[PD] OT: Alsa configuration debian squeeze

[Funs Seelen]

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 with
`amixer 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