I see this on Ubuntu 12.10. Start with sound working, then do:
$ amixer -Dhw:0 set 'Master' mute Simple mixer control 'Master',0 Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum Playback channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 64 Mono: Playback 53 [83%] [-11.00dB] [off] Sound is muted, as expected. The same thing happens if you mute *any* channel (not just master) in alsamixer. $ amixer -Dhw:0 set 'Master' unmute Simple mixer control 'Master',0 Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum Playback channels: Mono Limits: Playback 0 - 64 Mono: Playback 53 [83%] [-11.00dB] [on] Sound is still muted, both in reality and as shown by xfce4-volumed. If I open alsamixer, it shows master unmuted but everything else muted (if I had used alsamixer to do the muting, it would not recognize this until alsamixer is restarted). If I unmute *all* output channels (even ones I don't have anything attached to), the actual sound finally resumes (and xfce4-volumed mute indication changes) when I unmute the last one. "amixer -D pulse set Master 1+ unmute" also works to unmute all the channels. It seems that pulseaudio can't handle anything but a single system-wide mute switch, which is bad enough, and simulates multi-channel mute poorly (if muting one channel automatically mutes all, why does unmuting one not unmute all?), leaving confused mixing apps and confused users who can't see an easy way to turn their sound back on. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to pulseaudio in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/496354 Title: amixer doesn't seem to unmute audio Status in “pulseaudio” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Binary package hint: pulseaudio When i run amixer -Dhw:0 set 'Master' unmute The volume appears to be unmuted in alsamixer, but the sound is not actually unmuted, and all the GUI tools show the sound is muted. I've attached a log, of the following... pressing the mute button on my keyboard, so the sound is muted. using the unmute command so the sound should be unmuted. playing a sound in pidgin, getting no sound, because the sound is still muted. hitting the mute button on my keyboard again, which actually unmutes the sound. playing a sound in pidgin, and getting sound I've also attached a screenshot, showing the GUI saying the sound is muted, while alsamixer is saying that it isn't. Note that while unmute doesn't work, setting the volume does. amixer -Dhw:0 set 'Master' 100% Works as expected, for example. I'm also affected by #352732, maybe related. To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pulseaudio/+bug/496354/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
