[ltp] ALSA always turns my microphone on...

[Richard Neill]

Dear Steve,

You want to check out alsactl store and restore. (man alsactl)
Basically, when you change sound settings, they end up in registers on 
the sound card, but are not saved to file except when alsa is properly 
(sucessfully!) stopped. This can sometimes cause:
1)your sound settings never "take" properly - but always revert to old 
values OR
2)Sound is always initialised to zero.

The normal file is /etc/asound.state, but you might want to keep another 
copy which isn't autosaved over (eg 'alsactl store -f ~/asound.state')

As for mixers, alsamixer/alsamixergui are much nicer than kmix - and 
they also give you a little more control.

Hope that helps

Richard




Steve K wrote:
> Hey folks --
> 
> First of all, thank you to those who helped me install ALSA on my t40 -- 
> creating a debian package for my kernel fixed all my dependency problems.
> 
> Now I am having a strange problem and I have been unable to find a solution.  
> When I start KDE, it seems like my microphone is automatically turned on and 
> its input is sent to the speakers.  This is annoying because, if the volume 
> is loud enough, i will get a screeching feedback sound coming out of my 
> laptop.  I can mute the microphone and this fixes the problem, but the 
> setting is not saved.
> 
> I think I have two problems here. 1) Why is the microphone's input getting 
> directed to my speakers?  and 2) Why isn't KDE saving my settings?  Is the 
> kde mixer (kmix) compatible with alsa?
> 
> thanks for any help!
> 
> cheers,
> -steve

-- 
rn214@hermes.cam.ac.uk  **  http://www.richardneill.org
Richard Neill, Trinity College, Cambridge, CB21TQ, U.K.