Bug 26591

Summary:	Some software does not follow pavucontrol fallback when switching sound card
Product:	Mageia	Reporter:	Cyril Levet <cyril.levet0780>
Component:	RPM Packages	Assignee:	All Packagers <pkg-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED OLD	QA Contact:
Severity:	normal
Priority:	Normal	CC:	lewyssmith
Version:	7
Target Milestone:	Mageia 8
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Source RPM:		CVE:
Status comment:
Attachments:	Plasma_Volume

Description Cyril Levet 2020-05-05 11:10:43 CEST

Description of problem:

The computer has two different cards for sound output :
- Speakers are plugged on a Xonar Essence STX II sound card
- headphones are plugged on the motherboard (front jack)

When the headphones are plugged, the sound works well. When I start the speakers and unplug the headphones the "falllback" option on pavucontrol is correctly switched to the speakers. However some software does not follow the fallback and try to use the (now unplugged) headphones. I have noticed that at least VLC, Firefox and the system sound of gnome does not use the right output. On the other hand, Skype works well when I switch the output.

If I check the "Playback"on pavucontrol I see that AudioIPCServer stay on the headphones and does not follow fallback control.

A workaround is to go on GNOME parameters and manually switch the output to any other output devices and return to the correct one. If I do this, the new output is correctly handle by Firefox or VLC.

Of course journalctl does not catch any error.

I have a similar bug in another computer with KDE/Plasma DE. But I'm not sure it is related. In this case the problem arises when switching output from HDMI (on a graphic card) to Internal computer sound (on the motherboard). The fallback does not correctly follow the unplugging of HDMI cable in VLC and Firefox (but works with Skypr).

Of course, the same problem arises if I do the reverse action (speakers on, plug headphones, sound on Firefox stay on the speakers and does not go on headphones).

I think this bug is related to the switch of output cards (sound card/motherboard)

How reproducible: Alwas with Firefox, VLC and Gnome system sounds

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Plug headphones on front jack connected to motherboard and check they work well
2. Play sound with Firefox or VLC and check you can hear it on headphones
3. Turn on speakers plugged on a sound card (not the motherboard)
4. Unplug headphones
5. Sounds on Firefox or VLC continue to be directed to the unplugged speakers.

Comment 1 Lewis Smith 2020-05-07 20:51:56 CEST

Thank you for reporting this. What is expected to happen with two sound outputs is beyond my ken.

Assigning this globally, with no idea what *should* happen, nor where the responsibility lies - pavucontrol or some other sound package, or the user applications.
FWIW pavucontrol has no maintainer.

CC: (none) => lewyssmith
Assignee: bugsquad => pkg-bugs

Comment 2 Aurelien Oudelet 2020-09-04 23:11:34 CEST

Created attachment 11865 [details]
Plasma_Volume

Hi,

Have you ever tried to add a virtual output like attached screenshot?

Suggestion: Use a virtual output that play simultaneously sound to all sound cards.

Aurelien Oudelet 2020-09-04 23:14:41 CEST

Target Milestone: --- => Mageia 8

Comment 3 Cyril Levet 2020-09-05 11:29:30 CEST

Thank you for the work around. It works well. However it is not always the desired behaviour. When I plug my TV on my computer, I want sound only on TV not both on internal speaker and TV. 
It's not a very annoying bug because I can switch manually.

Comment 4 Aurelien Oudelet 2021-07-06 13:14:26 CEST

Mageia 7 is EOL since July 1st 2021.
There will not have any further bugfix for this release.

You are encouraged to upgrade to Mageia 8 as soon as possible.

@reporter, if this bug still apply with Mageia 8, please let us know it.

@packager, if you work on the Mageia 7 version of your package, please check the Mageia 8 package if issue is also present. In this case, please fix the Mageia 8 version instead.

This bug report will be closed OLD if there is no further notice within 1st September 2021.

Comment 5 Marja Van Waes 2021-09-07 14:09:38 CEST

Hi bug reporter and hi assignee and others involved,

Please reopen this bug report if it is still valid for Mageia 8 or 9(cauldron), and change "Version:" in the upper left of this report accordingly.

This report is being closed as OLD because it was filed against Mageia 7, for which  support ended on June 30th 2021.

Thanks,
Marja

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => OLD