Audio balance issue

Hello,

Loving the OS, with one big hitch so far that I can't seem to fix. My audio for some reason, seems to split the balance between left and right channels all by itself when I adjust the volume up or down. There doesn't seem to be a 'lock' function so that they don't unbalance. Anyone else ever run into this issue with KDE, or know how to fix it? Thank you.

System:
Kernel: 5.17.1-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.2.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=23fd0220-af2d-4416-beb7-d72c3240b4d7 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet splash rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 loglevel=3
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.24.4 tk: Qt v: 5.15.3 info: latte-dock
wm: kwin_x11 vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial:
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: TUF GAMING Z590-PLUS v: Rev 1.xx
serial: UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1203
date: 10/28/2021
Battery:
ID-1: hidpp_battery_0 charge: 91% condition: N/A volts: 4.1 min: N/A
model: Logitech G903 Wired/Wireless Gaming Mouse type: N/A serial:
status: discharging
Device-1: ps-controller-battery-7c:66:ef:24:47:6d model: N/A serial: N/A
charge: N/A status: discharging
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i9-10900K bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Comet Lake
family: 6 model-id: 0xA5 (165) stepping: 5 microcode: 0xEE
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 10 tpc: 2 threads: 20 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 640 KiB desc: d-10x32 KiB; i-10x32 KiB L2: 2.5 MiB desc: 10x256 KiB
L3: 20 MiB desc: 1x20 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 4900 high: 4901 min/max: 800/5300 scaling:
driver: intel_pstate governor: performance cores: 1: 4900 2: 4900 3: 4900
4: 4900 5: 4900 6: 4900 7: 4900 8: 4900 9: 4900 10: 4900 11: 4900
12: 4901 13: 4900 14: 4900 15: 4900 16: 4900 17: 4901 18: 4900 19: 4900
20: 4900 bogomips: 147994
Flags: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Vulnerabilities:
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf status: Not affected
Type: mds status: Not affected
Type: meltdown status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass
mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
Type: spectre_v1
mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2
mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Vega 10 XL/XT [Radeon RX 56/64] driver: amdgpu v: kernel
pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-3
empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 03:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:687f
class-ID: 0300
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.3 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1
compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: amdgpu unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: amdgpu display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2560x1440 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 677x381mm (26.65x15.00")
s-diag: 777mm (30.58")
Monitor-1: DP-3 mapped: DisplayPort-2 model: AOC AG271QG4
serial: built: 2018 res: 2560x1440 dpi: 109 gamma: 1.2
size: 597x336mm (23.5x13.23") diag: 685mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
OpenGL:
renderer: AMD Radeon RX Vega (vega10 LLVM 13.0.1 DRM 3.44 5.17.1-zen1-1-zen)
v: 4.6 Mesa 22.0.1 direct render: Yes
Audio:
Device-1: Intel vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:f0c8 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD Vega 10 HDMI Audio [Radeon 56/64] driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 bus-ID: 03:00.1
chip-ID: 1002:aaf8 class-ID: 0403
Device-3: Creative Sound Blaster X3 type: USB
driver: cdc_acm,hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid bus-ID: 1-4:2
chip-ID: 041e:3264 class-ID: 0102 serial:
Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.17.1-zen1-1-zen running: yes
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: no
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.50 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Mellanox MT26448 [ConnectX EN 10GigE PCIe 2.0 5GT/s]
driver: mlx4_core v: 4.0-0 pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 4 link-max:
lanes: 8 port: N/A bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 15b3:6750 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp5s0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full mac:
Device-2: Intel Ethernet I225-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igc v: kernel
pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: N/A bus-ID: 07:00.0
chip-ID: 8086:15f3 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac:
IF-ID-1: anbox0 state: down mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: TP-Link UB500 Adapter type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus-ID: 1-11:6 chip-ID: 2357:0604 class-ID: e001 serial:
Report: bt-adapter ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address:
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 2.26 TiB used: 992.21 GiB (43.0%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Corsair model: Force MP510
size: 447.13 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: rev: ECFM22.6
temp: 34.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102
size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: rev: 0001 scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 446.83 GiB size: 446.83 GiB (100.00%)
used: 359.69 GiB (80.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 576 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 446.83 GiB size: 446.83 GiB (100.00%)
used: 359.69 GiB (80.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 446.83 GiB size: 446.83 GiB (100.00%)
used: 359.69 GiB (80.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 446.83 GiB size: 446.83 GiB (100.00%)
used: 359.69 GiB (80.5%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 31.2 GiB used: 3.07 GiB (9.8%)
priority: 100 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: amdgpu temp: 39.0 C
mem: 40.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 775
Info:
Processes: 523 Uptime: 2h 18m wakeups: 6 Memory: 31.2 GiB
used: 28.58 GiB (91.6%) Init: systemd v: 250 tool: systemctl Compilers:
gcc: 11.2.0 clang: 13.0.1 Packages: 1981 pacman: 1969 lib: 562 flatpak: 12
Shell: fish v: 3.4.1 default: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: konsole
inxi: 3.3.15
Garuda (2.6.1-1):
System install date: 2022-02-15
Last full system update: 2022-04-13 ↻
Is partially upgraded: No
Relevant software: NetworkManager
Windows dual boot: No/Undetected
Snapshots: Timeshift (maybe)
Failed units: systemd-networkd-wait-online.service

First off, hi! Welcome in! :wave:

Please look at this guide before posting. That inxi needs to be in a code block so we can actually read it. Garuda Assistant has a “Copy for Forum” button that will do this for you.

Is there anything you’ve already looked for or tried? Searching around, especially as detailed on the Garuda Wiki is a good place to start.

At least fix the formatting, then:

Click Me Since it's an audio issue and your first post and I'm too nice:
  • Try changing the default sound server in Garuda Assistant - disable PipeWire, and enable PulseAudio, then reboot and see if anything changes.
  • Try using a different kernel. Garuda Settings Manager has an option for this, use linux-lts first.
  • Not strictly a “fix” but seeing if pavucontrol allows you to lock the channels or shows you any other information about your sound output could be worth looking into.
  • Sometimes audio issues are weird and very specific. Research of your own is going to be necessary. The issue could be specific to your hardware-software situation.

Generally speaking and in the future, just posting your issue and inxi (especially unformatted) with no other indication of attempts to learn about // fix the problem will get you significantly less useful comments. No hate, just a heads up - small communities can’t respond to requests like this most of the time, and most (if not all) Arch-related communities do expect a little initiative. If you do some digging, try some troubleshooting, and come up empty, most people here are going to be happy to help.

Final note:

Beware the XY Problem.

7 Likes

Where have you searched for it?
There is one in Sound Settings, which you can open even from panel’s volume icon menu.

Everything is fine on my system.

1 Like

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