Laconic, But Not Clear

Language seems to be a lost art in the world of computing, as evidenced by my earlier Firefox post. Maybe issues like these can be chalked up to laziness, or even a lack of understanding. Whatever the case, the technology culture has its downright ditzy moments.

One such case exists in PAVU. That stands for Pulse Audio Volume Control. Essentially, PAVU is a tool for managing devices on the Pulse Audio Server. Not exactly something many can afford to screw with, since sound in Linux still is shaky at best. That is unless you enjoy spending hours fiddling with your system just to have basic functionality. I for one, don't. But just yesterday, I joined the crowd.

My situation started like this: I plugged in a secondary webcam with a built-in microphone, which I planned to use over my laptop's on-board microphone. But I soon noticed that muting one device forced the other to mute as well. What's the deal, I thought. Up until that point, I hadn't experienced this problem. Twenty frustration filled minutes later, I was still without an answer. As it turns out, PAVU has a poorly worded option within input devices. You must and I repeat must set your preferred device as the fallback (green arrow, see below). One would assume it'd mean a back-up device. But in my case it wasn't. Fallback had to be switched on for my external mic.

Notice the partially grey button next to the HP Webcam? This tells you that the device is set as the fallback.  If ever you experience a similar issue, now you know the culprit.

Lesson: Concise clearness is crucial in programs.