Q4OS Forum

JimW

Member

Registered: 2015-12-08

Posts: 400

Strange sound issues (minor)

When I turn on my computer, boot up Q4OS and go to YouTube, my sound is a bit low. This is with kmix set to 100% and the YouTube volume to 100%.
Now the strangeness!
If I open VLC and crank up the volume to 150% - 200%, using the scroll wheel, I can then shut down VLC and go back to the YouTube video where I have excellent volume! Many times I have to lower the volume in either kmix or YouTube after doing the setup in VLC.
Why does VLC affect the system volume?
Is there something I'm missing on the volume?

Like I said, this is minor, just something that I've been experiencing and wondering about for a while.

Severus

Member

Registered: 2020-05-27

Posts: 27

Re: Strange sound issues (minor)

This should be relatively easy to fix.  First you must purge all sound modules (anything alsa, pulse, oss, and any other possible "linux sound server").  This will give you a clean start.  Now you must install, all sound related firmware, including intel-sound, free, non-free etc.  Now you must install alsa-utils.  This gives you access to terminal alsamixer.  A restart must be performed before everything will work.  PulseAudio is a sound server, without it only 1 source of sound can be played i.e., a web page.  But a sound server adds another layer of complexity and latency which is code for reduces sound quality and opens the doors for problems.  So I wouldn't install a sound server, instead I would just use alsamixer in terminal.  Also, create asound.conf in /etc/ with the following:

# Use PulseAudio plugin hw

pcm.!default {
   type plug
   slave.pcm hw
}

That will give you the best sound possible on linux.
Keep in mind that sound drivers are part of the linux kernel, so if the above doesn't achieve the results you are looking for, then there is a problem vis-a-vis your kernel and soundcard, and you'll have to start experimenting with kernel series i.e ., 4.19, 5.4... Maintained kernel series are listed at kernel.org

One more things, if all fails try Ubuntu 20.04, open synaptic and install all kernel modules.  Ubuntu has better proprietary driver support that Debian can't compete with.  Debian lovers may tell you otherwise, but I assure you they are mistaking.

Regards,

Last edited by Severus (2020-05-30 16:49)