GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 319139
Setting volume to 0 using mixer applet does not mute sound
Last modified: 2015-09-26 04:44:38 UTC
Version details: 2.12.1 Distribution/Version: Ubuntu Breezy Forwarded from: http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=17939 Using the Gnome mixer applet to control the system volume, I dragged the slider all the way down to the bottom; the little X came up on the applet icon, and Mute was checked in the right-click menu, so I suppose it thought it was now muted. However, it wasn't; sound still came out of the speakers at very low volume. I assume this is a bug in the applet. Setting "Mute" manually at non-minimum volume mutes the sound, but apparently, when you set the volume to minimum, it thinks it's muted when it really isn't.
*** Bug 322524 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
From the other bug: This may be due to a rounding error. We should make sure that the volume is indeed zero (absolutely) when showing the mute icon, just to not confuse the user. I can't verify that this indeed happens (it may also be a driver issue), but I'll want to look at this closer...
I have the same issue with mixer applet 2.13.91. In addition to the above-described behavior, I can open the mixer and slide Master and PCM down to zero to mute the sound. If either of those is non-zero there is some sound. Also, if I mute by right-clicking the applet and choosing Mute, when I uncheck Mute Master jumps to 100% I'm using emu10k1 (SB Live Value), alsa-driver-1.0.11_rc3, GStreamer 0.10.3, Gnome 2.14_beta1, 2.6.15-ck3.
With 2.15.1.1 this issue still exists (though the Master jumping to 100% issue is fixed). The issue seems to be the relation of Master to PCM -- you can set Master all the way to zero, but if PCM is non-zero there's some sound, so in effect PCM is Master. I'm using what may be the single most popular Linux sound driver (emu10k1), and since my last post have kept alsa (1.0.12_rc1) and GStreamer (0.10.9) up-to-date. I'm on Gnome 2.15.4 now.
Is there any chance a fix to this will make it into 2.16? The problem is still there with gnome-applets 2.15.3, gnome 2.16b2, same alsa-driver and GStreamer version as last comment.
Actually, it still IS visible - and in many aspects like reducting volume using mouse wheel under mixer applet icon.
*** Bug 407313 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
This bug still exists. The Problem is, that it says "muted" but it isn't. I see two possible resolutions to this problem: 1. Set mute in soundcard (like it is done when right clicked and and "mute" is selceted). It is set in the menu but not in the soundcard (Mute works again if the volume is raised before) 2. Do not claim it to be muted like it is done when changing Volume through the keyboard shortcuts. It just lowers the volume and doesn't claim it to be muted. AND do not disable the possibility to mute it in the menu. It would be nice if this 2 years old bug will get fixed ;)
There is no mute in soundcard. Most likely, this is just a rounding error somewhere in gstreamer or the applet. We should fix the rounding error for this corner-case, or better yet, more generally. This means that if the range is [ x, y ] and we set a value-list between a and b, then a should not refer to x+E and b to y-E, where E is between 0.0 and 1.0, but a should be exactly x and b should be exactly y. In other words, if the volume range is 0, 100, then the number of items is 101, not 100! During value-conversion, we should take that into account. Hope this makes it clear, anyone who finds the bug and patches it gets a beer.
The patch in bug 478485 has code to force 0.0 and 1.0 to be the min and max volumes for the track, rather than rounding the volume passed.
This bug still exists for me in Gnome 2.22.3
Try one of the 2.23 series, the patch mentioned by Bastien in comment #10 has been applied and the code has been reworked for other reasons. The 2.22 series does not have these fixes.
Oh, okay. I just assumed that fix would already be in 2.22 since the comment above is just a couple days from being a year old. As long as it's fixed in new versions, that's cool with me. 2.23 is a development version, right? I'll just wait for 2.24.
I'm fairly certain this is fixed in 2.24. Closing.
I just tested it on GNOME 2.24.1 from Ubuntu Intrepid, and it is not fixed. I can still lower the volume until it reaches 0%, the icon changes to the "muted" one, but I can still hear sound.
OK. My guess is that it is either a rounding error or a hardware issue. What hardware are you using?
According to lspci, it's the following: 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
That part of your sound hardware is hardly unusual, but there will also be another chip behind that interface. If you look in the applet preferences and drop down the combo box at the top (it probably reads "HDA Intel (Alsa Mixer)") then another option will appear, in my case it is "Realtek ALC660-VD (OSS Mixer)". This should give you the name of the other part of your sound hardware. I suspect it will be a perfectly normal chip, but its worth investigating.
In the applet's preferences, I see this entry: "SigmaTel STAC9766,67 (OSS Mixer)", although the selected entry is "Intel 82801DB-ICH4 (Alsa mixer)". And what's interesting is that if I select "SigmaTel STAC9766,67 (OSS Mixer)" instead, I don't have the bug anymore: the sound totally stops after I reach 0% volume.
I also have another computer with the same bug (same linux distribution, same version). In this case, lspci gives: 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01) In the applet preferences, I read, among others: - HDA Intel (Alsa mixer) -> selected by default - Realtek ALC662 rev1 (OSS mixer) And with this computer, even if I select "Realtek ALC662 rev1 (OSS mixer)", I can still hear sound (although very very low) with the volume set to 0%.
I wrote this code once, I'm fairly sure it's a rounding issue. It's probably also not worth investigating, since GNOME appears to be moving on to pulse. Percentage is 0-100%, whereas soundcard volume scales can be in any range (I don't even recall float vs. int). I think mute is chosen based on percentage, not soundcard volume value. So if you go, on a scale of 0-250 (just as an idea) to 1, on 0-100 it's 0.4, which after rounding is 0 -> mute. I recall it's something like that. You need to dive into that part of the code to fix it.
Ronald: Yes, the applet is deperecated, but I anticipate that some distros are still going to ship it and I want to get as many bugs as possible cleared up before leaving it to sleep. Julien: I agree with Ronald that its a rounding issue, none of those hardware configurations is unusual (I have a very similar one to you second case).