sound controls do not change speaker linearly

[deryilz]

I'm on Debian 12 bookworm with kernel version 6.1.0-18-amd64.

I've been having an issue since day 1 of getting this computer: none of the volume controls affect the speaker linearly. Setting volume to 0% mutes properly, but 5% and 100% are the same volume on the speaker. On top of that, the real volume sometimes jumps when I am trying to change it with the volume keys. Sometimes a certain percentage like 35% is very quiet while 30% is very loud, then when I go back up to 35% it's very loud again. It's driving me insane.

I've had pavucontrol and alsamixer open while playing with audio, and they both show that volume should be increasing linearly by 5%, but the speaker seems to have a mind of its own.

By the way, I've been using pulseaudio. I installed Pipewire today with the instructions from https://wiki.debian.org/PipeWire#Debian_12 and confirmed that it's installed but it didn't fix the issue.

I have never had this problem with my bluetooth headphones or headphones plugged in with the jack; the volumes there work as expected. I also have windows dual booted on this laptop and the issue does not occur with the speaker on there. I'm sure there's some kind of simple solution but I've been looking everywhere and I haven't been able to find it. I'd be happy to send more debug info if needed.

[mrmazda]

Do you have installed pipewire, pipewire-alsa, pipewire-audio, pipewire-pulse, and not pulseaudio?

Output from inxi -Aaz might be useful.

[deryilz]

Thanks, I have all those installed. Should I really uninstall the pulseaudio apt package? The debian pipewire installation page makes it sound like Pulseaudio is supposed to exist (i'm just trying to clarify):

"If PipeWire is configured properly, this will print "Server Name: PulseAudio (on PipeWire 0.3.XX)" If it's not working properly, see the Debian 11 instructions for masking PulseAudio."

Here is my output from inxi:

Code: Select all

Audio:
  Device-1: AMD Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 73:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640 class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo
    driver: snd_pci_acp6x v: kernel alternate: snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x,
    snd_pci_acp5x pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 73:00.5
    chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480
  Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 73:00.6
    chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-18-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.65 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
    status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl

[fabien]

Please use code tags for terminal outputs, I did it for you this time.

[mrmazda]

In distros with newer pipewire releases, which I think includes Trixie, installing pipewire-pulse forces removal of pulseaudio, so I don't know what point there is keeping it along with pipewire and pipewire-pulse in Bookworm. My idea is to try pulseaudio package removal, to see if its absence has an impact on the problem. If you can remove it, so also you can reinstall it if you find it breaks something instead of solving the problem.

[deryilz]

I just confirmed that all pulseaudio packages are removed. The issue is still not fixed. Is there any way this could be a driver issue?

One thing worth mentioning is that when I change the speaker profile to Analog Surround 2.1 from settings, the volume becomes linear but it's very grainy. All other modes have uneven volume.

[Aki]

Hello,

According to your log, the computer has three audio devices:

• Device-1: AMD Rembrandt Radeon High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
  bus-ID: 73:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:1640 class-ID: 0403

• Device-2: AMD ACP/ACP3X/ACP6x Audio Coprocessor vendor: Lenovo
  driver: snd_pci_acp6x v: kernel alternate: snd_pci_acp3x, snd_rn_pci_acp3x,
  snd_pci_acp5x pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 73:00.5
  chip-ID: 1022:15e2 class-ID: 0480

• Device-3: AMD Family 17h/19h HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel
  v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 73:00.6
  chip-ID: 1022:15e3 class-ID: 0403

Which one is the default audio output device ?

--
note: moved to "Hardware" sub-forum

[deryilz]

The default is device 3, the AMD family 17h/19h