[kde-linux] PCM is gone

[Duncan]

Rajko posted on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 20:42:50 -0500 as excerpted:

> On Fri, 3 Aug 2012 03:03:10 +0200 Alex Schuster <wonko at wonkology.org>
> wrote:
> 
>> After a reboot, my PCM sound device is gone, kmix no longer shows it,
>> and it is no longer along the available channels in the kmix settings.
>> 
>> I can control PCM with alsamixer, but I'd like to use kmix for that.
>> Any idea what could be wrong?

> To start debugging people should know:
> * Distribution and its release.
> * KDE version in use.
> * Application using device and its version.

FWIW, he's on gentoo (as I am) and fairly current with kde.  Last I read 
he was running kde 4.8.4, but of course 4.9.0 is out now, tho whether he 
has updated to it yet I wouldn't know.  (FWIW, I was and still am running 
the 4.9 pre-releases, as I've not yet had time to update to 4.9.0 in the 
day or so since release.)

> Also, there are questions that may follow if above doesn't help:
> * How was missing device discovered; program complaining about, error
>   in the log, ...
> * How was confirmed that device is missing; one program complaining
>   about it means that program can't find device, not that device is
>   missing


It sounds like he tried to change the volume in kmix... and couldn't as 
it was no longer there to change!


FWIW, I don't even have kmix installed, only alsamixer, as I output via
S/PDIF to my home audio system, and S/PDIF is line-level output, so 
there's not much to adjust.  The PCM fader still works and the S/PDIF 
toggle still works... and that's about it.  And I have an init service 
set to init them, so I rarely touch those levels either, they're set-and-
forgotten.  So no need for kmix, alsamixer's fine for the rare occasion I 
want to change it at the computer hardware level.  The rest of the time I 
either adjust the individual app volume (if it has one to adjust), or 
more often, just adjust it on the home audio system. (That's on my main 
system.  My netbook has kmix, but it's still running kde 4.6 too, no 
updates to it in nearing a year and a half, now, so...)

That said, since alsamixer is still working, I'd suspect a problem with 
phonon.  Check in kde settings, hardware, multimedia, phonon.

What's your backend set for, wonko?  And in device prefs, does fiddling 
with priority order change anything?  Try testing a device and ensuring 
that one that's actually working is set to top priority.

Does a clean config (I know you know the drill so I won't explain that 
one further) work?

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman