provide real names in cards and connectors

[yelo3]

using gnome-volume-control I see that pulseaudio gives generic names for audio cards and connectors. The developers say that the problem is in pulseaudio

For example my audio card is shown as "Internal Audio" (Hardware tab) The input connectors are "Microphone 1" and "Microphone 2" The output connector are "Analog Output" and "Analog headphones"

It should be like this: audio card: "Intel HDA STAC9xx" input connectors: "Internal/External Microphone" and "External Microphone" output connectors: "Front Speakers/Headphones" and "Headphones only"

[yelo3]

change "Headphones only" with "Headphones"

[lennart]

I don't think it is particularly user-friendly to show some weird chip name in the UI by default. "Internal Audio" is much more descriptive for an audio device then anything else could be, since even people who have now idea about the chip they have (and almost nobody has) know exactly what is meant by that.

And the naming of the connectors is nothing we really can improve. Most of the time we don't know if a Microphone is on the front or rear of a PC or how it is routed, and when we think we know it very often it is simply not reliable: we cannot really know how the hw is soldered. i.e. if the chip calls something "Front Mic" this does not mean that the manufacturer of your PC actually soldered it that way.

We already have trouble enough with drivers where the "Master" slider does not act as one. That is a very basic thing an underlying driver should get right. But they don't. I am certainly not going to open another can of worms and start relying on front/left labelling info on mic ports.

That said, all this information is actually configurable via udev rules (/lib/udev/rules.d/*pulseaudio and related rules files) and the PA alsa mixer config files (/usr/share/pulse/alsa-mixer/..). If you are not happy with the simplified names we chose you are welcome to change them locally.

[yelo3]

Actually you forgot something: 1) How can the name of the audio card be a problem? It's a preference window in the hardware tab! 2) If you think that internal audio is more descriptive, how am I supposed to distinguish from Internal Audio, and Internal Audio if I have 2 cards? 3) If you say that you can't know connectors name, why did you use "Microphone n" and "Analog Headphones"? Microphone could be Line-in, and headphones could be speakers or line out.

If you make one decision you have to follow it completely.

[lennart]

Replying to yelo3:

Actually you forgot something: 1) How can the name of the audio card be a problem? It's a preference window in the hardware tab!

It is also shown in the tooltip of the icon of the applet. And might be shown in more UIs in the future.

2) If you think that internal audio is more descriptive, how am I supposed to distinguish from Internal Audio, and Internal Audio if I have 2 cards?

We use the string "Internal Audio" only for onboard PCI cards. If you can show me a mainboard that has two sound chips onboard then I'd be very surprised.

3) If you say that you can't know connectors name, why did you use "Microphone n" and "Analog Headphones"? Microphone could be Line-in, and headphones could be speakers or line out.

Not really. Line-In and Mic are actually different beasts physically. Something similar is true for Line-Out/Speakers/Headphones. Mic ports usually have some kind of preamp and are mono, in addition to some other filters. Speakers have an amp, too. So, while the difference between "Mic Front" and "Mic Rear" is mostly labelling, the difference between "Mic" and "Line-In" is usually in the circuitry.

If you make one decision you have to follow it completely.

Actually, that's not even true.

[yelo3]

Thanks for your explanations

1) I mainly asked for the name to be shown, just because whenever a user has a problem with his card, he'll be able to know his card model when experts ask for it, without having to execute some strange commands on the terminal
You could add the model name in a tooltip or refactoring the treeview model. For example:

Internal Audio (Intel HDA STAC9XX)
1 Input/1 Output
Analog Stereo Duplex

Or

Internal Audio
Intel HDA STAC9XX
1 Input/1 Output (Analog Stereo Duplex)

So you don't change the card name, but add only the model in the Hardware tab. This will help users with problems.

2) I thought that Internal meant inside the computer (internal vs external). In this case "Internal" should be renamed to "Integrated"

3) I'm not asking to show the difference between front or rear mic. Just the difference between "internal microphone" and "external microphone plug". Is it possible to detect this?

3.1) If you can correctly distinguish the speakers connector, why don't you just use "analog speakers/headphones" instead of "analog output"? Users will better understead.

3.2) Is the word "alalog" really necessary in the output connectors? I know it's analog because I selected "analog duplex" in the hardware tab

Thanks for your support.

[lennart]

Replying to yelo3:

Thanks for your explanations
1) I mainly asked for the name to be shown, just because whenever a user has a problem with his card, he'll be able to know his card model when experts ask for it, without having to execute some strange commands on the terminal
You could add the model name in a tooltip or refactoring the treeview model. For example: {{{ Internal Audio (Intel HDA STAC9XX) 1 Input/1 Output Analog Stereo Duplex }}} Or {{{ Internal Audio Intel HDA STAC9XX 1 Input/1 Output (Analog Stereo Duplex) }}} So you don't change the card name, but add only the model in the Hardware tab. This will help users with problems.

I can tell you as upstream for PA that the device name might give a hint but is almost never sufficient for tracking down a problem. Almost always at least the output of "pacmd ls" or something like thatis necessary to track things down.

Also, our primary objective when designing UIs is to make them simple and easy to use. If things are easy to debug, then this is certainly good too, but only as long as it doesn't conflict with our first goal. And I think in this case it does.

2) I thought that Internal meant inside the computer (internal vs external). In this case "Internal" should be renamed to "Integrated"

That is nitpicking.

3) I'm not asking to show the difference between front or rear mic. Just the difference between "internal microphone" and "external microphone plug". Is it possible to detect this?

As mentioned, some drivers export that info, but I don't trust that labelling, since it is purely labelling, no physical differences, and vendors tend to solder things in weird ways.

3.1) If you can correctly distinguish the speakers connector, why don't you just use "analog speakers/headphones" instead of "analog output"? Users will better understead.

I don't follow?

3.2) Is the word "alalog" really necessary in the output connectors? I know it's analog because I selected "analog duplex" in the hardware tab

Yes, that is valid criticism. The reason why we add the prefix "Analog" there is that when we have both an analog and a digital port we need to distuingish that in the UI. Now almost always there is no digital port since digital ports are only really available in the spdif profiles. Which makes this kinda pontless indeed. Not sure how to fix this though, since that would require filtering common prefixes of all ports. Not sure I really want to do that.

Thanks for your support.

Welcome!

[yelo3]

That is nitpicking

As you like

I don't follow?

Simply I think that "analog output" (which is available as the default connector in the output tab) is not a good name. Other connector names are more specific (microphone, headphones, line in). So I'm wondering why did you decide for such a generic name.
My proposal is to rename "analog output" to "analog speakers/headphones" (because by default speakers are used until you plug headphones)