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Hello All,

I am running Buster using the MATE DE, and for the most part, it is fine, issue-free, fast and stable. I like the newer version of MATE, etc.

The only problem I'm having is with the sound system. I guess that, as an energy saving feature, the sound chip gets turned on and off as the system sees fit. Each time it turns on or off, there is an audible, loud 'thump'. This does not occur in Stretch.

This is obviously not a huge show-stopper of a bug, but it is annoying. Since I am running this on a desktop system on AC power, I am not overly worried about power savings on this level. is there any way to just turn this on/off behavior off? I have been unable to find anywhere to do this.

TIA

Would you think your sound hardware details might be relevant? Questions like this are a real challenge, because you have included basically nothing other than a complaint. Take a number, and someone will be right with you?
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 3c#p681953

If you are interested in tracking down the bug, reporting it, and helping to solve it, then let people know by asking a good question.

sgage wrote:The only problem I'm having is with the sound system. I guess that, as an energy saving feature, the sound chip gets turned on and off as the system sees fit. Each time it turns on or off, there is an audible, loud 'thump'.

i once had a similar experience and it was the sound device being switched off.
but still, it would be better to know than to guess.

in any case, this should help:
https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?qu ... power+save
obviously, articles that talk about enabling it can also help.

bw123 wrote:Would you think your sound hardware details might be relevant? Questions like this are a real challenge, because you have included basically nothing other than a complaint. Take a number, and someone will be right with you?
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php? ... 3c#p681953

If you are interested in tracking down the bug, reporting it, and helping to solve it, then let people know by asking a good question.

Look, I was just posting an initial question to see if this was a known issue. No reason to get snippy.

debiman wrote:

sgage wrote:The only problem I'm having is with the sound system. I guess that, as an energy saving feature, the sound chip gets turned on and off as the system sees fit. Each time it turns on or off, there is an audible, loud 'thump'.

i once had a similar experience and it was the sound device being switched off.
but still, it would be better to know than to guess.

in any case, this should help:
https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?qu ... power+save
obviously, articles that talk about enabling it can also help.

Thanks, debiman - I will check out that link.

clicking audio on some chips when in low power state is a known issue. There are several apps that could set a device to low power state, like laptop-mode-tools, powertop, etc. Nobody knows what power saving apps you might have installed. It could also be a default in the kernel module for the device, or controller that the device is attached to.

The reason your hardware might matter is because on intel_hda devices like mine it's controlled at
/sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save so it depends on what driver your audio device uses. You can probably find more about your hardware and powersaving by using powertop, it will usually hunt down about anything related to power states on the machine. It probably won't help to set this if there is another app already controlling it.

Sometimes there are no sane defaults for power saving, so some tweaks are necessary, it's not always a bug. People who use testing before a release are really needed to find and report and solve bugs.

bw123 wrote:clicking audio on some chips when in low power state is a known issue. There are several apps that could set a device to low power state, like laptop-mode-tools, powertop, etc. Nobody knows what power saving apps you might have installed. It could also be a default in the kernel module for the device, or controller that the device is attached to.

The reason your hardware might matter is because on intel_hda devices like mine it's controlled at
/sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save so it depends on what driver your audio device uses. You can probably find more about your hardware and powersaving by using powertop, it will usually hunt down about anything related to power states on the machine. It probably won't help to set this if there is another app already controlling it.

Sometimes there are no sane defaults for power saving, so some tweaks are necessary, it's not always a bug. People who use testing before a release are really needed to find and report and solve bugs.

Thanks for the pointers, bw123. I've been trying to get an understanding of where the power saving modes are set, and yes, it seems there are many layers and many potential actors in the matter. I will continue my testing shortly (I'm in stretch now), and report what I find...

sgage wrote: I am running Buster using the MATE DE, and for the most part, it is fine, issue-free, fast and stable. I like the newer version of MATE, etc.

Hi,
Looks like all the mate packages are now available from stretch-backports so I'll try the newer version without "upgrading" to Buster because it may not always be quite so "issue-free, fast and stable." Thanks for mentioning that.

kedaha wrote:

sgage wrote: I am running Buster using the MATE DE, and for the most part, it is fine, issue-free, fast and stable. I like the newer version of MATE, etc.

Hi,
Looks like all the mate packages are now available from stretch-backports so I'll try the newer version without "upgrading" to Buster because it may not always be quite so "issue-free, fast and stable." Thanks for mentioning that.

I find that the MATE ensemble from backports works fine in Stretch.

Well, the issue I was having is not so much a bug as a changed configuration between Stretch and Buster.

In Stretch, /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save is set to 0, but in Buster defaults to 1. I suppose if you are running on a laptop you want the power saving feature, and the loudness of the 'thump' during power off/on probably differs (or maybe doesn't exist) depending on the sound card.

After figuring out how to make the systemd rc.local.service work, I just made an rc.local to
and that has taken care of it.

Thanks all for the suggestions and links that helped me figure this out.