Bug 98879

Summary:	Fallback device changes and makes xfce panel volume control stop working
Product:	PulseAudio	Reporter:	trondsg+bugzilla+freedesktop
Component:	core	Assignee:	pulseaudio-bugs
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE	QA Contact:	pulseaudio-bugs
Severity:	normal
Priority:	medium	CC:	lennart
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	Other
OS:	All
Whiteboard:
i915 platform:		i915 features:

Description trondsg+bugzilla+freedesktop 2016-11-27 20:58:12 UTC

The device routing behaviour of PulseAudio is very user-unfriendly. Here is a particular annoyance that I can't find any good reason for:

Insert USB audio device (Alesis Core 1). Analog audio is still set as fallback device, so that the xfce panel volume control (in the indicator applet) doesn't work (because sound comes out of Core 1). This is annoying, but it's not necessarily clear cut how it should work.

Go into pa volume control and DESELECT Analog audio as fallback device by clicking on the green button next to it. Now you have no fallback device.

Select Core 1 as fallback device by clickin on the green button next to it. The volume control now affects Core 1.

(Because USB audio keeps malfunctioning, the Core 1 needs to be plugged in and out a lot.) Pull the Core 1 out using the USB cable. Plug it back in. What's the fallback device now? Analog output! This makes no sense. It should be Core 1. That's what I selected.

I'm using the latest version of PulseAudio 4.0 available on Ubuntu Studio 14.04.

Comment 1 Tanu Kaskinen 2016-11-27 21:11:45 UTC

(In reply to trondsg+bugzilla+freedesktop from comment #0)
> The device routing behaviour of PulseAudio is very user-unfriendly. Here is
> a particular annoyance that I can't find any good reason for:
> 
> Insert USB audio device (Alesis Core 1). Analog audio is still set as
> fallback device, so that the xfce panel volume control (in the indicator
> applet) doesn't work (because sound comes out of Core 1). This is annoying,
> but it's not necessarily clear cut how it should work.

If sound comes out of the usb sound card, I guess you explicitly moved audio streams there? Explicitly moved streams ignore the default device setting.

> Go into pa volume control and DESELECT Analog audio as fallback device by
> clicking on the green button next to it. Now you have no fallback device.

There is always a fallback device. The pavucontrol UI is bad, it shouldn't allow going into a state where it looks like nothing is selected as the fallback device. https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=98792

> Select Core 1 as fallback device by clickin on the green button next to it.
> The volume control now affects Core 1.
> 
> (Because USB audio keeps malfunctioning, the Core 1 needs to be plugged in
> and out a lot.) Pull the Core 1 out using the USB cable. Plug it back in.
> What's the fallback device now? Analog output! This makes no sense. It
> should be Core 1. That's what I selected.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=90870

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 90870 ***

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