I think I need a sound/ALSA guru. (Followup stupid questions)

[William Case]

Hi;

Now that I have gotten rid of the background distortions, I could leave
my sound problems well enough alone.  But some things are still not
working properly.  I think these things could be part of the mix of
sound problems for other people, so I would like to push on with help
from others.  Some are indubitably my own stupidity.

Following is a list of things I don't understand or are am not sure of:

1)  If there is a separate mixer for my TV, is it in ATI TV card, my
bttv driver or the tvtime configuration?  If it is a tvtime problem,
what should I be looking for in their archive site?  I have looked and
can't find anything helpful.  Should I file a bug with them? If so, what
should I report?

2)  When I change the tvtime.xml configuration file to 'pcm' my TV tuner
still uses line-in (i.e. turns it on in my gnome volume control and
alsamixer) but turns 'pcm' off when turning the TV off.  Why?  This
isn't how it is supposed to work.  tvtime help says it comes with 'line'
as default but can be changed to 'pcm' and will only revert to 'line' if
it can't find the sound card.

3)  Why does audacity work like it is supposed when I am logged in as
root (su or sudo) and not as user?  How and what permissions do I change
so that the user can use it without sudoing etc.?  This question feels
so stupid - a simple permissions problem, yet for some reason nothing I
try seems to work.

4) Why do my CDs play even though CD is muted in alsamixer and/or volume
control?

5)  Haven't dared to try internet radio yet.  How can I tell if I am
having soundcard problems or my own startup problems?

6) Why isn't the Gnome Multimedia Systems Selector
(gstreamer-properties) working?  Default ALSA sink works as alsasink:
get little dialogue gui with moving slider that gives a high pitched,
clear sound. OK button turns it off.  However, the default source
doesn't work.  I get the little gui but there is no sound.  Should there
be sound? If it is set to ALSA, alsasrc slider slides, no sound, OK
button freezes everything, exit gets error message

'The window "Testing Pipeline" is not responding.

Forcing this application to quit will cause you to lose any unsaved
changes.'

osssrc and esdmon return silence.

If I try gstreamer-properties as root account (not su or sudo),  I get
no response.  What I find interesting is that gstreamer-properties, it
seems to me, should be a root controlled utility or gui, but its not.  I
get different responses as user than as root.  Why? 


7) When I use gdmflexiserver to login as another user, I get a "No
volume control elements and/or devices found."  I realize that
gdmflexiserver is a nested loging, but is there a way to change the
sound controls to the new user?  I tried using the gdmflexiserver
--enablesound command but no joy.

Regards Bill



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