Hello all,

I've been using KDE mostly on Fedora 17-19. I was having an issue i noticed when installing fedora 20 kde that i coudln't solve. When setting master channel to 5.1 in Kmix and trying to control volume from the panel applet, it ends up changing levels on all the channels of the surround sound. i use to use pavucontrol....but when installing pavucontrol, everything ends up only being controlled by the front channels, even with alsamixer.

I ended up switching to mint cinnamon. Because in cinnamon. when i set the mixer to 5.1 surround sound. The volume control then only controls the master channel and does not change the levels of the surround channels. as can be confirmed with alsamixer open. alsactl store also seems to work perfectly, saving settings and levels on each channel for each device.

I was wondering is there a basic plasmoid for alsa mixer to replace kmix? I also tried to install KDE on mint.......and had the same exact issue. On kde, the alsamixer settings don't save, and the kmix volume control keeps resetting all the levels instead of only controlling master channel.

I tried every setting I can think of, Is there something i'm missing?

Thanks for the help.

Rich.

Did you really set your system settings to a surround profile? KMix is only handling what it is told by pulseaudio, so you need to change your pulseaudio profile first: go to System Settings -> Multimedia -> Audio and Video Settings -> Audio Hardware Setup

yes I've done that and then set it as preferred device by putting it to the top,

And then selecting the 5.1 as master channel in kmix.

The problem was not that surround sound isn't working. As can be confirmed testing with kmix speaker test...which all channels are mapped correctly. and also with speakertest -c 6 from command line.

The problem is the volume control from kmix, no matter what master channel is set to, changels all the levels of the surround sound speaker.s basically keeps resetting the levels of the front and surround channels to full, instead of only changing the master channel.

Everytime i touch volume in the panel, I have to go into alsamixer to change levels again. alsactl store does not work, because the kmix volume control keeps changing it. Same thing can be observed within pavucontrol if its installed.

I even tried to install fedora gnome and had the same issue. I don't remember having this issue in the past with linux, but its been a while. Only thing working right for me in this regard, is mint cinnamon. Installing KDE (which i would prefer) on mint gave me the same issue.

Here is how you can test with a surround setup. go into alsamixer.....set desired levels of front, surround, center. keep alsamixer open, (or pavucontrol) and just slightly change the volume from panel. it will reset your levels.

What happens in cinnamon is, only the master channel changes, nothing else. The other levels might change slightly, but only with a very drastic volume change and when master channel is already maxed out. Also, alsa will keep my same levels i set with alsactl store the next time i boot and set sound back to 5.1

Well, no, I can't test, as I don't have a 5.1 system to test on. I was just trying to make sure you did indeed set the hardware specs correctly.

Please file a bug against KMix, specifying your exact version and KDE SC release

ok