I Hate the Debian Mailing List!!!!

["Jason Zaphyr" <storm3@twlakes.net>]

I can't get one single email to come through, so I might get help.  I have 
been trying for days now.  There is no reason for this, I am not spamming or 
anything, and really need help with my network card setup, since version 
40r1 will NOT setup dhcp, or allow me to manually configure it, since 
something is not running, or completely trashed in this release.  Any ideas 
on how to fix this version, or what other version to grab, before I say to 
hell with it, and go back to Slackware or Gentoo ???

Thanks for any help if this finally gets through, although I doubt it!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barry Samuels" <barry@realbritain.f2s.com>
To: "Debian" <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:53 AM
Subject: I hate Alsa


Debian Testing up to date as of yesterday.
Kernel 2.6.22
Sound from on-board Intel (snd_hda_intel)
Kmix as the mixer

When I used OSS I had no audio problems at all - everything (playback
and recording) just worked but since I went over to Alsa (about a year
ago) I've had trouble getting recording to work.

Normally I find that playback gives no problems and I did for a short
period get playback and recording working properly then after a Debian
upgrade the recording stopped working properly again.

If I try to record (arecord) using a microphone I cannot move the
recording volume slider above 70% otherwise I start getting extremely
distorted sound on playback (aplay) and although the recording volume
is adequate there is a loud background hum. If I reduce the recording
volume to about 60% the loud hum changes to a noticeable hiss but the
recorded voice is too low.

I have to use the 'Digital' slider on the Kmix input tab to control
microphone volume - none of the other sliders seem to do anything. I
also have to have the first capture slider on (un-muted) to get any
sound at all but it makes no difference whether that slider is at the
bottom or not - it does not affect the volume.

I also have a record deck with a USB connection which I last used under
OSS. The setup was working then and, as I remember, it was pretty
straightforward to set up. Since that time there have been many
Debian updates and I'm almost certainly using a later kernel and I'm
now using Alsa.

When I came to use it this time in conjunction with Audacity, which I
was using last time, I can't get a peep out of it.

I have tried various inputs without success. The appropriate modules
are loaded including snd_usb_audio.

When the USB lead is plugged in I get this in the logs:

kernel: usb 1-7.1: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address
6
kernel: usb 1-7.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
kernel: input: Burr-Brown from TI
USB Audio CODEC  as /class/input/input4
kernel: input: USB HID v1.00 Device [Burr-Brown from TI
USB Audio CODEC ] on usb-0000:00:1d.7-7.1
kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver snd-usb-audio

a little further on in the log I see:

kernel: cannot submit datapipe for urb 0, error -28: not enough
bandwidth

Originally I got this in the log:

kernel: cannot submit datapipe for urb 0, error -38: enable
CONFIG_USB_EHCI_SPLIT_ISO to play through a hub

so I enabled that in the kernel and recompiled although I'm not using a
USB hub and then got the 'not enough bandwidth' error.

As you may have gathered I'm beginning to take a dislike to Alsa.

Can anyone suggest some fault tracing procedures please?

--
Barry Samuels
http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk
The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain