Bug#451203: gnome-applets: mute problem and also sometimes randomly changes the volume

[A B]

Package: gnome-applets
Version: 2.20.1-3
Followup-For: Bug #451203


Hello,
I have been experiencing the same problem, but more recently it became
worse: mixer_applet2 can randomly change the volume to any value (for
real, not just display as the mute problem). For example, I'm at 76%,
use the up key and expect to get 80%, when instead I get 25% (it's
random, could be anything else). It happens randomly but often enough that
if I keep the Up key with auto-repeat, I can see the volume cycling through
various values.

Two possible workarounds:

- I take the binary file /usr/lib/gnome-applet/mixer_applet2 from the etch
  package (version 2.14.3-4) and simply use it to overwrite the current
  one (version 2.20.1-3).  (I then kill the mixer_applet2 process so gnome
  asks to restart it).
  Hop, everything is working fine again:
  No random mute display, no random mistake in volume value.

- else, changing the applet preferences and using the OSS emulation API
  instead of native ALSA API for the card makes it work fine too (no false
  mute, no volume mistake).

First method shows there's something that changed in mixer_applet2 between
2.14.3-4 and 2.20.1-3 that should be investigated, and not just leave it to
a driver bug, considering that alsamixer always behaves correctly.

I'm also using an hda-intel sound card (with a SigmaTel CXD9872RD/K
codec), on an Intel 945GM mobile chipset.

regards,
A.B.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (600, 'testing'), (50, 'unstable'), (10, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.25-1-strider (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gnome-applets depends on:
ii  debconf [debconf-2.0]      1.5.21        Debian configuration management sy
ii  gconf2                     2.22.0-1      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnome-applets-data         2.20.1-3      Various applets for GNOME 2 panel 
ii  gnome-icon-theme           2.22.0-1      GNOME Desktop icon theme
ii  gnome-panel                2.20.3-3      launcher and docking facility for 
ii  gstreamer0.10-alsa         0.10.19-1     GStreamer plugin for ALSA
ii  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good 0.10.7-3      GStreamer plugins from the "good" 
ii  libapm1                    3.2.2-10      Library for interacting with APM d
ii  libatk1.0-0                1.22.0-1      The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonoboui2-0             2.22.0-1      The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                      2.7-10        GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libcpufreq0                002-7.2       shared library to deal with the cp
ii  libdbus-1-3                1.2.1-2       simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2           0.74-2        simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgconf2-4                2.22.0-1      GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0                1:2.6.2-1     library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.16.1-2      The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-desktop-2         2.22.1-1      Utility library for loading .deskt
ii  libgnome2-0                2.20.1.1-1    The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomekbd2               2.22.0-1      GNOME library to manage keyboard c
ii  libgnomekbdui2             2.22.0-1      User interface library for libgnom
ii  libgnomeui-0               2.20.1.1-1    The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0             1:2.22.0-2    GNOME Virtual File System (runtime
ii  libgnomevfs2-extra         1:2.22.0-2    GNOME Virtual File System (extra m
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-base0 0.10.19-1     GStreamer libraries from the "base
ii  libgstreamer0.10-0         0.10.19-3     Core GStreamer libraries and eleme
ii  libgtk2.0-0                2.12.9-2      The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libgtop2-7                 2.22.1-1      gtop system monitoring library
ii  libgucharmap6              1:2.22.1-1    Unicode browser widget library (sh
ii  libhal1                    0.5.11~rc2-1  Hardware Abstraction Layer - share
ii  libnotify1 [libnotify1-gtk 0.4.4-3       sends desktop notifications to a n
ii  liboobs-1-3                2.20.0-1      GObject based interface to system-
ii  libpanel-applet2-0         2.20.3-3      library for GNOME Panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0              1.20.2-2      Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libwnck22                  2.22.1-1      Window Navigator Construction Kit 
ii  libx11-6                   2:1.0.3-7     X11 client-side library
ii  libxklavier12              3.5-1         X Keyboard Extension high-level AP
ii  libxml2                    2.6.32.dfsg-2 GNOME XML library
ii  python                     2.5.2-1       An interactive high-level object-o

Versions of packages gnome-applets recommends:
pn  deskbar-applet                <none>     (no description available)
ii  gnome-media                   2.22.0-1   GNOME media utilities
pn  gnome-netstatus-applet        <none>     (no description available)
pn  gnome-system-monitor          <none>     (no description available)
ii  python-gnome2                 2.22.0-1   Python bindings for the GNOME desk

-- debconf information excluded