I still haven't figured out how Pulse determines the default levels it forces upon the user at each start of the service. I think it should respect those levels set within ALSA/the system. If Pulse can't respect selected values, then I'd like to know where it gets its default values. That way I can manually change them and force my default values down Pulse's throat.
pactl is a hot mess to understand. I don't see a way to set volume on ports at all. Maybe it isn't even possible using pactl. /etc/pulse/default.pa /etc/pulse/system.pa don't seem to provide help either. I tried modifying a few things there, and it broke the automatic muting when switching between headphones and internal speakers. So I put all that back the way it was. I also noticed if: 1. I have alsamixer open along with pavucontrol 2. Set the headphone mic dB gain to 10% in alsamixer 3. In pavucontrol select the "Microphone" from the dropdown under the "Input Devices" tab Result: pavucontrol resets the dB gain to 0%, "the default" without me even touching the volume slider...in fact I CAN'T touch the volume slider for the mic. Why can't Pulse work with functionality ALSA clearly provides? Googling for answers on pulse and volume issues just seems to return a lot of annoyed users and scripted hack answers which really aren't solutions. If I had a way to set the port volume for the mic and have it remain that way permanently, that would work for me. After reducing the dB gain I can still up the volume to compensate without the hiss returning. If we can determine it is a bug somewhere and fix it at the root, even better. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to alsa-driver in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1654448 Title: XPS 13 9360 and 9350, Realtek ALC3246, Headphone audio hiss Status in Dell Sputnik: New Status in alsa-driver package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in linux package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Status in pulseaudio package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Pertaining to 16.04 on a dell XPS 13 9360 ii alsa-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5 Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version k4.4.0-57-generic. When headphones are plugged in, there is a clearly audible hiss (white noise). This is present as soon as the headphones are plugged in, whether 'headphones' or 'headset' are selected from the pop-up box. Using alsamixer to debug the issue reveals that it is related to "Headphone Mic Boost" - the default setting is: dB gain 0.00, 0.00. If this is changed to: 10.00, 10.00 (one notch up) the hiss disappears. 20.00, 20.00 cause a louder hiss and 30.00, 30.00 causes an even louder hiss with high frequency audio artifacts. When the headphones are removed and plugged back in the Headphone Mic Boost setting returns to dB gain 0 and the problem also returns. This (problem and workaround) has been reported in the wild: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13050843 and https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/4j1zz4/headphones_have_static_noise_with_ubuntu_1604_on/ for example To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/dell-sputnik/+bug/1654448/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
