Hi, I have a dell xps 9560 + dell tb16 running an updated fedora 27. The problem is that 100% volume on tb16 usb audio, is like 5% of the internal speaker. I verified that this commit https://github.com/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/commit/c8851db8b223019415ddde15262722160f53f0c4 (rules.d line and tb16 config file), are present on my system. Still the volume is too low. When booting the same system into Windows, the tb16 usb audio volume is perfectly normal, loud and clear. Referred to this Bugzilla by https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1492344 Thanks!
This sounds like pulseaudio isn't configuring the alsa mixer settings properly. The current configuration for TB16 doesn't seem to be doing anything with the mixer. What does "amixer -cX" print? Replace X with the card index. You can see the card index in /proc/asound/cards.
Hi, thank you for responding. $ cat /proc/asound/cards 0 [PCH ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH HDA Intel PCH at 0xed128000 irq 143 1 [Audio ]: USB-Audio - USB Audio Generic USB Audio at usb-0000:0e:00.0-1.5, high speed $ amixer -c1 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0 Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Capture 0 - 127 Front Left: Capture 99 [78%] [16.00dB] [on] Front Right: Capture 99 [78%] [16.00dB] [on] Simple mixer control 'Extension Unit',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [off] Simple mixer control 'Loudness',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] On card 0, we have a lot more: $ amixer -c0 Simple mixer control 'Master',0 Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 127 Mono: Playback 127 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Simple mixer control 'Headphone',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 127 Mono: Front Left: Playback 117 [92%] [-5.00dB] [off] Front Right: Playback 117 [92%] [-5.00dB] [off] Simple mixer control 'Headphone Mic',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive Capture exclusive group: 0 Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Mono: Capture [off] Front Left: Playback 28 [90%] [7.50dB] [off] Front Right: Playback 28 [90%] [7.50dB] [off] Simple mixer control 'Headphone Mic Boost',0 Capabilities: volume Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: 0 - 3 Front Left: 3 [100%] [30.00dB] Front Right: 3 [100%] [30.00dB] Simple mixer control 'Speaker',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 127 Mono: Front Left: Playback 127 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Front Right: Playback 127 [100%] [0.00dB] [on] Simple mixer control 'PCM',0 Capabilities: pvolume Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Playback 0 - 255 Mono: Front Left: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB] Front Right: Playback 255 [100%] [0.00dB] Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'IEC958',1 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'IEC958',2 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'IEC958',3 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'IEC958',4 Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined Playback channels: Mono Mono: Playback [on] Simple mixer control 'Capture',0 Capabilities: cvolume cswitch Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Capture 0 - 127 Front Left: Capture 93 [73%] [13.00dB] [on] Front Right: Capture 93 [73%] [13.00dB] [on] Simple mixer control 'Auto-Mute Mode',0 Capabilities: enum Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled' Item0: 'Enabled' Simple mixer control 'Digital',0 Capabilities: cvolume Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: Capture 0 - 120 Front Left: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB] Front Right: Capture 60 [50%] [0.00dB] Simple mixer control 'Headset Mic',0 Capabilities: pvolume pswitch cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive Capture exclusive group: 0 Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 31 Mono: Capture [off] Front Left: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off] Front Right: Playback 0 [0%] [-34.50dB] [off] Simple mixer control 'Headset Mic Boost',0 Capabilities: volume Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: 0 - 3 Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB] Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB] Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic',0 Capabilities: cswitch cswitch-joined cswitch-exclusive Capture exclusive group: 0 Capture channels: Mono Mono: Capture [on] Simple mixer control 'Internal Mic Boost',0 Capabilities: volume Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right Limits: 0 - 3 Front Left: 0 [0%] [0.00dB] Front Right: 0 [0%] [0.00dB] Simple mixer control 'Loopback Mixing',0 Capabilities: enum Items: 'Disabled' 'Enabled' Item0: 'Disabled'
The USB device don't seem to have any playback volume controls. It only has two switches, "Extension Unit" and "Loudness", and the loudness switch is already on, so I'd guess PulseAudio can't really do anything about the low volume. You can anyway try with "alsamixer -c1" what those two switches do. In case you're not familiar with alsamixer, here are the important keys: left and right arrows move between elements, and the 'm' key toggles the selected switch on and off. Esc exits alsamixer.
thanks! I can control the volume though. It just doesn't get high enough. And on windows it works as expected, so there should be something that controls the volume there. Do you believe this a driver problem? Any ideas what I should do now to fix this issue?
You can control the volume, because PulseAudio implements software volume, but PulseAudio can't do anything to increase the maximum volume. You should try what those two switches in the mixer do. If they don't do anything useful, then this seems like a driver problem. Here are some instructions about reporting alsa bugs: http://alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Bug_Tracking
Thanks again! You are very helpful! The extension unit switch cannot be switched on/off - it stays off no matter what I do. The loudness switch can be switched on/off, but it doesn't seem to affect anything. btw, I noticed that if I boot to windows, increase the volume and reboot to Linux, then on Linux I have higher max volume (up to the volume set by Windows) - but as you said, this works because of the software volume implementation of pulseaudio. I'll attempt to open an issue at alsa-project.org! Thanks!
Opened https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=198825
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