Fix your sound problems by replacing retrovol

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer audio hardware
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MrZed
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed 20 Mar 2013, 05:44

Fix your sound problems by replacing retrovol

#1 Post by MrZed »

Simply uninstall retrovol from the bundled apps and install another audio mixer like alsamixergui, for example. Afterwards you can simply create a tray button for easy access to your new mixer. Don't forget to opt for the mixer in default applications! Don't know why the folks on the development and packaging teams keep using retrovol?? It's most definitely a buggy piece of ... messed up every installation I've ever done on a variety of machines and has sent forum members into realms of terminal darkness for years!

Henry
Posts: 863
Joined: Sun 30 Jul 2006, 02:28
Location: Oregon USA
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Trying alsamixer gui.

#2 Post by Henry »

Good. Lots of information (too much?) in the gui. Very crowded. Tiny, nearly illegible. What can be done about this to remove unnecessary sliders or increase type size? Maximizing doesn't help.

Should mention I'm using PreciseNop-5.4.3 (xfce, thunar).

Thanks

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Karl Godt
Posts: 4199
Joined: Sun 20 Jun 2010, 13:52
Location: Kiel,Germany

#3 Post by Karl Godt »

Retrovol works for me. It has the problem that it segfaults when it does not get any nodes when no driver is loaded . Instead of complaining : Look into the code !

For first posters : Puppy has much more hidden bugs than Retrovol !
«Give me GUI or Death» -- I give you [[Xx]term[inal]] [[Cc]on[s][ole]] .
Macpup user since 2010 on full installations.
People who want problems with Puppy boot frugal :P

linuxcbon
Posts: 1312
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 22:54

Re: Fix sound problems by replacing retrovol

#4 Post by linuxcbon »

MrZed wrote:Simply uninstall retrovol from the bundled apps and install another audio mixer like alsamixergui, for example. Afterwards you can simply create a tray button for easy access to your new mixer. Don't forget to opt for the mixer in default applications! Don't know why the folks on the development and packaging teams keep using retrovol?? It's most definitely a buggy piece of ... messed up every installation I've ever done on a variety of machines and has sent forum members into realms of terminal darkness for years!
Why don't you describe your problem precisely and say where does the bug come from precisely, what are error messages, and how to reproduce the bug precisely step by step, otherwise, your post is not useful to know where the bug comes from !
Type retrovol from console and say what happens for instance.
Complaining, anyone can, but solving things, very few can.

MrZed
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed 20 Mar 2013, 05:44

Retrovol

#5 Post by MrZed »

Who's complaining! Use what works! Those of you who are misreading my post should read again ... it says FIX ...

Seriously, the problem with retrovol is that it's a swiss-army-knife app ... you have the mixer portion and the taskbar panel main volume slider. It's the latter that prevents the driver from being loaded properly and especially after reboots. A rewrite seems to be the order of the day, but I am NOT a coder.

Search through the forums regarding alsa sound configs, and you'll see that there are dozens complaining that their alsa setup genius reads their cards but afterwards their mixer settings simply don't stick. Solution: change the mixer!

Notice that ASRI Edu Puppy, which we install at our elementary school, offers you the choice between retrovol and alsamixer. We have more success with alsamixer/alsamixergui on most of our 50 machines.

Another example, which I have offered to another "misreader". is that the webcam app Cheese is not the friendliest on low-end hardware, yet guvcview works on ALL! Again, USE WHAT WORKS ...

No complaints ... EXCEPT, if you don't like my posts, simply don't bother reading them and making irrelevant comments ... the forum is to offer advice/help, NOT to annoy posters ... are people over 60 with 15 years of Linux experience and 30 years on other platforms welcome here?

linuxcbon
Posts: 1312
Joined: Thu 09 Aug 2007, 22:54

Re: Retrovol

#6 Post by linuxcbon »

MrZed wrote:Who's complaining! Use what works! Those of you who are misreading my post should read again ... it says FIX ...

Seriously, the problem with retrovol is that it's a swiss-army-knife app ... you have the mixer portion and the taskbar panel main volume slider. It's the latter that prevents the driver from being loaded properly and especially after reboots. A rewrite seems to be the order of the day, but I am NOT a coder.

Search through the forums regarding alsa sound configs, and you'll see that there are dozens complaining that their alsa setup genius reads their cards but afterwards their mixer settings simply don't stick. Solution: change the mixer!

Notice that ASRI Edu Puppy, which we install at our elementary school, offers you the choice between retrovol and alsamixer. We have more success with alsamixer/alsamixergui on most of our 50 machines.

Another example, which I have offered to another "misreader". is that the webcam app Cheese is not the friendliest on low-end hardware, yet guvcview works on ALL! Again, USE WHAT WORKS ...

No complaints ... EXCEPT, if you don't like my posts, simply don't bother reading them and making irrelevant comments ... the forum is to offer advice/help, NOT to annoy posters ... are people over 60 with 15 years of Linux experience and 30 years on other platforms welcome here?


You think coders are your slave when you write "FIX" and with such comments and complaints ?
Exactly the kinds of people I don't want to help.
Bye.

MrZed
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed 20 Mar 2013, 05:44

Fluff over retrovol

#7 Post by MrZed »

When I ask for toilet paper some people automatically roll out ... get yourself a grammar-checker bud! Oui! C'est bon!

MrZed
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed 20 Mar 2013, 05:44

Puppy Discussion Forum

#8 Post by MrZed »

To the gentleman who found alsamixergui to work. Depending on your theming, etc., YES, it may seem small. However, it is a full-featured mixer and once you've set it up you only need to use the MASTER volume control for your personal comfort zone as becomes necessary. If you still find it too "busy", you can always replace it with the non-gui (cli) version, alsamixer. Use your arrow keys to navigate about. The interface is large and bright and might suit your taste better.

I've contacted the moderators and asked them to remove my profile from these discussion boards. I'm a boots-on-the-ground hardware tech that has dealt with thousands of various machines in my life and still do even after early retirement. At the schools where I work I've been the one responsible for making sure that when we use Open Source software, the admin makes donations for continuing development! We use Moodle and various plugins in our Language Labs and send yearly contributions. How many schools actually do that?

So when I hear a nitwit like the fellow linuxcbon giving me a hard time, I just say: Good luck folks. Personally, I can't be bothered any longer ... have work to do!

Cheers

MrZed

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Karl Godt
Posts: 4199
Joined: Sun 20 Jun 2010, 13:52
Location: Kiel,Germany

Re: Puppy Discussion Forum

#9 Post by Karl Godt »

MrZed wrote:To the gentleman who found alsamixergui to work. Depending on your theming, etc., YES, it may seem small. However, it is a full-featured mixer and once you've set it up you only need to use the MASTER volume control for your personal comfort zone as becomes necessary. If you still find it too "busy", you can always replace it with the non-gui (cli) version, alsamixer. Use your arrow keys to navigate about. The interface is large and bright and might suit your taste better.

I've contacted the moderators and asked them to remove my profile from these discussion boards. I'm a boots-on-the-ground hardware tech that has dealt with thousands of various machines in my life and still do even after early retirement. At the schools where I work I've been the one responsible for making sure that when we use Open Source software, the admin makes donations for continuing development! We use Moodle and various plugins in our Language Labs and send yearly contributions. How many schools actually do that?

So when I hear a nitwit like the fellow linuxcbon giving me a hard time, I just say: Good luck folks. Personally, I can't be bothered any longer ... have work to do!

Cheers

MrZed
Honestly, I found your introduction post "as usual" by newbees, unprofessional .

No Puppy Version;
No Installation Variant;
No Hardware Specs;
No Mentioning About What Led To The Impression, That You Found Out, That Sometimes Something Needs To Be Fixed;
No Tips About How To Uninstall Retrovol;
No Tips Where To Get Alsamixergui;
[ .. ]

Honestly, the workings of Puppy Linux and their many different kernel configurations may have provoked something, that you think, that you fixed something, but just were lucky that day with alsaconf or alsamixer not screwing your sound environment.

I am not protecting Retrovol, though Pizzasgood is one of the very few programming heavyweights of Puppy Linux.

Santé

MrZed
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed 20 Mar 2013, 05:44

Retro retrovol

#10 Post by MrZed »

Karl Godt wrote:
Honestly, I found your introduction post "as usual" by newbees, unprofessional .

No Puppy Version;
No Installation Variant;
No Hardware Specs;
No Mentioning About What Led To The Impression, That You Found Out, That Sometimes Something Needs To Be Fixed;
No Tips About How To Uninstall Retrovol;
No Tips Where To Get Alsamixergui;
1. My post CLEARLY referred to
Subject description: Resolve issues with Alsa configuration on Puppy Precise, Slacko, Retro, etc.
2. Installation variant? Irrelevant counsellor!
3. Hardware Specs? In our case, 50 machines of various types ... are you mad?
4. What Led To The Impression? Again, clearly stated,
Search through the forums regarding alsa sound configs, and you'll see that there are dozens complaining that their alsa setup genius reads their cards but afterwards their mixer settings simply don't stick....
To this I can add: Google "...retrovol problems puppy linux" and you'll get 6,650 hits ...
5. How To Uninstall Retrovol? It's very obvious. Any Puppy user knows how to uninstall bundled apps ... the app for it is right under your puppy nose ... I can draw you a picture if you like?
6. Where To Get Alsamixergui? My God Godt, could it possibly be in the Pet manager?

Quite frankly, you are a stone's throw away from sounding like a teenage girl having your first sissy-fit ... If only you weren't so transparently parochial about your friend's work ...

There is NO problem related to any kernel configuration ... for the most part (and ONLY in very rare cases) does it refuse to read the sound card. Hence, the days are almost gone when you need to add anything to /etc/modules ... but this is not the case with the mixer bug. It's simply beta quality and needs more work ... give him a hand if you can ... as I've already said to you: it is to the developer's advantage to know that an app has glitches that warrant improvement.

Meanwhile, it should NOT be the SOLE default mixer in the major distros. Again, I quote myself:
Notice that the derivative ASRI Edu Puppy, which we install at our elementary school, offers you the choice between retrovol and alsamixer. We have more success with alsamixer/alsamixergui on most of our 50 machines
Someday perhaps your hard-working friend might even find his app in "official" repos and not simply in the Puppy Common ... do you realize that once you uninstall it, you can't reinstall from the default PET manager ... you either have to add the repo or get the specific PET.

Be a good boy and stop antagonizing your elders ... I've had a look at your posts and you can be very intelligent most of the time ... except when you unprofessionally try to spoil someone else's good will ... and, oh yeah, "newbee" is spelled "newbie" .. be careful when you use the cli ...

Cheers to all
MrZed

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Flash
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Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#11 Post by Flash »

Wow, in only 5 posts MrZed managed to piss off everyone in the forum. :lol: That may be new record for the forum, though I suspect it's not a personal best... :roll:

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