Comments on: Pulseaudio merged volume considered harmful

By: Marc_UK

Marc_UK — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 12:07:19 +0000

Pulseaudio = FAIL.
after much tweaking i managed to get Jaunty to be useable.
i dont like Gnome much, but even Karmic’s PHONON audio in KDE 4.3 sucked
Why is Linux audio going backwards ?
Pulseaudio has single handedly managed to get only one thing to work consistently – to turn Linux into Windows Me..
but my sound worked in WinME
Pulseaudio is killing Linux.

Mepis 8.01 is still a nice, reliable, fast, .deb distro. props to Warren.
when Mepis goes KDE 4.3 i may cry

By: IanM

IanM — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 04:01:07 +0000

I have hurt my ears by clicking on a track in RB and getting an instant, painful, full volume blast through my headphones. I had set the volume levels in the mixer that comes with the desktop environment (XFCE), but when I click on the track, all my volume settings are completely changed, and the volume is now set to 100%.

I just get annoyed with these stupid sound systems that require you to be a sound engineer to operate your computer. For goodness sake, people, we just want a volume switch on our panel that sets a volume and STAYS THAT WAY. If stupid Windows can do it, why not Linux??? It used to work. Now I don’t understand what is going on or where to begin to sort out the sound problems on my desktop computer.

The XFCE mixer no longer responds to the “Master” volume control (i.e. changing the level on the control no longer changes the volume in any way), although the sound does disappear if I switch that control off. Sound volume NOW changes in accordance with settings of the “Surround” and “PCM” controls, but in a strictly additive way. Why have two volume controls, neither of which seems to be called “Volume” or “Master”? Whenever I start a track in RB (or run Skype) they put the “Surround” and “PCM” sliders to 100% – which is ear-damagingly LOUD. Yes, I can turn them down, but WHY do I have to keep undoing their stupid behaviour? RB used to work.

Sound has just got worse and worse.

Help.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:50:56 +0000

Pulseaudio IS dangerous
I remember pulse audio letting me crank up the volume to 400% once (by accident) in an ubuntu install I was running. If my headphones hadn’t cut out that would have been seriously harmful.