> hy there, > > i'm having a 12" g4 1ghz powerbook here with debian 3.1 installed > (selfmade 2.6.12 kernel). unfortunately there seems to be a problem with > the sound. no matter if i am in gnome or on the console (system)sounds > are first at normal volume and then very quite. it is a bit difficult to > explain - especially because i am not a native english speaker - so i > make an example: > > - on gnome i have activated the sound-server and all sound events > - of course also the volume is set to 100% at the gnome volume applet > - when i now open a terminal and press p.ex. 5 times the backspace > button the first sound issued by the speakers is at the volume level i > expect and the latter 4 are so quiet that i nearly cannot hear them > - if i now wait p.ex. 5 seconds and repeat this, again the first sound > is loud and the others are quiet again > - the same problem occurs also with other sounds (like when playing dvds > etc) > - in the kernel config i have activated CONFIG_SOUND=m, > CONFIG_DMASOUND_PMAC=m and CONFIG_DMASOUND=m as well as > CONFIG_SND_POWERMAC=m > > has anybody a hint on how to track this problem down and what might be > the reason of it? > > thanks and greetings > > michael
Beeing a Powerbook user myself too I recognized the problem very well. Actually, the topic was beeing discussed in Februar starting with http://lists.debian.org/debian-powerpc/2005/02/msg00714.html but the information is a little scattered there, so here it is once again in a slightly differend form. amixer is a programme which belongs to the alsa-utils package. Executing the command `amixer contents | grep -A 2 DRC' gave by me the following output: numid=8,iface=MIXER,name='DRC Range' ; type=INTEGER,access=rw---,values=1,min=0,max=239,step=0 : values=0 numid=12,iface=MIXER,name='DRC Switch' ; type=BOOLEAN,access=rw---,values=1 : values=on That means the dynamic volume range control is switched on and it tries to keep the volume down. Simply switching off the silly thing solves the problem. If the `numid' value is like above $ amixer cset numid=12 off is everything that is needed. If the settings are gone next time you boot, make the settings you prefer permanent by giving the command # alsactl store which writes the current settings in the file /var/lib/alsa/asound.state. Running dpkg-reconfigure and choosing `autosave' is an alternative which should behave a bit differently, as the word suggests. I suppose not very many people are happy with these defaults. I wonder where they might come from? Best regards Panu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
