Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Ashwin.Chandra]

 

Hello,

I am having an issue with my playback application where upon playback
start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
(either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound playback
resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
because mplayer or smplayer works fine.

 

I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[stan]

Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
>  
>
> Hello,
>
> I am having an issue with my playback application where upon playback
> start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound playback
> resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
>
>  
>
> I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
>
>  
>
> Any ideas?
>
>  
>
> Thanks!
>
>   
The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has 
been there for years.
You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
this is it.  Most people
just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Ashwin.Chandra]

I have an Intel ALC861VD. Other players (mplayer, smplayer, aplay) don't
seem to exhibit this problem. Is there any workaround I can do in my
application so that upon first time sound playback, I can get it to play
on both channels?

-----Original Message-----
From: stan [mailto:ghjeold_i_mwee@cox.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:25 AM
To: Ashwin Chandra
Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
speaker only

Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
>  
>
> Hello,
>
> I am having an issue with my playback application where upon playback
> start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound playback
> resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
>
>  
>
> I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
>
>  
>
> Any ideas?
>
>  
>
> Thanks!
>
>   
The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has

been there for years.
You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
this is it.  Most people
just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Takashi Iwai]

At Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:25:11 -0700,
stan wrote:
> 
> Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
> >  
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am having an issue with my playback application where upon playback
> > start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> > (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound playback
> > resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> > particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> > because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
> >
> >  
> >
> > I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
> >
> >  
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> >  
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >   
> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has 
> been there for years.
> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
> this is it.  Most people
> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.

Well, this is likely a different problem.  The case of envy24*
drivers, the problem is the initialization of the registers via
I2C/SPI.  But, in the case of HD-audio, this can't be the case.

I fixed a similar case with VIA HD-audio codecs by limiting the
supported PCM formats to 16.  The 24 bit format was buggy on them.
Possibly a similar situation.


Takashi

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Pavel Hofman]

>>>
>>>   
>> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has 
>> been there for years.
>> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
>> this is it.  Most people
>> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> 
> Well, this is likely a different problem.  The case of envy24*
> drivers, the problem is the initialization of the registers via
> I2C/SPI.  But, in the case of HD-audio, this can't be the case.
> 

Is this bug still in git alsa? I thought it was already fixed. Which 
cards does it afflict?

Thanks,

Pavel Hofman.

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Takashi Iwai]

At Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:38:49 +0200,
Pavel Hofman wrote:
> 
> >>>
> >>>   
> >> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has 
> >> been there for years.
> >> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
> >> this is it.  Most people
> >> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> > 
> > Well, this is likely a different problem.  The case of envy24*
> > drivers, the problem is the initialization of the registers via
> > I2C/SPI.  But, in the case of HD-audio, this can't be the case.
> > 
> 
> Is this bug still in git alsa? I thought it was already fixed. Which 
> cards does it afflict?

AFAIK, revo71 had this kind of problem, and I don't remember any fixes
about this.


Takashi

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Takashi Iwai]

At Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:52:16 +0800,
<Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> 
> I have an Intel ALC861VD. Other players (mplayer, smplayer, aplay) don't
> seem to exhibit this problem. Is there any workaround I can do in my
> application so that upon first time sound playback, I can get it to play
> on both channels?

Check /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/* files and compare between
working and non-working states.  I guess the working case uses OSS
emulation or 16bit format.

If so, try to add the following to ~/.asoundrc:

  defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE


Takashi

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stan [mailto:ghjeold_i_mwee@cox.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:25 AM
> To: Ashwin Chandra
> Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> speaker only
> 
> Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
> >  
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am having an issue with my playback application where upon playback
> > start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> > (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound playback
> > resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> > particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> > because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
> >
> >  
> >
> > I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
> >
> >  
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> >  
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >   
> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has
> 
> been there for years.
> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
> this is it.  Most people
> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> _______________________________________________
> Alsa-devel mailing list
> Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
> 

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[stan]

Pavel Hofman wrote:
>>>>   
>>>>         
>>> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and has 
>>> been there for years.
>>> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
>>> this is it.  Most people
>>> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
>>>       
>> Well, this is likely a different problem.  The case of envy24*
>> drivers, the problem is the initialization of the registers via
>> I2C/SPI.  But, in the case of HD-audio, this can't be the case.
>>
>>     
>
> Is this bug still in git alsa? I thought it was already fixed. Which 
> cards does it afflict?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Pavel Hofman.
>   

It is present for my Revolution 5.1 card.

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Ashwin.Chandra]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2495 bytes --]

Hi Takashi,
Thanks for your info. I took readouts of both modes and notice they are
both in 16LE format but mplayer/smplayer is using oss emulation. Is
there a way to try them with native Alsa? I have attached the dumps. Is
there anything I can do for this (besides switch to OSS)?

-----Original Message-----
From: Takashi Iwai [mailto:tiwai@suse.de] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:23 AM
To: Ashwin Chandra
Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
speaker only

At Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:52:16 +0800,
<Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> 
> I have an Intel ALC861VD. Other players (mplayer, smplayer, aplay)
don't
> seem to exhibit this problem. Is there any workaround I can do in my
> application so that upon first time sound playback, I can get it to
play
> on both channels?

Check /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/* files and compare between
working and non-working states.  I guess the working case uses OSS
emulation or 16bit format.

If so, try to add the following to ~/.asoundrc:

  defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE


Takashi

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stan [mailto:ghjeold_i_mwee@cox.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:25 AM
> To: Ashwin Chandra
> Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> speaker only
> 
> Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
> >  
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am having an issue with my playback application where upon
playback
> > start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> > (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound
playback
> > resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> > particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> > because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
> >
> >  
> >
> > I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
> >
> >  
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> >  
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >   
> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and
has
> 
> been there for years.
> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
> this is it.  Most people
> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> _______________________________________________
> Alsa-devel mailing list
> Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
> 

[-- Attachment #2: alsa.txt --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 744 bytes --]

access: MMAP_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 48000 (48000/1)
period_size: 1024
buffer_size: 16384
tick_time: 10000
card: 0
device: 0
subdevice: 0
stream: PLAYBACK
id: ALC861VD Analog
name: ALC861VD Analog
subname: subdevice #0
class: 0
subclass: 0
subdevices_count: 1
subdevices_avail: 0
64
1024
state: RUNNING
trigger_time: 1214417481.037381475
tstamp      : 1214417482.560390900
delay       : -73144
avail       : 89528
avail_max   : 89528
-----
hw_ptr      : 73144
appl_ptr    : 0
tstamp_mode: NONE
period_step: 1
sleep_min: 0
avail_min: 1024
xfer_align: 1024
start_threshold: 1
stop_threshold: 1073741824
silence_threshold: 0
silence_size: 1073741824
boundary: 1073741824

[-- Attachment #3: alsa-oss.txt --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 851 bytes --]

access: RW_INTERLEAVED
format: S16_LE
subformat: STD
channels: 2
rate: 44100 (44100/1)
period_size: 1024
buffer_size: 16384
tick_time: 10000
OSS format: S16_LE
OSS channels: 2
OSS rate: 44100
OSS period bytes: 4096
OSS periods: 16
OSS period frames: 1024
card: 0
device: 0
subdevice: 0
stream: PLAYBACK
id: ALC861VD Analog
name: ALC861VD Analog
subname: subdevice #0
class: 0
subclass: 0
subdevices_count: 1
subdevices_avail: 0
64
1024
state: RUNNING
trigger_time: 1214416493.704612942
tstamp      : 1214416498.550250502
delay       : 15648
avail       : 736
avail_max   : 17400
-----
hw_ptr      : 213728
appl_ptr    : 229376
tstamp_mode: NONE
period_step: 1
sleep_min: 0
avail_min: 1
xfer_align: 1
start_threshold: 1
stop_threshold: 16384
silence_threshold: 1040
silence_size: 1040
boundary: 1073741824

[-- Attachment #4: Type: text/plain, Size: 160 bytes --]

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Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Ashwin.Chandra]

Hi Takashi,
Some more findings: mplayer run in alsa native mode doesn't have the
issue. A dump of /proc/asound/.../sub0/* is identical in both my player
and mplayer-alsa mode, yet mine still suffers from left speaker issue.
Is there something I am not setting properly?


-----Original Message-----
From: Takashi Iwai [mailto:tiwai@suse.de] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:23 AM
To: Ashwin Chandra
Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
speaker only

At Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:52:16 +0800,
<Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> 
> I have an Intel ALC861VD. Other players (mplayer, smplayer, aplay)
don't
> seem to exhibit this problem. Is there any workaround I can do in my
> application so that upon first time sound playback, I can get it to
play
> on both channels?

Check /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/* files and compare between
working and non-working states.  I guess the working case uses OSS
emulation or 16bit format.

If so, try to add the following to ~/.asoundrc:

  defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE


Takashi

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stan [mailto:ghjeold_i_mwee@cox.net] 
> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:25 AM
> To: Ashwin Chandra
> Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> speaker only
> 
> Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
> >  
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am having an issue with my playback application where upon
playback
> > start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> > (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound
playback
> > resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> > particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> > because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
> >
> >  
> >
> > I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
> >
> >  
> >
> > Any ideas?
> >
> >  
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> >   
> The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and
has
> 
> been there for years.
> You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
> this is it.  Most people
> just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> _______________________________________________
> Alsa-devel mailing list
> Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
> 

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:28:42 +0800,
<Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Takashi,
> Actually now I am noticing the problem (left speaker only) with
> mplayer/smplayer in their OSS emulation as well. It seems to happen once
> I run my player first, then after that the other players exhibit the
> problem.

In this case, mplayer will choose the ALSA mode automatically, I
guess.  So the problem appears to be ALSA-mode specific, possibly
about dmix.

Try to define the following in ~/.asoundrc:
    pcm.!default "plughw"

then it won't use dmix as default any more.  (Then you can use only
one app at the same time, of course.)  Check whether the problem can
be reproduced with this setting.


Takashi


> Sometimes after muting and unmuting my player, the problem goes
> away and also away on the players. It is almost like my player is
> causing bad internal state for the audio driver. Do you have any
> suggestions to work around this?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Takashi Iwai [mailto:tiwai@suse.de] 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:23 AM
> To: Ashwin Chandra
> Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> speaker only
> 
> At Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:52:16 +0800,
> <Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> > 
> > I have an Intel ALC861VD. Other players (mplayer, smplayer, aplay)
> don't
> > seem to exhibit this problem. Is there any workaround I can do in my
> > application so that upon first time sound playback, I can get it to
> play
> > on both channels?
> 
> Check /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/* files and compare between
> working and non-working states.  I guess the working case uses OSS
> emulation or 16bit format.
> 
> If so, try to add the following to ~/.asoundrc:
> 
>   defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE
> 
> 
> Takashi
> 
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: stan [mailto:ghjeold_i_mwee@cox.net] 
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:25 AM
> > To: Ashwin Chandra
> > Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> > Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> > speaker only
> > 
> > Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
> > >  
> > >
> > > Hello,
> > >
> > > I am having an issue with my playback application where upon
> playback
> > > start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and unmute
> > > (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound
> playback
> > > resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> > > particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my issue
> > > because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
> > >
> > >  
> > >
> > > I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels), etc.
> > >
> > >  
> > >
> > > Any ideas?
> > >
> > >  
> > >
> > > Thanks!
> > >
> > >   
> > The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and
> has
> > 
> > been there for years.
> > You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess that 
> > this is it.  Most people
> > just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Alsa-devel mailing list
> > Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> > http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
> > 
> 

Re: Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left speaker only

[Takashi Iwai]

At Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:43:30 +0800,
<Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> I have found an issue with the mixer devices. I had been controlling
> only one elem, "LineOut", but there is another elem named "iSpeaker"
> which is the one that shows only left speaker active in alsamixer. I am
> not sure why I would need to control both of them. I would expect
> "Lineout" to be the master control. But anyway I can fix the problem in
> my application by un setting mute on the right channel at the beginning
> of the application.

Good to hear that you found out the culprit.

> Do you have any idea about this though? (or have seen this before)?

There have been similar bug reports, but your finding isn't unknown
(and thus important).

Could you run alsa-info.sh with --no-upload option for both working
and non-working cases, and attach the generated files?  The script is
found at
	http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh


thanks,

Takashi

> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Takashi Iwai [mailto:tiwai@suse.de] 
> Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 11:26 PM
> To: Ashwin Chandra
> Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> speaker only
> 
> At Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:28:42 +0800,
> <Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> > 
> > Hi Takashi,
> > Actually now I am noticing the problem (left speaker only) with
> > mplayer/smplayer in their OSS emulation as well. It seems to happen
> once
> > I run my player first, then after that the other players exhibit the
> > problem.
> 
> In this case, mplayer will choose the ALSA mode automatically, I
> guess.  So the problem appears to be ALSA-mode specific, possibly
> about dmix.
> 
> Try to define the following in ~/.asoundrc:
>     pcm.!default "plughw"
> 
> then it won't use dmix as default any more.  (Then you can use only
> one app at the same time, of course.)  Check whether the problem can
> be reproduced with this setting.
> 
> 
> Takashi
> 
> 
> > Sometimes after muting and unmuting my player, the problem goes
> > away and also away on the players. It is almost like my player is
> > causing bad internal state for the audio driver. Do you have any
> > suggestions to work around this?
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Takashi Iwai [mailto:tiwai@suse.de] 
> > Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:23 AM
> > To: Ashwin Chandra
> > Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> > Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> > speaker only
> > 
> > At Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:52:16 +0800,
> > <Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > I have an Intel ALC861VD. Other players (mplayer, smplayer, aplay)
> > don't
> > > seem to exhibit this problem. Is there any workaround I can do in my
> > > application so that upon first time sound playback, I can get it to
> > play
> > > on both channels?
> > 
> > Check /proc/asound/card0/pcm0p/sub0/* files and compare between
> > working and non-working states.  I guess the working case uses OSS
> > emulation or 16bit format.
> > 
> > If so, try to add the following to ~/.asoundrc:
> > 
> >   defaults.pcm.dmix.format S16_LE
> > 
> > 
> > Takashi
> > 
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: stan [mailto:ghjeold_i_mwee@cox.net] 
> > > Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:25 AM
> > > To: Ashwin Chandra
> > > Cc: alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> > > Subject: Re: [alsa-devel] Alsa Issue - Sound playback starts on left
> > > speaker only
> > > 
> > > Ashwin.Chandra@corel.com wrote:
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > > Hello,
> > > >
> > > > I am having an issue with my playback application where upon
> > playback
> > > > start, only the left speaker is outputted. But if I mute and
> unmute
> > > > (either through my application or using alsamixer), the sound
> > playback
> > > > resumes on both left and right speakers. This only happens on a
> > > > particular system too (out of 5 systems). But I know it is my
> issue
> > > > because mplayer or smplayer works fine.
> > > >
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > > I believe I am setting the correct HW params (ie. 2 channels),
> etc.
> > > >
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > > Any ideas?
> > > >
> > > >  
> > > >
> > > > Thanks!
> > > >
> > > >   
> > > The ICE1724 driver has exactly this behavior.  It is a known bug and
> > has
> > > 
> > > been there for years.
> > > You don't say what chip is having the problem, but I would guess
> that 
> > > this is it.  Most people
> > > just program a script to adjust the volume at startup to cure it.
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Alsa-devel mailing list
> > > Alsa-devel@alsa-project.org
> > > http://mailman.alsa-project.org/mailman/listinfo/alsa-devel
> > > 
> > 
>