KDE 3.4.0-pre: sound popping issue: kluge, solution?
Hi all,
I just upgraded my unstable to KDE 3.4 from KDE 3.3.2 using the packages
on alioth. I'm running with the Debian sid kernel 2.6.8-2-686, and I
have an onboard Intel i810 soundcard. I'm using the ALSA drivers.
Before the upgrade, all sounds played. Following the upgrade, .mp3 and
.ogg files (including the KDE system notification sounds) have a very
annoying popping noise in the background. It appears to me that .wav
files play correctly.
I have set the artswrapper to suid root, and I have akode installed.
Eventually, I found that if I lowered the aRts master volume in
|artscontrol| to below -24dB, the crackling noise would go away.
Unfortunately, I don't know of any way to save the settings from
|artscontrol| between logouts, and there seems to be no equivalent
setting for the aRts master volume in |kcontrol|. A narrowed down Google
search helped me find the second solution buried here
(http://64.179.4.149/questions/history/224766). That is, if you lower
the PCM control below 50% with |kmix|, the crackling seems to go away,
and those settings can be saved between logins. The first solution,
however, seems to be preferred, because some music players apparently
use the PCM control as a volume control, which means that the problem
could return if I use one of those and set the volume above 50%.
Is there any way to automatically save and restore the aRts master
volume control? If so, unless I'm missing a doc source, it doesn't seem
obvious from either the documentation or the results of a Google search.
Thanks in advance,
Efraim Feinstein
efdf AT comcast.net
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