How do I get Pulse Audio to work in BionicPup64?

[mikeslr]

deleted. See post here: http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 60#1009260

[Mike Walsh]

@ Mike:-

Still doesn't explain why you had the problem.....and I didn't. We're both running the exact same package- same scripts & everything - and I'm not running any 'User utilities' at all.

Ah, hell. Who knows? One of life's little mysteries, eh?

Have a go at recording a Youtube vid, the way I described it here. I did it in Chrome, but it shouldn't make a scrap of difference if you want to use Quantum instead. As I understand it, this thing records the X-server's output (whatever it's displaying on the screen), regardless of the application involved. Which is, I believe, exactly what SSR also does; except sound - courtesy of ALSA - works in this one.

(BTW, I plugged the wrong term into the PPM's search box when tracking down 'libgiblib'. I should have simply entered 'giblib'; the item in question pops up straight away. It's the exact same item (version, too) that I obtained thru pkgs.org, as it happens.)


T'other Mike.

[wiak]

@ Mike:-

Still doesn't explain why you had the problem.....and I didn't. We're both running the exact same package- same scripts & everything - and I'm not running any 'User utilities' at all.

Ah, hell. Who knows? One of life's little mysteries, eh?

Have a go at recording a Youtube vid, the way I described it here. I did it in Chrome, but it shouldn't make a scrap of difference if you want to use Quantum instead. As I understand it, this thing records the X-server's output (whatever it's displaying on the screen), regardless of the application involved. Which is, I believe, exactly what SSR also does; except sound - courtesy of ALSA - worksin this one.

(BTW, I plugged the wrong term into the PPM's search box when tracking down 'libgiblib'. I should have simply entered 'giblib'; the item in question pops up straight away. It's the exact same item (version, too) that I obtained thru pkgs.org anyway.)


T'other Mike.

I can assure you Mike, if you have none of the listed Other User Utilities somewhere to be found on your system, wex will fail because of empty hbox /hbox code result; the wex script code 'needs' one of the Other User Utilities to be found or it will exit with error. Impossible, IMO, for yours to work with 'no' Other category user util on your system (unless you are using a modified wex script; not the exact one I provided).

Yes, it's giblib you need to search for not libgiblib.

wiak

[DustyPixel]

Hello wiak -

I reinstalled weX 0.8.18 and pupradio, the configuration screen came up, I was able to choose my settings, recorded a short clip off You Tube, and it didn't save the file.
I did try using weX in Tahrpup this weekend and was able to record and save video files in it (no sound, though).
You wrote: 'or copy the permanent /etc/wex/wexrc file into /root/.wex/wexrc'
I did this after trying weX a few times. Restarted X and still no change, it's still not saving the videos.
I'm glad it's working in Xenialpup, at least.

[wiak]

Hello wiak -

I reinstalled weX 0.8.18 and pupradio, the configuration screen came up, I was able to choose my settings, recorded a short clip off You Tube, and it didn't save the file.

Ok, I'll move my attention to wex on BionicPup64. It's the Pup I'm most likely to want on my own system anyway. weX should end up working better on BionicPup64 than TahrPup since Bionic will have a newer ffmpeg available by default. I'll report back once I get round to that.

wiak

[DustyPixel]

Hello wiak -

OK, thanks. If nothing else, I can always try it out with Xenialpup if it turns out that weX and Bionic just don't want to play nicely together.
I might as well ask you about Tahrpup and weX - does weX work well in it? It's been my preferred pup aside from Xenial before Bionic came along.
I'll keep trying with Bionicpup, at least for a couple more days....

[wiak]

I might as well ask you about Tahrpup and weX - does weX work well in it?

I have tested weX on Tahrpup, but was long ago. As far as I recall, Tahrpup (by default at least) uses older ffmpeg which needs alterations to the weX plugins (code changes basically) to get it to even work. Even then, that older ffmpeg lacks new ffmpeg facilities that allow faster video capture and good audio sync. So, no, I don't think weX works particularly well with Tahrpup. However, the All-In-One wex package assembled by Mike Walsh should fix these issues since that packages includes a newer ffmpeg compiled by Fredx181 of DebianDog - so if you use that then TahrPup should be fine with the included weX.

EDIT: But I'm not sure if Mike has produced an All-In-1 for 64bits OS yet that contains a 64bit compiled newer ffmpeg. His previous production was for 32bit OS I believe (so would apply to TahrPup32). But only Mike can answer about that.

wiak

[Mike Walsh]

Wiak/Dusty:-

Once again, Will, thanks for the clarification.

When you said about 'user utilities', I assumed you were talking about the mechanism you have in WeX where you can set one of those utility buttons to start/run something else. I know I haven't done that. In the early days with WeX, I did that for running 'gifenc-sel', initially, but since re-doing the 'all-in-one' and adding a separate Menu entry for it, I don't now use the buttons in that way.

I definitely have many of those apps/progs/utilities installed in most of my Pups, though. I do like my software! So if it's simply a case of WeX 'finding' them, wherever they are on the system, then that explains it.

Gnome-MPlayer; MPV; VLC; I have all of those.....

----------------------------------------------

@ Dusty:-

The WeX 'all-in-one' I previously put together was, as Will says, for 32-bit Puppies. And yes; it works fine in every single one of mine.....including Tahrs 6.0.5/6.0.6.

Fred compiled a fairly recent 32-bit version of ffmpeg. He then combined this with WeX to create 'Wex-portable', and built it in the AppImage format (one that seems to work particularly well with Puppy). I then took the AppImage, combined it with the other utilities.....like Weav, and 'gifenc-sel', added multiple Menu entries, etc., and built the 'all-in-one'.

You can find the 32-bit 'all-in-one' here. That's a direct link to my GDrive.

Let us know how you get on with it, please. The more people who know about this, and use it, the better (I think..!)

------------------------------------

@ Both:- No, I haven't included a built-in 64-bit ffmpeg with the 64-bit 'all-in-one'. I don't really know what 'extras' Fred has in with his 32-bit version; all I know is that Puppy originals average out between 200-250 kb in size. Fred's is around 30 MB.


Mike.

[DustyPixel]

Hello Mike Walsh -

I installed your .pet package in Tahrpup, everything worked except......yep, no sound. I played the recorded video in VLC and selected Alsa for output. 'Automatic' didn't work either.
I tried the aac and mp3 settings for sound in the weX configuration screen, and used mp4 as the video format. Webcam was unchecked.
How exactly do you configure the settings when you use it? I mean, I understand how to use it, at least based on my SSR usage, but there must be something I'm missing.
On the plus side, weX does seem to record video more smoothly. SSR seems to need more tweaking to get past the slightly choppy 'walking on the moon' effect I've noticed in test recordings when configuring it.

[Mike Walsh]

@ DustyPixel:-

Now then, lass. Let's see if I can answer some of these for ya.

I'm back in Xenial64 ATM, but I've just spent the last hour or so experimenting in Tahrpup.....and have done a demo video of WeX running in Tahrpup 6.0.6.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7V0McHm_ks

Question; which Tahrpup are you using? The current 6.0.6, or the older 6.0.5? I don't know if it makes any difference; I nuked my original, years-old 6.0.5 around 12 months ago, and 'upgraded' to the newer 6.0.6. Point being, I can't test the older version any more.....though I don't think there were so many differences 'twixt the two.

I use:-

Video container - mp4
Audio codec - aac
Video codec - left on the x264 default setting

The important bit is to use the 'Mixer' button (bottom right corner), and experiment with the 'Capture' & 'PCM' sliders, keeping an eye on the yellow VU meter while you're doing so. You don't want it peaking at any more than 70-75%, tops.

Like I said in the vid, most of my Pups need the 'Mic Boost' off, but the 'Capture' slider well up the scale. Tahrpup seems to be different - at least on my hardware - and wants the opposite; 'Mic Boost' checked on, but the 'Capture' slider near the bottom. You can hear the result for yourself

The above settings do the trick for me.....but YMMV. All depends on the hardware, y'see.

--------------------------------------------------------------

The only thing I can suggest if you've not got sound is to check the Multiple Sound Card Wizard.....found inside the ALSA Sound Wizard, under Menu->Setup.

Have you got sound at all, system-wide? Check the second button in the ALSA Sound Wizard, and see if Puppy 'barks'..!

Silly question perhaps, but do you use external speakers, like me.....and are they turned on...?? You'd be amazed how often folks overlook the glaringly obvious....


Mike.

[wiak]

Webcam was unchecked.
How exactly do you configure the settings when you use it?.

Hi DustyPixel,

This really depends on your audio HW setup. Most systems just need bottom line config of weX to have following entries:

audiosystem: alsa

stereo: checked yes

audiodevice: plughw:0,0

webcam (when used): /dev/video0

I believe these are the defaults at first startup anyway. Of course, a few systems have their audio hardware set up differently and in rare cases it can be much more difficult to configure becase, for example, your audio system may be using an unusual device.

From a terminal (urxvt or whatever) you should be able to check your audio device(s) with command:

Code: Select all

arecord --list-devices

For example on my system (which uses alsa underneath, but as it happens I also have pulseaudio running in background - though I tend to just record straight to alsa with weX):

Code: Select all

root@xenial64:~# arecord --list-devices
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: AD1984A Analog [AD1984A Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 2: AD1984A Alt Analog [AD1984A Alt Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
root@xenial64:~#

In the above, my audio device is using 'card 0' and the subdevice number (#) is subdevice #0. Hence my referring to it as plughw:0,0 (plughw:card,subdevice). So you may be using card1, subdevice0 (plughw:1,0) or some other combination such as plughw:1,1

Occasionally, you shouldn't use plughw (which involves a buffer) but instead need to communicate with the audio hardware card,subdevice directly. If that is the case, instead of say plughw:0,0 it would be simply hw:0,0.

weX actually provides quick tooltip help as a reminder of above. Simply hover you mouse over the entry box called 'audiodevice' to see that.

If you are using working pulseaudio set up instead of the underlying alsa, weX should be set up with the following two relevant entries:

audiosystem: alsa
audiodevice: pulse

and as long as pulse recording underneath ok, then weX will work.

In very rare cases people still have audio card, device issues and have to tinker with an audio config file in directory /etc but I won't go into that since not so familiar with doing that.

Let me know if any of the above helps.

Oh, by the way, you can get much more card specific details using command:

Code: Select all

arecord --list-pcms

I don't know the details of that though. You'd have to Google

wiak

[DustyPixel]

Hello Mike Walsh -

Thank you for taking the time to make that video. It did help somewhat, the thing is when I play back the video the volume is low and I can hear ambient room noise that was picked up during the recording. This was from testing with the computers built in speakers and sound card.
I'm using Tahrpup 6.0.5 on a Laptop that is around 8 or 9 years old. I normally use an external USB sound card with earbuds plugged in. That's the main setup, but I do have a set of external speakers I use occasionally. I'm still using Alsa. and I do check for the test bark!
I tested weX with the built in computer speakers and card just to keep it simple. When I try using the external sound card it's a whole new can of worms because the Retrovol options for it are different.
Sometimes when I move the sliders in the mixer it looks like the volume levels are changing, but when I play the video there's still no sound. Still looking for the magic combination.

wiak - I checked the audio devices and tried plughw:0,0 and hw:0,0 as options for both the computers sound card and the external one - no improvement. I'm using Alsa only.
One odd thing I noticed is that when I use Bionicpup64 and use the You Tube downloader .pet the sound works perfectly - so I know Alsa works in recorded videos on this computer... I could just use that but I prefer to have a recorder that lets the user edit as they go, as opposed to having to record the entire video and edit it later.

Any suggestions on how to configure an external sound card to work with weX/Alsa?

I appreciate everyone's contributions to this thread so far - Mike Walsh, mikeslr, wiak, oui, bigpup, watchdog, mc ewanw, perdido, and Terry H. I also appreciate the patience of the two Mikes and wiak.

I'll work on this over the next few days- I've got other things to do so I'll be posting again later on in the week.

[wiak]

wiak - I checked the audio devices and tried plughw:0,0 and hw:0,0 as options for both the computers sound card and the external one - no improvement. I'm using Alsa only.

But DustyPixel... it might be plughw:0,1 or plughw:1,0 or plughw:1,1 or hw:0,1 or hw:1,0 or hw:1,1.

That's why I gave you the command:

arecord --list-devices

to try; hoping that would guide you to what you sound card hardware actually is. It won't work if you don't use the exact correct card,subdevice number.

Also, yes of course, you will need to adjust the CAPTURE vomule controls via Retrovol (or Alsamixer). Capture volumes have nothing to do with Playback values and sometimes there is a software capture amplifier you may need to turn up (via either Retrovol or Alsamixer) in order to get sound recorded loud enough.

Occasionally, as I said, there can be more to it, and you also have to edit some sound-related config files in /etc directory (e.g. maybe cos usb related microphone or HDMI-related). The speakers are irrelevant when it comes to 'recording' settings - they are for playback - what is important is microphone; or if trying to simply record something coming out of the speakers, then it is the MIXER device you need to activate (in Retrovol or Alsamixer). Seems complicated, I know, but usually achievable as long as you correctly identify which card,subdevice number your system 'sees' your audio recording hardware as.

That's the problem with accessing sound card via ALSA directly - nothing is automatic then; though usually plughw:0,0 (but not on your machine it seems). Pulseaudio may find things a bit more automatically, in which case you just need to set audiodevice to 'pulse' (whilst) leaving audiosystem as 'alsa' (without the quotes of course).

wiak

NOTE: I'm still trying to download BionicPup64 iso. My internet download speed is only a few tens of kilobytes for some made reason (used to be MBytes!!!). So taking ages, but getting there slowly using wget -c command to help download over a couple of days...

[wiak]

One other thing, DustyPixel.

The reason you are getting ambient pickup noise when trying to record from Mixer (i.e. from what you hear coming through the speakers whilst recording) is that you also have microphone recording activated in Retrovol (which you shouldn't). i.e. Before making such recordings(i.e. when you are trying to record from soundcard rather than internal microphone), first disable the microphone (in Retrovol or Alsamixer). When actually wanting to record from microphone - make sure you only turn up Capture gain controls (not Microphone volume gain controls on the Playback side of things - it's only the capture side of things that should be turned up till recording level is loud enough).

Summary: Don't confuse recording with playback. weX is for recording. mplayer, mpv, etc are for playback, so totally different volume controls are involved. Of course your alsa may be working fine for playback but not for recording if correct recording device not selected and recording capture controls not appropriately set up. Youtube downloader does not record, it simply downloads a pre-recorded video for playback.

But it seems that you have things at least partially working since you at least manage to hear things recorded - just disable mic whilst making direct from sound card (Capture side Mixer control) recording. Basically, you need to not use Capture Internal Mic, but rather Capture Stereo Mix (for Mixer). Unfortunately, different computers/hardware often name the controls somewhat differently... and some show more controls than others... trial and error is certainly part of the process for such reasons.

wiak

EDIT:

Mike Walsh, mikeslr, wiak, oui, bigpup, watchdog, mc ewanw, perdido, and Terry H

By the way, wiak used to be the login for a group of people who worked together on projects. I, William, was part of that group and my individual login was mcewanw. I gave up mcewanw login for a while (since was retiring from programming) so lost access to the forum so used wiak login instead when my programming 'addiction' caused me to keep programming (for a while at least)... Flash fixed mcewanw for me again, but I tend to still use wiak login more. It is because I wrote the program weX that I maintain it, and explain how to use it, best as I can. I mainly use XenialDog (one of the Debian-based DebianDog systems), not so much Puppy these days, and weX is included in most DebianDog systems by default. However, for old times sakes, I always try to also produce dotpets of my programs for Pups, but these are more difficult for me to maintain and test since so many Pup variants and my not having them permanently installed usually.

[Mike Walsh]

@ DustyPixel:-

Dusty;

I, too, use an external USB sound card with my 15-yr old Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop. Not because the internal one doesn't work.....but for the simple reason that after years of plugging an external speaker system into the headphone socket, the socket is knackered; I can only get mono from it now, and it wiggles about.....it's quite 'loose'!

(One of these days I shall strip the old girl down & solder a new one in; whether that'll be before she simply expires of old age is anybody's guess. I find I have to summon up the enthusiasm to actually do things these days!)

If you want to use an external card, I find it works better if you keep a terminal open, running

Code: Select all

alsamixer

....set to the external card, and adjust the controls from there. For me, at least, Retrovol doesn't seem to respond to my USB card, even when correctly selected. No idea why, but the stated method just 'works' for me. I have 4 worktops in the pager, and just leave alsamixer running in a spare one all the time I'm using it.

--------------------------

Will's quite right; I neglected to mention that you mustn't use the 'Microphone' slider.....you want that one right off, and un-checked. Sorry about that!

I will re-iterate, however, that this whole process is one of experimentation, trying different combinations of levels with the 'Capture' (and if necessary, 'PCM' sliders) until you hit the combo that's just right for your hardware, and your personal comfort/satisfaction. We're all different.....and so's the hardware.


Mike.

[DustyPixel]

Hello Will -

You wrote:

'The reason you are getting ambient pickup noise when trying to record from Mixer (i.e. from what you hear coming through the speakers whilst recording) is that you also have microphone recording activated in Retrovol (which you shouldn't).'

Yeah, I know this from setting up Pulse Volume control for SSR in Xenial.
If I understood correctly, Mike W. mentioned that using mic boost for this isn't normally done but that it seems to work in Tahr. I probably turned on the mic somewhere in the process. My fault, not his.

'But DustyPixel... it might be plughw:0,1 or plughw:1,0 or plughw:1,1 or hw:0,1 or hw:1,0 or hw:1,1.

That's why I gave you the command:

arecord --list-devices

to try; hoping that would guide you to what you sound card hardware actually is. It won't work if you don't use the exact correct card,subdevice number.'

I did use the command, as mentioned in my last post, and it looked like the only options were plughw: or hw:0,0 for either card which I know isn't correct. For example, the USB card is hw:2,0. I was tired at that point and wasn't paying proper attention to the numbers. Looking at it again today, I can see what I did wrong so I'll try again.

Mike Walsh -

Thanks for the suggestion about alsamixer - I'll give that a try.
And no worries about the microphone - hey, at least technically it DID record sound, just a little too much for my purposes

[DustyPixel]

Deleted

[wiak]

On my computer I noticed the Alsa Line Capture setting behaves differently when the cable is used. If I don't use it, the VU meter only goes up to 10% and stays there, regardless of whether any sound is on. All microphone settings including mic boost are turned off. The resulting recordings are barely audible, no matter where I set the input volume.

I'm not sure if I quite understand what you mean above. For recording without cable from 'sound card' you shouldn't be using input source of Line Capture; rather you should be using 'Stereo Mix' (or whatever that Mixer input source is named by your computer).

When using a cable from headphone to physical line input instead, then, yes, you would use input source Alsa 'Line' Capture (Line means physical/cable input). Not using a cable should be better quality though, since using line/physical input there can be introduced noise since the headphone output is driven through additional amplifiers (analog amplifiers, so after electronic digital-to-analog conversion - DAC, which itself produced extra noise, losses, and distortions, the amount of such depending how good the electronic DAC is). Admittedly, these extra amplifiers may not be particularly 'noisy', though you could still get unwanted 'noise' via electromagnetic signal pickup on the cable itself - though, yes, the cables are physically shielded to minimize that additional noise source - still, Stereo Mix input source should be even more noise free and just as 'loud' recording capability usually - though may indeed depend on amplifier effects on your particular soundcard.

EDIT:

By the way... For absolute best quality, when recording media being streamed from the Internet (e.g. Internet Radio streaming, or Youtube videos/audio), you wouldn't use the likes of wex or Precord at all. Such streams are streamed in 'perfect' digital-encoded form and should be left in that form for later playback: i.e. Download Youtube videos using some browser plugin (doesn't go through soundcard digital-to-audio or digital-to-video conversion electronics at all, so no noise introduced). Similarly, you could use the likes of the program "streamripper" to record the undecoded digital media as it is being streamed. I believe the media player VLC can also 'rip' streams directly when supplied with the Internet URL of the media stream (though may need a specially compiled VLC to include that capability).

No matter how you download the digitally encoded media, you could later use, say ffmpeg (or for convenience some GUI software based on that, such as fredx181's Video-to-Audio-convert program), to remove any video track digitally (not via soundcard at all) and possibly transcode the audio from whatever digital form it was originally in (e.g. aac audio) into some other (e.g. mp3 or ogg). Of course, digital transcoding from say aac to mp3 can introduce some losses and/or distortions (especially of high frequency components). Nevertheless, for quick recordings of already playing media (audio or audio/video), weX can yield pretty good results recording analog audio/video via Stereo Mix input source, and is often more convenient to use.

wiak

[DustyPixel]

Hello Will -

You wrote:

'I'm not sure if I quite understand what you mean above. For recording without cable from 'sound card' you shouldn't be using input source of Line Capture'

'When using a cable from headphone to physical line input instead, then, yes, you would use input source Alsa 'Line' Capture (Line means physical/cable input).'


Back in the day when I made mix tapes/CDs from my music collection on one of those component stereo systems with a receiver, cassette player, turntable, CD player, etc. I had to do it via line recording with RCA cables....SMH I was so enthused to finally be getting a positive result I posted in haste and wasn't thinking about why it was working.
I've been working with Tahrpup 6.0.6 over the last several days. I changed to it from 6.0.5 in hopes of better results. I was experimenting with the external USB sound card I use since I prefer it over the computers sound card.
In an earlier post, you mentioned additional configuration may be needed. I was looking at some websites that deal with Alsa configuration and sound card compatibility, and I realized a small but important detail I overlooked.
My USB sound card is not indicated to be compatible with Linux. The CD included with it provides software for Windows computers only.
I was aware of this when I decided to get it about 3 years ago. I was still using Windows at the time but had developed an interest in Linux from using Puppy. I read through the reviews on Amazon and saw that some people had success using it in Linux, including Ubuntu. After receiving it, I installed it on Windows but had to depend on the existing software in Puppy to use it there which has worked out fine. Puppy recognizes it, and it works with the Retrovol/Alsa mixers. (Or it seems to)
I now use Linux in place of Windows and because the USB card has worked so well I had forgotten that there's no 'official' Linux software installed for it. It's been difficult finding anything online about how to possibly configure it to work better in Alsa/Puppy for recordings. I now wonder if perhaps there aren't some compatibility issues with the built in sound card as well, considering that this computer originally came with Windows already factory installed.
Basically, in Puppy with weX without a cable, I'm getting the same results with both the computers built in sound card and the external USB sound card - good video, faint audio. I use the cable, I get good video and clear audio. I noticed one thing, though - if I make a screen recording with the built in sound card and the cable, it does record the audio, but when playing the recorded video I have to switch to the USB card in order to hear it.
If I try to record videos with the computers built in sound card, I test different Retrovol settings and am able to get the VU meter to react to sound, but it's as if there's still some undetectable background noise going on. If I stop the video the VU meter doesn't go back to 0%. It drops back to a certain point and stays there. If I tap the top of my Laptop or clap my hands, the VU meter reacts. It also happens when the video is playing. The microphone and mic boost are turned off, and I don't use a headset with microphone with my computer, only earbuds, so I'm baffled as to what is still picking up outside sound. Maybe the microphone isn't really off?
When I attempt to record videos with the USB sound card it's the same thing.
As mentioned earlier, Pulse Audio in Xenial works with the sound cards in screen recordings, it's the Puppy/Alsa combination that has been problematic.
The built in sound card is:
Intel Corporation 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio [8086:3b56] (rev 05)
USB card is:
Startech 7.1 USB External Sound Card with SPDIF Digital Audio. (note - I don't use the SPDIF ports on this card, just the standard USB port/cable)

[wiak]

I can't really help you with possible card driver issues, but for the Intel card I came across an ancient post that may be entirly not relevant.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=134812

It suggested trying an /etc/.asoundrc config file containing the following:

EDIT: Sorry, it is /root/.asoundrc for user root or can use /etc/asound.conf

Code: Select all

pcm.!default {
    type plug
    slave.pcm "swmixer"
    #card Intel
    #device 0
}

pcm.swmixer {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 1234
    slave {
        pcm "hw:0,0"
        period_time 0
        period_size 1024
        buffer_size 4096
        rate 44100
    }
}

ctl.swmixer {
    type hw
    card 0
}

As I said, though, above may be totally irrelevant nowadays. As far as you still 'hearing' sound (when tapping laptop) that suggests you haven't actually disabled your Mic. Remember there is both a 'Playback' Mic control and a 'record' Mic control. If using Line or Stereo Mix you should have both Mic controls turned off. Also, if your soundcard has record control called 'Digital' (my laptop does), turn that right up too. Like I said, trouble is different soundcards have different Retrovol/Alsamixer controls available. I'm no expert on souncards themselves alas - most just work... some don't without various ~/.asoundrc details...

Not much help, I know.

EDIT; Here is something more recent, though again I don't know if relevant to your situation:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1 ... art-0.html

and also:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... an-stretch

Also, I once had soundcard trouble where volume icon would not appear - it was something to do with wrong soundcard type selected (HDMI? I can't remember). The following post reminds me of it though - I did something similar for that issue (which you may not have anyway):

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=35579

Possible solutions were in next thread:

https://forum.mxlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 9&start=10

But... you might need to read all of the following...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad ... chitecture

As above will show you, there is a LOT to all of this when your sound card unluckily/rarely doesn't work with defaults...

wiak