Control vmix with the Gnome Volume Applet

[seawright]

If you use the Gnome Desktop and require a simple volume control look no further than the Volume Applet that can be added to the Gnome Panel.

Unfortunately this has not worked with oss version 4 due to shortcomings in Gstreamer's oss library.

[edit by cesium: gstreamer-plugins-bad 0.10.7 has added official support for OSSv4, so you may wish to try installing that instead of trying the patched version below. -bad 0.10.7 may require -base 0.10.19 to work correctly]

If you use GNU/Linux with OSS' vmix module installed then the library file contained within:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/clive_wright/download/gstreamer-ossv4.tar.gz
may solve this problem.

Just unpack the archive and follow the installation instructions in the README file.

Other users should find the .patch file helpful when compiling a GST library to match their system.

[Temüjin]

EDIT: An AMD64(x86-64) version using Clive's updated patch is attached to this Ubuntu post: <s>http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3768914&postcount=60</s> [Edit by cesium: point to updated post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4874981&postcount=2, ignore everything except "ADDENDUM: Volume Control Patch", and the attached versions of this patch]
I built it with Ubuntu 7.10(amd64) using gstreamer-0.10-14, gstreamer-plugins-base-0.10-14, and gstreamer-plugins-good-0.10-6.

I've also verified that it works on my other distro (Arch Linux x64).

[seawright]

I don't have a 64 bit machine. Ok I know I should be able to cross-compile 64 bit code on a 32 bit machine, but it is something I have never done and as I would not be able to test the resulting binary. I would have no way of knowing whether I had been successful or not.

I assume, as you are asking for it, that you have a machine capable of compiling and testing 64 bit code.
Could I therefore suggest that you download the sources for gst-plugins-good-0.10.6 apply any patches that are applicable to your distro and architecture and check whether my .patch file can be correctly applied.
If all is well you should be able to build the library file yourself and (provided it works) make it available for other users.

[seawright]

Just updated the library & patch file after finding a bug which prevented the gnome volume applet and mixer working correctly with Alsa's oss emulation. The new library should now operate transparently so there is no need to remove/un-install it if reverting to the Alsa sound drivers.

[jlibster]

Hi, I've tried to use the applet library as per your README but it seems to have no affect positive or negative. I am using a M-audio Revolution 7.1 card. Any ideas how to get this to work. I've got the sound working on a number of apps but not others and I'd like to remedy this. Thanks for all the work so far. One thing that may be worth nothing. I notice that in both the ossxmix and the gnome applet, there appear to be 5 options that appear to be irrelevant for this card: Volume, PCM, CD, Line-In and Microphone. Following the terminal window when trying to use any of these to adjust volume I get the following:
SNDCTL_MIX_WRITE: Invalid argument when I check/uncheck the "rec" box or attempt to move the "Mic" sliders. The other 4 stay at the maximum and upon attempting to slide down will refresh back to the top. Nothing moves them. Similar behavior is exhibited with the gnome applet, except in the later case you cannot even move the slider. Looking in the /dev/ directory and the settings that work properly in VLC, MPlayer, and MythTV, it seems that PCM0 is valid but perhaps not PCM (no number) and all devices seemed to be mapped from dsp devices . I don't pretend to know how the applications in sound drivers work in Linux but I hope some of this info will help someone to allow these quality drivers to work on nearly all apps and/or make them as trouble free as possible. The OS I'm running is Ubuntu 7.10 on a Asus M2NPV-VM with a Hauppauge 500 TV Tuner card along with M-Audio revolution 7.10 card with the on-board audio disabled in the bios. My chief interest is getting some Python based applications (and others) to get their sound (GCompris is one where for example the Synaptic obtained package has no sound after drivers are compiled in the kernel and I'd like to get the login sounds back (no longer working upon switching to OSS) which I guess means eventually get the ESD working or emulated somehow. As might be expected the test sound (Gnome sound preference dialog in Ubuntu) on OSS and no other setting (Alsa, ESD) and on Audio Conferencing-> Sound capture produces the error: Failed to construct test pipeline for 'gconfaudiosrc ! audio convert ! audioresample ! gconfaudiosink profile=chat' on all save the "test sound" settings (due to absense of mike?) Given I cannot change the setting of the five mentioned devices that gnome inserts with no other options, do they need to be remapped. I'm brainstorming at this but because I really want to make this work. Hope some of the info proves useful. My biggest hopes are to get Python based education apps (Gcompris and TuxTyping for example) to work properly in regards to sound (Alsa dependent builds in Ubuntu perhaps?) as well as GnomeRadio to make use of the radio tuner. Oh, this is build 1011 of the oss debian package with license applied if that helps. Thanks in advance.

[seawright]

If you run:
ossxmix -x
do any or all of the irrelevent mixer controls disappear?
On the subject of ESD does:
dpkg -S /usr/lib/libesd.so.0
show?
libesd-alsa0: /usr/lib/libesd.so.0
if so install package libesd0

[jlibster]

If you run:
ossxmix -x
do any or all of the irrelevent mixer controls disappear?
On the subject of ESD does:
dpkg -S /usr/lib/libesd.so.0
show?
libesd-alsa0: /usr/lib/libesd.so.0
if so install package libesd0

Yes all the irrelevent mixer controls disappear when using the "-x" parameter.

On using the command dpkg -S /usr/lib/libesd.so.0, I get back the following result:
libesd-alsa0: /usr/lib/libesd.so.0

I've just installed the libesd0 package (used Synaptic package manager) which required removal of the libesd0-alsa package. I also added the libesd0-dev package (source files) in case they may be required. after applying I rebooted the machine (just to be sure I restarted all necessary daemons. It isn't MS but as I don't know all the services required for this library change to take effect if any,it seemed easier even if overkill). Good news: no harm down. Bad news: no good done either. tested sounds using the Preferences->Sounds configuration dialog with no effect. Tried the afore mentioned python applications, still no sound. Any steps to recommend?



Oh, side note: Quick reply! I'm used to waiting an eternity to get a reply on a forum. I'm very impressed.

[seawright]

I prefer not to get into a long discussion in the Announcements section so please see my reply to your other post:
http://4front-tech.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7059&highlight=#7059

[KartWol]

Hello, I use Gnome Desktop and OSS driver. My OS is Ubuntu 7.10. I want to control volume with my keyboard. My steps:
1) I dowloaded gstreamer-ossv4.tar.gz
2) I unpacked it
3) I packed libgstossaudio.so:

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sudo gzip /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstossaudio.so

4) I moved patched libgstossaudio.so:

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sudo mv libgstossaudio.so /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/

5) I restarted Volume Control applet. I removed applet from panel then I added applet.
But It does not work. I can not control volume How can I solve this problem?

[seawright]

What processor do you have the libgstossaudio.so is a 32 bit library so it will not work with amd64.

The library is designed to control vmix. Do you have a control labeled vmix0-vol in ossxmix?
If yes, does this control the output volume?

In a terminal run:
gnome-volume-control

Does the mixer application open?
Are there any volume controls present in the mixer window?
If yes what are the controls labeled?
Are there any error messages on the terminal?

[KartWol]

1) I have intel Core 2 Duo
2) I have vmix0-vol in ossxmix
3) I run gnome-volume-control in terminal. Mixer application opened, terminal showed such error:

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(gnome-volume-control:7269): GStreamer-WARNING **: Failed to load plugin '/usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstalsa.so': /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstalsa.so: symbol snd_pcm_hw_params_get_period_time_max, version ALSA_0.9.0rc4 not defined in file libasound.so.2 with link time reference

4) There are volume, pcm, line-in, microphone, cd in the mixer window.
5) All of these controls are labeled.

[seawright]

run:
sudo gzip /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstalsa.so

This should prevent the error when launching gnome-volume-control

Are all controls in the gnome-volume-control stuck at maximum?

Please paste outputs of following commands in your reply:

head -n1 /dev/sndstat
lsmod |grep osscore
modinfo osscore |grep ^vermagic

[KartWol]

1) I run:

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sudo gzip /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstalsa.so

Yes, this command prevented the error. Thanks.
2) All controls are stuck at maximum.
3)

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~$ head -n1 /dev/sndstat
OSS 4.0 (b1009/200711300206)  (C) 4Front Technologies 1996-2007

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~$ lsmod |grep osscore
osscore               572852  2 vmix,envy24ht

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~$ modinfo osscore |grep ^vermagic
vermagic:       2.6.22-14-generic SMP mod_unload 586

[seawright]

The mixer controls you see belong to a "fake" legacy mixer in the envy24ht device driver. As far as gstreamer is concerned these controls take precedence over the real controls. In the driver you have, there is no way to disable these controls but there is another test/experimental driver where they are switchable and disabled by default.

It is available from,
http://www.4front-tech.com/developer/sources/testing/oss-v4.1test0-071126-src-gpl.tar.bz2
but only as source code which is not quite as convenient as a deb package. Are you confident to built it yourself?

[KartWol]

No, I am not confident But I will try...