Volume always resets to 100% Max on login/reboot

[evandenbroecke]

Been trying to work on this problem for a while now. Looked at a few searches on google and tried them all but can't seem to get pulseaudio to remember the last volume levels and always resets my volume to 100% max every time I logout or reboot the machine.

Computer: HP-G60230US (Upgraded CPU 2.4G w/4gb ram and 120gb ssd)
Audio driver is, Intel HD audio
Dist: jessie, debian 8 (live installed img) with gnome3

No matter what I have tried, nothing works and the volume is always reset to max on logout. Login greeting resets it to max and then also after logging in it resets it back to max again. (Setting the volume before logging has no effect).

Tried setting with alasmixer and then alsactl store... doesnt work even setting as root. Tried commenting out the load-module line in default.pa to restore volume levels with no luck either. Just nothing is working here, not sure why.
Anymore info I will be happy to provide.

[evandenbroecke]

I just wanted to note something weird as well.. In trying to fix this issue, I have even tried logging via ssh into the computer when nobody else is logged in... the computer is just sitting at the login screen.

First off running alsamixer shows a very different volume meters then if I just run the program as a user logged into the system. Normally it only shows 1 volume meter label "master" and that is all. When I run it this way I can see about 6 more meters, PCM, mic... etc etc...


I set the volumes to the desired level and then save the configuration with alsactl store. The setting didnt effect anything when I logged in, the volume level was still at 100%, however when I log back out now, SOMETIMES the volume is at 10% where I set it too, other times its back at 100% max. This is completely random when it happens. Log out again and it will be back at 10%.

Also, I can select this "device" (Intel HD Audio) as a normal user and see all the volume levels as described before, but still has no effect on setting and saving the default levels when I login again.

Not sure whats going on here...

[evandenbroecke]

Should the pulse directory in .config permission be rwx------ ? Think it might be a permission issue, tried setting the permissions to 755, but it had no effect as pulseaudio just created the directory again with 700 permission.

[roseway]

I had this problem with a recent test installation of Debian Testing, and the solution was to edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, and set the value

Code: Select all

flat-volumes = no

[evandenbroecke]

nope, didnt work... even tried removing the pulse directory...

[Bulkley]

Sometimes I find that renaming the config file, in this case ~/.pulse, and restarting is enough to "solve" a problem that I had somehow injected into the works. It's an easy test and reversible.

[evandenbroecke]

yeah I already tried just removing the .pulse directory... still doesnt fix it.

[Bulkley]

Is the problem for sure with Pulse or does Alsa influence it? Would removing Pulse and turning the whole of audio control to Alsa help?

I'm trying to figure out what is causing your problem. When I look at my Pulse Audio Volume Control it shows at 132% which is where I set it eons ago.

How do you connect your audio? Is it through USB port(s)? Is it possible that some sort of feedback is kicking in? I ask this because I'm not convinced that my laptop holds settings for temporary USB connections. Is temporary connection the issue? The machine I'm typing from has a permanent speaker jack connection which may be why it is stable. Just fumbling around.

[evandenbroecke]

Problem with pulse or alsa? Honestly I dont even know anymore... Lol been working at this problem for hours now...

Here is the full spec.

Its an HP-G60 Laptop (HP-G60-230US) using it as a media computer connected to an 55" Samsung TV, via the HDMI port. but some of the hardware has been upgrade from original specs. The CPU is upgrade to a 2.4Ghz w/3MB Cache, RAM upgraded to 4GB and the storage is on a 120GB SSD drive.

The computer is connected to my TV via the HDMI cable and then the audio out port is used on the TV to run back to my amp. (The amp as HDMI, but doesnt route the audio so I am forced to connect it from the tv).

The support files will be from the default installation of the Live CD image of Debian 8 (Jessie) and of the main repo.

Just want to note this as well. On the login screen, it only remembers the volume level sometimes, but not always, its a 50-50 chance if it remembers the last volume level, either remembers or it sets it back to 100%. But it always resets my volume back 100% everytime I login again.

It could just be a Gnome3 thing, not sure..

[Bulkley]

Login screen? There's a point where we differ. I got rid of those years ago and just use sx (short for startx) to log in. It does leave me with the same question you have; is this a Gnome thing? Or more to the point, is it a GDM thing?

I also found connecting and disconnecting HDMI to be a nuisance so we watch videos on the laptop.

[evandenbroecke]

Yeah I am almost sure its getting set somehow when I login. My laptop lives on my TV, mostly cause the LVDS has almost burnt out (backlight comes on only sometimes). And I just prefer to have the GDM loading. Thats the strange thing though, as I said before, even the GDM only remembers the last volume it was set to sometimes. Log out and its fine, log back out again, its set 100%, log out again it sets to 10%.

Anyways, I looked in dconf editor and couldn't find anything there either, so not sure where this setting is coming from. Could it also be possible that pulseaudio is looking for a file that it cannot find so it's just setting the 'fall-back' settings? The pulse directory (.config/pulse/) has permissions of Read/write for the user only, no group or other permission, on the directory and the files inside. I tried setting the directory permissions to read for everyone rw-r--r, but something, pulseaudio, just resets the permission back to what they were before on the next login. Possible its a permission issue?

[evandenbroecke]

Scatch that! [Solved]

I think I might have figured out the problem. Apon looking around I noticed that the root user had a .config/pulse directory. I removed its contents and I think it seem to fix my issue.

Not sure how I did that, but things seem to be normal now.

My Volume is now remembering its state when I login/logout.

[evandenbroecke]

Just wanted to mention, problem is back again.

Had to re-install the live-iso again the other night, because i was messing around with my gdm and lost my ability to login boot X with gnome. Couldnt figure out the problem I caused so I just re-installed. And the problem came back, as well i have not been able to get it rid of it this time. Only thing I havent tried again yet is installing a backport of pulseaudio.