alsa-ucm-conf VS shell

This is the place to start - https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf

Well I kinda asked about i3 related problems not just generic linux desktop voes but I'll try my best.

> - I recently bought a monitor and plugged it in. Sound stopped working until I rebooted. Figured it out easily with pavucontrol of course (just toggling things) but only after reboot. Annoying but fair enough.

And that isn't a problem under GNOME ? Both use Pulseaudio...

Anyway I ended up resorting to writing some custom udev rules and some horrible hacks [0] to get my sound interface to work correctly; the interface was 2 in/4 out but it showed up as stereo in/4.0 out, and I needed dual mono + dual stereo outs. But as pulseaudio have no memory whatsoever on plugin config, it needs to be reapplied any time device is plugged in...

...and after upgrade ALSA of all things horribly broke it in different way [1], where someone added 500ms latency to default profile used to split device into sub-channels to"fix cracking" (that happened to only some users), and the interface I used was assigned that profile

Linux Sound story is by far my least liked part of it. And the new modern pipewire just hangs on my machine, not accepting any commands...

> Connecting/disconnecting monitors is flaky, sometimes it requires a few toggles in arandr (which already helps a lot). Maybe there is a better tool I could use?

I so far only experienced it with one flaky monitor at work, it looks like some deeply rooted problem. I guess if I had to solve it I'd just make some script trying to apply the profile and bind it to keys to quickly fix it. I don't think arandr is the culprit here, rather something between graphics server, driver, and monitor.

> Some wifi networks sometimes dont' work out of the box even though I'm just using the easy nm-applet.

I didn't had that problem in particular on laptop at least (also using nm-applet), but same thing works under GNOME ? IIRC it also uses network manager. We had some problems with users trying to use networkmanager for VPN and it not supporting all options plain OpenVPN did.

The most grief that networking gave me is actually systemd-resolved [2] but no good fix for that so far.

- [0] https://devrandom.eu/blog/post/2022-11-03_splitting_stereo_i...

- [1] https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/issues/192#iss...

- [2] https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/27543

But on the flip-side, if you don't use SteamOS, it's a lot of effort to cobble together all the optimizations that make the Steam Deck great (not just the custom kernel--as you can now use the mainline kernel and a quick patch), but the TDP/clock/fps limiters you can slide up and down from that side menu.

Yes. I am using omni directional. Fixed here: https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/issues/308

I have the MOTU M2 on Manjaro Linux and it works fine through Jack. I know there were some issues with having it recognized under Pulseaudio (here and here), but I think those have been fixed. I sometimes have to power cycle the M2 before it's recognized under Pulseaudio again.

Googling the issue I found I'm not the only one with issues surrounding that chip. I came across this issue, which led me to add my specific device ID (of course it's different for each model 🤦) to my /usr/share/alsa/ucm2/USB-Audio/USB-Audio.conf, without notable effect. Yes I rebooted. I also came across this PR, but I haven't been able to figure out if there's a change I can make to my local files that would make the ALC4080-HiFi driver feel responsible for this USB device, if it's even relevant.

Most probably something todo with recent alsa ucm changes for M4:https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf/blob/master/ucm2/USB-Audio/MOTU/M4.conf If changing profiles in pavucontrol on Configuration tab does not help, you can try to disable ucm: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PipeWire#Microphone_is_not_detected_by_PipeWire

You can check https://github.com/alsa-project/alsa-ucm-conf

I've had a kernel update break my sound card, alsa-ucm break my sound card and I also experienced the grub problem, which was a pain. I update yesterday and now OpenCL is broken for what I needed it for (hashcat). None I can blame on Arch, it just happens when you get new stuff. Fedora also updated to those packages that broke my sound card, which is typically my Fedora experience after switching from Arch. You get the same bugs.. just a bit later. Not sure what I'll even try now.

sudo apt install git node-typescript make git clone https://github.com/pop-os/shell.git cd shell

If you use gnome, I can recommend Pop-Shell

https://github.com/pop-os/shell

Pop Shell is what I use, and it works really well (not available on the GNOME extensions store, get it from here, installation instructions are present near the bottom). Forge is another great option. If you want to completely change the look of Gnome, and have a completely different experience, try Material Shell, another awesome tiling extension.

I quite like Pop!_OS Shell (https://github.com/pop-os/shell) for tiling on Gnome, it feels like the right compromise for me of tiling while still having access to a full DE. Seems that installing it on other distribution should be easy enough.

Is there a config of speed in PopShell https://github.com/pop-os/shell/tree/b5acccefcaa653791d25f70a22c0e04f1858d96e where we can adjust the speed of tiling? Just saying that extention like impatient only adjust the speed of animation, not the actual tiling or windows pops up (example would be archive manager pop-up).

One of my best friends uses the Pop Shell [1] GNOME extension to bring in an i3-like experience. It seems to lag behind a few GNOME versions, but system76 has instructions on how to use it on other distributions if you don't want to use Pop!_OS [2]

[1] - https://github.com/pop-os/shell

I am actually a pretty happy GNOME user -- granted, it is due to being able to tweak my experience with GNOME extensions and managing the aspects I care about with dconf settings managed with Home-Manager/Nix.

These are the GNOME extensions I find critical to me enjoying the UI:

- PopOS' Shell[0] for tiling windows

- Just Perfection[1] for making the appearance even more minimal/removing elements I don't use

I think if the GNOME team removed extension support altogether, I would absolutely switch to KDE. But for now, I get an extremely minimal desktop, and I really like it.

That being said, I typically live in my terminal, so I don't spend much time actually using the tools provided with my desktop environment.

(Just want to vocalize that there is at least one person who enjoys GNOME's approach of visually staying out of my way, but giving me a robust backend when I need it)

[0] https://github.com/pop-os/shell

[1] https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/3843/just-perfection/

Just started playing with Pop Shell under GNOME, and I can see the allure.