It's very likely that each volume controller of the card in your PC is for a single (mono) channel, where the controllers in your laptop manage two channels at once (stereo).
Try running alsamixer, and then move to some various volume sliders and press "q" a few times, and then "z" a few times. you may see a difference in L/R (stereo - MAYBE mono panning), or no difference between "q" and "up arrow" (mono for sure). My laptop / PC do the same thing as yours.... it's just the way the different cards are designed. David On 2/16/06, Ivo Rössling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi there, > > I have a problem with the amixer tool. > > For a given mixer, I was used to being able to set both > channels seperately in their Volume and mute, unmute, > toggle them seperately, too. > > On my Laptop I was able to do something like this: > > ---------- snip ---------- > tody:~ # amixer set Master 10,20 > Simple mixer control 'Master',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Front Left: Playback 10 [32%] [on] > Front Right: Playback 20 [65%] [on] > ---------- snap ---------- > > or like this: > > ---------- snip ---------- > tody:~ # amixer set Master unmute,toggle > Simple mixer control 'Master',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Front Left: Playback 10 [32%] [on] > Front Right: Playback 20 [65%] [off] > > tody:~ # amixer set Master toggle,toggle > Simple mixer control 'Master',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Front Left: Playback 10 [32%] [off] > Front Right: Playback 20 [65%] [on] > ---------- snap ---------- > > > On my new PC, however, the above commands make > amixer complaining. Using one parameter only > for the volume works well: > > ---------- snip ---------- > linux:~ # amixer set Front 3 > Simple mixer control 'Front',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Mono: > Front Left: Playback 3 [10%] [on] > Front Right: Playback 3 [10%] [on] > ---------- snap ---------- > > Using the mute command as a single parameter > works well, too. > > Using the toggle command, however, produces > the following message: > ---------- snip ---------- > linux:~ # amixer set Front toggle > amixer: Unknown capture setup 'toggle'.. > ---------- snap ---------- > > An "amixer get Front" tells me now, that > the toggle was performed, but only for > the left channel: > > ---------- snip ---------- > linux:~ # amixer get Front > Simple mixer control 'Front',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Mono: > Front Left: Playback 3 [10%] [off] > Front Right: Playback 3 [10%] [on] > ---------- snap ---------- > > > Trying to set the volumes for both channels > seperately works, but I'm also getting an > error message: > > ---------- snip ---------- > linux:~ # amixer set Front 10,15 > amixer: Unknown capture setup ''.. > > linux:~ # amixer get Front toggle > Simple mixer control 'Front',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Mono: > Front Left: Playback 10 [32%] [off] > Front Right: Playback 15 [48%] [on] > ---------- snap ---------- > > However, using "toggle" twice as a parameter > also only toggles the left Volume. The only > thing that is different, is the error message: > > ---------- snip ---------- > linux:~ # amixer set Front toggle,toggle > amixer: Unknown capture setup 'toggle,toggle'.. > > linux:~ # amixer get Front > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Mono: > Front Left: Playback 10 [32%] [on] > Front Right: Playback 15 [48%] [on] > ---------- snap ---------- > > However, muting the left channel while still > toggeling the right, works (- besides an > error message): > > ---------- snip ---------- > linux:~ # amixer set Front unmute,toggle > amixer: Unknown capture setup 'toggle'.. > > linux:~ # amixer get Front > Simple mixer control 'Front',0 > Capabilities: pvolume pswitch > Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right > Limits: Playback 0 - 31 > Mono: > Front Left: Playback 10 [32%] [on] > Front Right: Playback 15 [48%] [off] > ---------- snap ---------- > > > > > What am I doing wrong?! (Apart from writing > such long emails...) > > Isn't it possible to toggle both channels at > one time?! And why do I always have this > "Mono:" channel listed although it is not > part of the "Playback channels:" ?! > > Thanks for any help... > > P.S.: On my Laptop, I'm using a SuSE 9.3 with > 2.6.11.4-20a-default kernel and the following > rpms: > - alsa-1.0.9-9.1: > - alsa-firmware-1.0.8-5: > - alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-544 > - alsaplayer-0.99.76-72.1: > - alsa-tools-1.0.8-4: > - alsamodular-1.8.7-5: > - alsa-devel-1.0.9-9.1: > > On my new PC, I'm using a SuSE 10.0 with a > 2.6.13-15.8-smp kernel and the following rpms: > - alsa-1.0.9-23: > - alsa-firmware-1.0.9-4: > - alsamixergui-0.9.0rc1-546: > - alsa-devel-1.0.9-23: > - alsa-tools-1.0.9-6: > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files > for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes > searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=103432&bid=230486&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Alsa-user mailing list > Alsa-user@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user > -- David Slimp [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.MySpace.com/rock808 = "On proprietary platforms, eventually you'll run into 'you can't do that.' On open platforms, you'll run into 'you have to learn more to do that.' " -- Ian Smith-Heisters ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. 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