That's Not Good...

can you run gst-feedback and attach output ? are you sure you have an
alsa plugin ? run gst-inspect | grep alsa and paste that here too.

i can change the volume from jamboree (which uses gstreamer) i can
also change the volume from totem, but applet_mixer2 and
gnome-volume-control can't.

this is the output that i get:
diego@helios:~$ gst-inspect | grep -i alsa
alsa:  alsamixer: Alsa Mixer
alsa:  alsasrc: Alsa Src
alsa:  alsasink: Alsa Sink
diego@helios:~$

Created attachment 24434 [details]
output of gst-feedbacl

I just installed Fedora test 2 and mixing using ALSA works fine for
me. Apoc reports that it works for him too. I am wondering if this
could be related to either our sound system autodetection not working
properly (if for instance some parts of the OSS emulation, but not
others are turned on). Or maybe some soundcard which mixer is reported
in a way that we also don't understand. Diego, could you check if
running lsmod gives you any mention of OSS? Also what kind of
soundcard do you have?

i have an Ensoniq 1370 (Ensoniq AudioPCI ENS1370) aka sound blaster 32
if i remember it correctly

lsmod | grep snd

snd_seq_midi            6208  0
snd_seq_oss            30048  0
snd_seq_midi_event      5920  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss
snd_seq                48976  5
snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss            47076  0
snd_mixer_oss          16224  1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_ens1370            15520  1
snd_rawmidi            19552  2 snd_seq_midi,snd_ens1370
snd_seq_device          6376  4
snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
snd_pcm                83492  2 snd_pcm_oss,snd_ens1370
snd_timer              21188  2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
gameport                3392  1 snd_ens1370
snd_page_alloc          8964  2 snd_ens1370,snd_pcm
snd_ak4531_codec        6624  1 snd_ens1370
snd                    44580  14
snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_ens1370,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_ak4531_codec
soundcore               7040  1 snd

Further testing on my side makes it clear that the gnome mixer alters
the ALSA sound, but that applications outputing to OSS is still silent
because the OSS sound needs to be adjusted also when OSS emulation is
on. I don't know if this is because we don't adjust the correct mixer
in ALSA or if we need to make our mixer adjust both at the same time
when using ALSA and having OSS sound enabled. Leif any input?

Created attachment 24913 [details]
Image of gst-mixer at startup/reboot

Attached a screenshot of gst-mixer at startup time for me. As you can
see the PCM entry seems to always go back to zero at startup. Which
causes audio to be silent even if 'volume' is up. I think we need to
store the value for PCM in gconf or similar, so that it is set to
something intelligble each time we log in. This should probably have
some default value to ensure that people get sound with ALSA.

No, logging any such thing is just bad. We should probably poll() on
the device for OSS. ALSA provides signals.

*** Bug 132190 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

I was getting this "no mixer found" problem on my system using alsa
and its oss emulation. I just committed a patch to gst-plugins head
which fixed this problem on my system. The patch is attached to bug
#135597
Could you test it ?

*** Bug 129286 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

it works perfectly! thanks a lot.

i'm closing the bug

To make things clear, I don't think that gnome-volume-control can do
any native alsa mixing, it only works with oss emulation.