unable to adjust Bass speaker in alsamixer

[Snowhog]

Invalid unit name "pipewire.service" escaped as "pipewire.service\xe2\x80\x8b"

AI Overview

The character string
\xe2\x80\x8b is the UTF-8 representation of the zero-width space character (U+200B).

This character is a non-printing Unicode character used in computer text processing to indicate potential word break points in text, but it is invisible to the user. It is often encountered when copying and pasting text from a website or a Word document into a plain text editor or a database, where it can cause unexpected formatting issues or encoding errors.

[papapenguin]

for some reason, I was able to restart pipewire

donald@donald:~$ systemctl --user restart pipewire pipewire-pulse

[papapenguin]

donald@donald:~$ pipewire start
[E][07136.947166] mod.protocol-native | [module-protocol-: 760 lock_socket()] server 0x5d2f093da150: unable to lock lockfile '/run/user/1000/pipewire-0.loc
k': Resource temporarily unavailable (maybe another daemon is running)
[E][07136.949990] pw.conf | [ conf.c: 584 load_module()] 0x5d2f093b3cc0: could not load mandatory module "libpipewire-module-protocol-native"
: Resource temporarily unavailable
[E][07136.952665] default | [ pipewire.c: 105 main()] failed to create context: Resource temporarily unavailable

[papapenguin]

It works for me

yes -- this is a mystery for sure

[claydoh]

It works for me

[papapenguin]

I had it bass-ackwards.
systemctl --user restart pipewire.service

donald@donald:~$ systemctl --user restart pipewire.service
Invalid unit name "pipewire.service" escaped as "pipewire.service\xe2\x80\x8b" (maybe you should use systemd-escape?).
Failed to restart pipewire.service\xe2\x80\x8b.service: Unit pipewire.service\xe2\x80\x8b.service not found.

[claydoh]

I had it bass-ackwards.
systemctl --user restart pipewire

[papapenguin]

Pipewire is being used, not Pulseaudio, since before 24.04

So:

systemctl restart --user pipewire​

It *might* be worth deleting the state files before doing this, as this will reset all device preferences and maybe some options, basically resets things;

Remove ~/.local/state/wireplumber.

It won't hurt anything, but it also might not be the fix, unless it was working at some point in the recent past.

It seems that these laptops have crappy audio bits, at least for Linux.

I deleted the folder and now when attempting a restart:

donald@donald:~$ systemctl restart --user pipewire
Invalid unit name "pipewire" escaped as "pipewire\xe2\x80\x8b" (maybe you should use systemd-escape?).
Failed to restart pipewire\xe2\x80\x8b.service: Unit pipewire\xe2\x80\x8b.service not found.

[papapenguin]

I can toggle between Mute (MM) and 00 . It seems to be the only control in ALSA that I have over that Bass Speaker

[papapenguin]

I manually started pulseaudio, which may mean that it doesn't run automatically (?). I was also able to kill it.

donald@donald:~$ pulseaudio --start
donald@donald:~$ alsamixer
donald@donald:~$ pulseaudio -k

alsamixer still showed no control options for Bass Speaker

[claydoh]

Pipewire is being used, not Pulseaudio, since before 24.04

So:

systemctl restart --user pipewire​

It *might* be worth deleting the state files before doing this, as this will reset all device preferences and maybe some options, basically resets things;

Remove ~/.local/state/wireplumber.

It won't hurt anything, but it also might not be the fix, unless it was working at some point in the recent past.

It seems that these laptops have crappy audio bits, at least for Linux.

[papapenguin]

I may remove those lines.

this is the strange thing though:

donald@donald:~$ pulseaudio -k
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to kill daemon: No such process

[Snowhog]

Undo what you did.

Maybe...

AI Overview

When PulseAudio shows your bass speaker but won't let you adjust it, it usually means the mix isn't set up right at the ALSA level, you're hitting volume limits, or you need to tweak PulseAudio's config to recognize it as a separate channel (like disabling flat volumes or using
pavucontrol for proper channel mapping). Check your physical connections first, then dive into PulseAudio Volume Control (pavucontrol) to find the correct output profile and adjust individual channels/levels.

Quick Fixes (Try These First)

• Check Physical Connections & Ports: Ensure all speaker cables, especially for surround sound or subs, are in the correct jacks and fully plugged in.
• Use pavucontrol (PulseAudio Volume Control):
  • Install it if you don't have it: sudo apt install pavucontrol (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo pacman -S pavucontrol (Arch).
  • Open pavucontrol.
  • Go to the Configuration tab. Make sure your sound card is set to a profile that supports bass (e.g., "Analog Surround 4.0/5.1 Output" or similar).
  • Go to the Output Devices tab and look for the bass/subwoofer channel (often labeled LFE/Subwoofer). Try adjusting its volume slider or checking if it's muted.
  • Go to the Playback tab to see per-application volumes; sometimes app-specific settings interfere.

Advanced Solutions (If Quick Fixes Fail)

• Disable Flat Volumes: Your system might be using "flat volumes," which makes individual channel adjustment hard.
  • Edit ~/.config/pulse/daemon.conf (or /etc/pulse/daemon.conf).
  • Add or uncomment flat-volumes = no.
  • Restart PulseAudio: pulseaudio -k && pulseaudio --start.
• Check ALSA Levels with alsamixer:
  • Open terminal: alsamixer.
  • Press F6 to select your sound card.
  • Use arrow keys to find channels like "Subwoofer," "LFE," "Bass," or "Front".
  • Use M to unmute (MM = Muted, nothing = Unmuted) and Up/Down arrows to adjust levels.
• Reset PulseAudio: Sometimes a clean slate helps.
  • pulseaudio -k
  • rm -r ~/.config/pulse (this deletes your user configs)
  • pulseaudio --start or reboot.

If these steps don't work, the issue might be with your specific hardware or a newer system running PipeWire (which replaces PulseAudio); check for PipeWire-specific tools if needed.

[papapenguin]

added the lines but get this:

donald@donald:~$ pulseaudio -k
E: [pulseaudio] main.c: Failed to kill daemon: No such process

alsamixer still displays Bass Speaker as null -- the same output as original post

[papapenguin]

The link specifies the output file: analog-output.conf.common

while searching what went wrong I also noticed what I did!