Re: audio restore functionaility
Quoting Lisi Reisz (lisi.reisz@gmail.com):
> On Monday 20 July 2015 17:13:48 Brian wrote:
> > On Mon 20 Jul 2015 at 10:53:33 -0400, Gary Dale wrote:
> > > On 20/07/15 10:20 AM, William Hadfield-Burkardt wrote:
> > > >I'm new to Debian.
> > > >
> > > >Someone else configured the system for me. It was running o.k.
> > > >
> > > >Then I downloaded and installed (using the synaptic package
> > > >manager) a speech recognition software (pocketsphinx). I removed
> > > >it without ever having used it.
> > > >
> > > >Now the audio does not work. Neither in the browser (iceweasel)
> > > >nor with VLC media player.
> > > >
> > > >Is there a straight-forward "restore" function for the relevant
> > > > software?
> > > >
> > > >William
> > >
> > > Yes. You can switch to root, purge then reinstall the sound package
> > > (pulseaudio). However, I'd first recommend making sure the output
> > > volume wasn't simply turned down.
> > >
> > > If it wasn't, I'd then suspect that pocketsphinx didn't restore the
> > > old settings when you removed it. Try running LC_ALL=C.
> >
> > The solution to every audio problem is not purging pulseaudio. Have you
> > looked at the software in question? It depends on libc6 and three
> > libraries. Installing the package doesn't alter anything as there are
> > no maintainer scripts run. Purging it does not mute previosly unmuted
> > channels (as shown by alsamixer).
> >
> > Installing pocketsphinx and now having non-working audio are unrelated.
>
> It is possible, is it not, that pocketshinx mutes something by default and
> hasn't unmuted it?
I haven't come to grips with sound on jessie yet, so an earlier thread
this month (State of Linux Audio) is awaiting scrutiny sometime.
I think you'd have to reboot (with pocketsphinx) and then have some
obscure interaction between the various packages to get that effect.
For example, I've never worked out what booting wheezy means by
"Saved ALSA mixer settings detected; aumix will not touch mixer."
But I do think something is being over-zealous at muting things.
As an example, I have an aumix panel when running X (because it's
small, and only requires the leftmost third to be peeping in from the
right side). If I try to reduce the Volume to a low setting but
accidently touch zero on the way, the Pcm control immediately zeroes
itself and stays there.
If I bring out the big guns (pavucontrol, which takes up one-third of
my 1280x800 screen) I can see what's happening. As the Volume(aumix)
touches zero, pavucontrol mutes the audio. As I drag the Volume(aumix)
back up, pavucontrol shows the volume increasing (a little) but still
muted. I can't drag the Volume(pavucontrol) at all+.
So to regain sound, I have to either demute pavucontrol (if I'm
displaying it) or, with aumix, turn Pcm close to 100% and then adjust
Volume (more carefully).
That's just one example of how easy it is to unintentionally mute the
audio.
Cheers,
David.
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