Issue with sound output mapping and settings after 18.3 upgrade

[justanotherlmuser]

Hello.

I have upgraded my Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.2 installation to 18.3 using update manager (Kernel 4.10.0-40), my sound card is ASUS Xonar DX and I was using it with analogue 4.0 setup profile. I've noticed that after upgrade sound seemed a little bit off, so i decided to check sound settings app, only to find that output profiles are glitched and replaced with input profile instead (screenshot).

If i select Digital output and then reselect Analogue ouput, profiles dropdown list is back and can be selected.

After re-launching the sound settings app, profiles are still glitched in the same manner as presented in the screenshot and channel mapping is still screwed up.
In addition, creating a fresh new user profile has the same situation, so it definitely has something to do with system globally. Reinstalling pulseaudio package did not improve anything.

Does it sound like a salvageable case or should I look into reinstalling entire system root with 18.3 from scratch? I am not afraid to reinstall some packages or try to remove some configs to avoid the burden of complete reinstall.

[justanotherlmuser]

I've tested the live LM 18.3 Cinnamon USB stick and i get the same exact result. This seems to be a bug in 18.3 itself. I believe, its something i should report to the bug tracker at this point.

[kyphi]

In the Output section of Sound Device Settings instead of "Analogue Stereo Input" it should read "Analogue Stereo Output". That is what it says on my system.

What I would do is to switch the audio input/output lines from your sound card to your motherboard inbuilt sound sockets and check Sound Settings again after a reboot.

If that resolves the issue then it would seem most likely that there is an issue in the kernel or your Asus sound card. You could also try an older or later kernel.

I too use the 4.10.0-40 kernel but with motherboard sound chip.

[justanotherlmuser]

I tried to go with 4.13 series kernels, it has the same result. I used 4.10 kernels before upgrade to 18.3 and all worked just fine. Also, LM 18.2 live USB does not have this glitched behavior.

Here are all exhaustive combinations i tried or recall working recently:
LM 18.3 Live USB - bugged
LM 18.2 Live USB - working as expected
LM 18.2 Installation + Kernel 4.10.0-40 - working as expected (last week, before upgrade)
LM 18.3 Upgraded Installation + Kernel 4.10.0-40 - bugged (this week)
LM 18.3 Upgraded Installation + Kernel 4.13.0-17 - bugged (this week)

I can't pinpoint where this issue originates from, but i suspect its tied to 18.3 somehow.
I reported it to the bug tracker already. Hopefully, it will be looked into at some point.

[kyphi]

Have you looked in AlsaMixer? Open a terminal and type alsamixer followed by pressing Enter. You can verify in alsamixer which sound card is in use by pressing F6.

Have you tried the inbuilt sound chip?

[justanotherlmuser]

Alsamixer output displays sound card correctly both in live USB session and installation. Built-in sound got burned on my motherboard (first and foremost reason i stick to discrete solution), so i can't test it unfortunately.

[wutsinterweb]

I found something: QasMixer, it let's me choose "hw-card" rather than Alsa, and all the options appear for mixing. With the alsa mixer, no go, only the rear jacks appear. I am using on board audio.

[wutsinterweb]

Thanks everybody for offering help. My first couple days of searches didn't yield luck. Hope this helps others.

[kyphi]

I doubt that it has anything to do with Linux Mint 18.3. Perhaps the newly released kernel 4.10.0-42 will bring a fix.

[justanotherlmuser]

I was able to identify the source of the issue and the software where this bug occurs.

The issue comes from PulseAudio configuration "Analogue Surround 4.0 Output + Analogue Stereo Input" as presented in pavucontrol screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/nx2oJRA.png

Changing PulseAudio config to "Analogue Surround 4.0 Output" fixes the issue in Sound settings app: all profiles appear in the dropdown list.

Selecting "Analogue Surround 4.0 Output + Analogue Stereo Input" in pavucontrol glitches the profile dropdown in Sound app again, as presented in the head post, which makes this bug reproducible.

This brings me to conclusion, that Sound settings app is not compatible with some of the default Pulse Audio configurations (new ones, maybe?). Somehow it surfaced with 18.3 release.

I relayed this info to bugtracker.