OT: Alsa configuration debian squeeze - Pd-list

21 Feb 2013


      Hi list,
Sorry for being a little off topic, but I hope to find a solution here.
After spending many many hours trying to get the sound on my new
machine working I feel I'm getting close, but need a last hint. I hope
one of you could help me.
After installing pulseaudio and editing ~/.asoundrc over and over
again sound worked properly for all applications, except for Pd (ALSA
error: Broken pipe). Beside, Jack won't start. I read the recent
thread about `Pd and pulseaudio' here but pulseaudio seems not to be
the problem in my case.
The setup:

sound card: UA25EX (set to card 0 (snd-usb-audio, index=0));
OS: Debian Squeeze 32-bit;
Alsa: Driver version: 1.0.21, Library version: 1.0.23, Utilities

version: 1.0.23
The sound card is compatible with alsa. It has always worked properly
under Ubuntu 10.04 on my netbook, with pulseaudio installed, without
~/.asoundrc or /etc/asound.conf or doing any other sound
configuration.
aplay' works with pulse and with plughw:0, but not if I select <type hw> and <card 0> in ~/.asoundrc and choose the default. This seems to be a bitrate conversion problem (available sample format S24-3LE'). I
read somewhere that pulse does this conversion automatically, as well
as plughw:0, but I assume that Pd doesn't work with pulseaudio.
Further, I can't find a way to set this `plughw' (of which I don't
know what it actually is or does) as default.
Comparing to another system that does work (now Ubuntu 12.04) I
figured out that /var/lib/alsa/asound.state on my Ubuntu netbook shows
...
state.UA25EX {
        control.1 {
                iface MIXER
                name 'MIDI Input Mode'
                value 'Light Load'
                comment {
                        access 'read write'
                        type ENUMERATED
                        count 1
                        item.0 'High Load'
                        item.1 'Light Load'
                }
        }
}
while my Debian desktop shows ...
state.UA25EX {
        control {
        }
}
It is true that I'm not able to set any control in for example
alsamixer' (This sound device does not have any controls) or withamixer cset'. Editing asound.state manually does not help as it is
reset when I `alsactl store'.
Does anyone have a clue how I could fix this problem? I prefer not to
do a new OS install, at least not Ubuntu 12.04 (Unity). That's why I
moved to Debian in the first place.
--Funs