wasn't running 8. While /etc/init.d/alsasound
> was not running, alsamixer still works 9. If I execute
> "/etc/init.d/alsasound start", alsasound will start. Sound quality
> improves but still has low quality. Can anyone explain 6, 7, or 8?
> Thank you, Chris 

A sound driver in the boot run level?  I'd change that to default unless
you have a real need for it in boot. 

Dale

:-)  :-) 

-- 
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or how you interpreted my words!

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Mick]

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On Tuesday 04 Jun 2013 00:46:52 Nikos Chantziaras wrote:
> On 04/06/13 01:47, Chris Stankevitz wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 2:21 PM, Nikos Chantziaras <realnc@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> >> Are you using a self-configured kernel?  What sound chip is in your
> >> laptop? What driver are you using?  If it's an Intel codec, have you
> >> tried enabling all different variants of that codec in the kernel?
> >
> >[...]
> >
> > 3. I am using the driver CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL
> 
> OK, that one is the generic driver.  You most probably need to also
> enable the specific codec driver for your chip (not all "Intel HD" chips
> are the same.)
> 
> The way I figured out which one to enable was to boot Ubuntu from a CD
> and then examine the output of "lsmod".  There I found which codec
> driver it uses.  I then enabled that driver in my kernel.

Only to add that you should also have a quick read at the kernel documentation 
for alsa/HD-Audio*.txt, where you'll see recommendations like "try to pass 
`enable_msi=0` option to disable MSI", as well as other configuration options 
for your particular driver and codec.

-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Poor sound quality

[Fast Turtle]

On Mon, 3 Jun 2013 13:51:37 -0700
Chris Stankevitz <chrisstankevitz@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 10:28 AM, James <wireless@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
> > Good luck, Good Hunting!
> 
> 
> James,
> 
> Thank you for your tips.  I tried to reproduce the problem on the same
> hardware using a different OS (xubuntu 12.04).  The problem did not
> occur on the different OS.  Therefore I rule out hardware problems.
> Do you have any gentoo-specific suggestions as to the source that I
> can try?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Chris
> 
You did say phonon was installed. If so, I'd run qdepends all phonon to see what it depends on and what depends on it - should help you figure this out. 

qdepends and a number of other helpful scripts are part of the portage-utils - very useful