Default sound device - How do I chose it??

[ArmandoTav]

I know that before going into the problem I'm supposed to tell you guys all about my system but I think this is SOOOOO simple, I wont need to.

I have two questions

1. I just installed KUBUNTU 16.04 in and I can't FOR THE LIFE OF ME, figure out how to change the default audio device.

The system detects three devices:

1. My GPU (ASUS HD7770) as «Cape Verde HMDI audio»
2. Internal audio (MB 3.5 Jack) <- THIS one is the one that is working.
3. My USB headphones - Thrustmaster Y250cpx (the one I want to use as default)

- Tried muting other devices. Didn't work.
- I went into Settings, Multimedia, audio and video and set the headphones firt in all types of media. Didn't work. (btw... the system provides the option to test the device here and it's working fine).

So...... how do set any sound device as default?? Such a simple thing.... how can it be so hard??


2. Another thing that maybe some one can send me in the right direction:
I want to make the change and make Linux my main OS for good, but for now I can't stop using Windows. So I want to setup a high performance virtualized Win system (7, 8.1 or 10) with GPU pass through. Is it doable in Kubuntu? Will I be better off choosing something else (like UBUNTU, LUBUNTU, ARCH, FEDORA.... whatever) right now?

Thanks in advance.
AT

[GreyGeek]

Wow! $200+ headphones!

When you connect to the 3.5mm jack are you doing that without the remote controller attached? (Just the headset?)

The box says it is compatible with ... PC .... but I suspect that they really mean Windows. Linux is not mentioned. As just headphones you say it does work, but when you attach the remote controller and plug in the USB cable to give the 55mm speakers 1 Watt of power they don't work?

[ArmandoTav]

Sup GreyGeek. Thanks for answering. I hope I'll be a 'grey geek' too some day

I connect the headphones to the USB controler. There is no way to connect them through the 3.5 jack because the cable is like 50cm long (about 20inch). I'd have to get a 3.5 jack cable extension to do it that way (I have several of these but I want to do it as it is supposed to be done).

Anyway, I just figured out how to (sort of) do it: I had to switch off all other sound devices leaving only the USB headphones on. NOT MUTING, ok? Really switch them off in the sound device manager. This still doesn't answer my question (how to change the default audio device) but for now it does what I wanted to do.

Now, to my number 2 question: Is KUBUNTU 16.04 well suited for setting up high performance virtualized Win machines, with GPU pass through? Any thoughts on that?

Thanks
AT

[sithlord48]

system setting-> multimedia-> audio and video-> device preferance.

move the device you want to the top of the list for the catagories you want it to be defalut in.. the list order is the order of preferred devices.

edit: your question about video card pass thru , its really up to your mobo and cpu for the correct hw support to do that .

[ArmandoTav]

system setting-> multimedia-> audio and video-> device preferance.

move the device you want to the top of the list for the catagories you want it to be defalut in.. the list order is the order of preferred devices.

edit: your question about video card pass thru , its really up to your mobo and cpu for the correct hw support to do that .

Hey sithlord48. Thx for answering dude.

I did set my headphones first in all kinds of media. That didn't work. I guess I can take an SS of my settings if that helps. Maybe I'm just missing something really simple that prevents that from working.

About my question number 2 and your answer: I'm all set hardware-wise. Both my Mobo and CPU are virtualization ready and I have enough RAM to get it done. My concern is really about what distro to use to get it working best.
The entire process isn't very simple for first timers, as you know. I'm committed to do the change, I just want to get rid of all unnecessary hassle before I get too far into it. KUBUNTU has the right look and feel.... I love it, but I'm concerned about losing time trying something that 'can't' be done in KUBUNTU or ends up way too buggy to use.

I intend to have KUBUNTU runing 24/7 and every now and then I'll need a stable, high preforming Win based system to get some stuff done.

Again, thx in advance for any input/advice
AT

[sithlord48]

in that same KCM (kde control module) you will find a "Hardware Configuration" tab check that and be sure the setting for your headphones are correct. most devices have a few profiles and the default can be wrong.. also check the mixer and make sure they are not just simply turned down very low or muted.. . also when you change the profile the device name will possibly change for the device selector tab.

[wartnose]

I know that before going into the problem I'm supposed to tell you guys all about my system but I think this is SOOOOO simple, I wont need to.

I have two questions

1.....


2. Another thing that maybe some one can send me in the right direction:
I want to make the change and make Linux my main OS for good, but for now I can't stop using Windows. So I want to setup a high performance virtualized Win system (7, 8.1 or 10) with GPU pass through. Is it doable in Kubuntu? Will I be better off choosing something else (like UBUNTU, LUBUNTU, ARCH, FEDORA.... whatever) right now?

Thanks in advance.
AT

I use KVM. Very easy to use with virt-manager gui. In order to use KVM your processor has to support virtualization and you need enough RAM so you can give a little to your virtual machine. I don't have Windows installed as one of my current virtual machines on Kubuntu but I had 4 or 5 virtual Windows Server machines installed on an older Ubuntu server using KVM (now out of service). My virtual machines using Kubuntu 16.04 as host include CentOS, Debian, DSL, OpenSUSE and Maui1. I've not had a reason to install Windows lately but don't see why it wouldn't still work. Seems to me easier than dual booting. Why don't you try it. Does Windows give you a trial period before you have to buy it?

[GreyGeek]

.... Now, to my number 2 question: Is KUBUNTU 16.04 well suited for setting up high performance virtualized Win machines, with GPU pass through? Any thoughts on that?

While there are several, I know of two good type 2 hypervisors: 1) VirtualBox, 2) VMWare Playstation. Both have free and commercial versions.

The free version of VB is in the repository. I don't know what extra features the commercial version of VB offers but what ever they are I haven't missed them because my guest OS's do everything I installed them to do. If you decide on VB it will select all the additional files (dkms, kernel, etc.) it needs, except that you must also select and install the guest-additions-iso so that your guest screen can fill your display. and not be restricted to some interior box which can't be resized. If you activate bi-directional mouse and drag & drop, and a shared folder, moving files between Linux and your guest is easy.

I used VMWare a few years ago to run WinXP on my Linux box, but I don't know how much It has changed or what are the differences in capabilities between the free version and the paid version are. When I switched to VirtualBox Windows ran perfectly in it just as well as it ran on VMWare, and since VB was in the repository and updated I have used it.

You mentioned a need for "hyper performance". Playing games? The PlayOnLinux package installs WINE, the configurations and install files to run dozens of commercial games. Or, you can install from a CD or DVD if you added that device to your VB configuration. The key to visual high performance is how well the DirectX video drivers are emulated for a particular game. Performance on newer/newest games may be poor on not functional at all. It depends on how quickly the WINE developers see the new DLL's and drivers, and emulate them in open source. That's why older games run better. I have 8GB of RAM and I give VB 3072MB, along with ALL the GPU memory VB recognizes which, on my Acer, is 128MB, which is all that my GPU has. IF yours has more VB will probably show more available.

My experience in moving from Kubuntu 14.04 to 16.04 I've found that the video drivers are at least twice as fast in 16.04. I run the Steam simulation called "Universe Sandbox^2". Under 14.04 the planets stuttered and lagged in their orbit around the sun and running the collision simulations was like running Minecraft with 5 fps. On 16.04 US^2 runs smoothly regardless of the simulation being run.

As sithlord48 says, how well a hypervisor works depends on how much RAM and GPU memory you have. This last weekend an old client came by and asked me to modify a PLC application I wrote for him about 10 years ago. I installed WINE and winetricks and then clicked on the IQANSetup.exe. Here is what it looks like when IQANDesigner is simulating a run inside the tractor:

[ArmandoTav]

Maybe at this point I should make everything a bit more clear (why newbies are asked to share the details of their systems )

CPU - i5-6500 Skylake
Mobo - Asus Z170 Pro Gaming
RAM - 12Gb DDR4 2400Mhz (upgrading to 16Gb DDR4 2133Mhz asap)
GPU - Asus HD7770 2Gb GDDR5 (It's a bit dated. Needs upgrading to R9 290 or to the NVidea counterpart)
OS - KUBUNTU 16.04 with updated PLASMA (stuff kept crashing on me before updating). OS is installed in a 100Gb partition of a secondary HDD. I intend to remove W10 and install KUBUNTU in my SSD when I test everything , as is (in the partition) and I'm sure it works stable and hassle free.

This is what I have to work with for now.

The plan is to assign the HD7770 to Win 7 (or 8.1) as well as most of my available memory (8Gb). KUBUNTU will retain 4Gb RAM (8Gb once I upgrade to 16Gb RAM) and onboard GPU. In the end I want something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fggKnvIHzHQ

@sithlord48
Fiddled with that and ended up with 2 Headphone devices . Anyway..... they worked fine in both settings I tried (analog and Digital IEC958).
Volume was the first thing I tried. 100% in all settings but sadly it didn't work.

@wartnose
Thx for your input on this.
Dualbooting is exactly what I don't want. I have another machine runing Zorin OS 8 (need to upgrade to 11) and Win 7. It's great and all but I don't want it done that way.
KVM with VirtManager is exacty what I intend to use..... along with some other stuff. There are a few guides online to do it but none with KUBUNTU. I'll probably look into UBUNTU guides and expect everything to work. Am I wrong assuming this?

As to Win trial period: I own several unused Win copies so I'm fine.

@GreyGeek
The problem with regular VM software is that they create 'crippled' VMachines... and that's just fine. You can get A LOT done in a VM even at 30 or 40% of what it could be if it was a 'real' machine, but what I'm going for is something with 90% (plus) the performance of a 'real' machine. You should check out the video in the link I posted.... awesome stuff.
As to: PlayOnLinux - If it was stable, bug free and it kept around 90% of the ingame performance compared to Win systems I'd already be on linux for ages. Unfortunately none of this is true. You never know in what new hell you'll end up when you install something new(ish) on PlayOnLinux .


Thx everyone. I apreciate all the help.
AT

[wartnose]

Maybe at this point I should make everything a bit more clear (why newbies are asked to share the details of their systems )

CPU - i5-6500 Skylake
Mobo - Asus Z170 Pro Gaming
RAM - 12Gb DDR4 2400Mhz (upgrading to 16Gb DDR4 2133Mhz asap)
GPU - Asus HD7770 2Gb GDDR5 (It's a bit dated. Needs upgrading to R9 290 or to the NVidea counterpart)
OS - KUBUNTU 16.04 with updated PLASMA (stuff kept crashing on me before updating). OS is installed in a 100Gb partition of a secondary HDD. I intend to remove W10 and install KUBUNTU in my SSD when I test everything , as is (in the partition) and I'm sure it works stable and hassle free.

This is what I have to work with for now.
......
@wartnose
Thx for your input on this.
Dualbooting is exactly what I don't want. I have another machine runing Zorin OS 8 (need to upgrade to 11) and Win 7. It's great and all but I don't want it done that way.
KVM with VirtManager is exacty what I intend to use..... along with some other stuff. There are a few guides online to do it but none with KUBUNTU. I'll probably look into UBUNTU guides and expect everything to work. Am I wrong assuming this?

As to Win trial period: I own several unused Win copies so I'm fine......

AT

Your hardware looks good. Using Synaptic install qemu-kvm and virt-manager. Open Virt Manager. Click your "create new machine" button upper left and follow instructions. Post any questions.

[ArmandoTav]

Your hardware looks good. Using Synaptic install qemu-kvm and virt-manager. Open Virt Manager. Click your "create new machine" button upper left and follow instructions. Post any questions.

Will do.... probably on the weekend

Have you tried GPU pass through in any of those? I know there is a 'point and click' option to do it but how effective is it? Some of the guides I've been reading go as deep as Kernel editing to get stuff to work smoothly but some are a bit outdated and intended for previous OS versions (like UBUNTU 15.04 or FEDORA 23).

This should be something that the powers that be in every distro should look at, REALLY carefully. Setting up a smooth and easy process to create high performance Win machines would draw A LOT of people to Linux.

[sithlord48]

one workaround you could try is to move the stream to the disired device. you will need to install kmix and run that as your mixer then you can open the tray widget and right click on the icon to "move" it to another device. its a very handy thing to have the ability to move sound to the desired device on teh fly .. if you have a new enough kde release the new volume widget can do the same thing you click and hold the application and drag it to a device. (iirc kde 5.7.0 + for that)

[wartnose]

Will do.... probably on the weekend

Have you tried GPU pass through in any of those?....

No. But post results please. Thanks.

[GreyGeek]

I tried qemu-kvm five to ten years ago and wasn't impressed. Out of curiosity I installed it and downloaded openSUSE Leap-42.1 as a guest OS. I was underwhelmed.

Its list of pre-configured distros was extensive but somewhat old It had SUSE Enterprise 13 as the most recent and then added openSUSE (32b) and openSUSE(64b). I chose the latter. I gave it two CPU's, 3072MB of RAM and a 25GB qcow2 HD. It didn't ask or say how much GPU memory to use so I assume it used it all. The install from the 4.5GB ISO took about an hour. openSUSE ran nicely, but slow. I had to put "dbus-run-session" in front of "virt-manager" when running it so that the letters in the labels would not fragment or disappear.

A true type 1 hypervisor is installed directly on the metal. Qemu is not, making it a hybrid, more like a type 2. After playing with it a couple hours I deleted the guest OS and purged the hypervisor. The purge left the qcow2 drive in /var/lib/libvirt so I had to delete it and the libvirt directory as well.

If I need to install a virtual machine again I will continue to use VirtualBox which, IMO, is much farther along in user interface design, capabilities and speed.

[wartnose]

I tried qemu-kvm five to ten years ago and wasn't impressed. Out of curiosity I installed it and downloaded openSUSE Leap-42.1 as a guest OS. I was underwhelmed.

Its list of pre-configured distros was extensive but somewhat old It had SUSE Enterprise 13 as the most recent and then added openSUSE (32b) and openSUSE(64b). I chose the latter. I gave it two CPU's, 3072MB of RAM and a 25GB qcow2 HD. It didn't ask or say how much GPU memory to use so I assume it used it all. The install from the 4.5GB ISO took about an hour. openSUSE ran nicely, but slow. I had to put "dbus-run-session" in front of "virt-manager" when running it so that the letters in the labels would not fragment or disappear.

A true type 1 hypervisor is installed directory on the metal. Qemu is not, making it a hybrid, more like a type 2. After playing with it a couple hours I deleted the guest OS and purged the hypervisor. The purge left the qcow2 drive in /var/lib/libvirt so I had to delete it and the libvirt directory as well.

If I need to install a virtual machine again I will continue to use VirtualBox which, IMO, is much farther along in user interface design, capabilities and speed.

Hmmm. It took me 29 minutes to download the openSUSE Leap-42.1 DVD but only 10 minutes to install it as a KVM guest and it runs well and fast. It must be hardware dependent? Maybe Virtualbox runs better on your hardware. KVM runs well on mine. I played around with Virtualbox some time ago but I think I would have had to add some proprietary extension pack to be able to do something but I can't remember what I was trying to do.

I wouldn't sell KVM short. IBM supports it. Red Hat develops it and I think HP uses it for one of their clouds. I built a server at work a few years back to test virtualization. I used Ubuntu as KVM host and ran a number of Windows machine guests (terminal servers and postgres server). Back then SSDs were high dollar so I used a RAID array of spinning discs and used an SSD for caching (bcache). The setup was pretty fast and stable. Now all our servers are virtual at a hosted site running Xen/Citrix lol.

I do remember I had a problem with KVM and Mint a couple of years ago. Mint ran in software rendering mode. KVM was not able to do 3D video acceleration but that may have changed by now. I believe Virtualbox can with guest additions?

With ArmandoTav's hardware, I think KVM would work well, better if he moves to SSD though (or caches to SSD). I want to see if he can get GPU pass through to work.