skitzophrenic volume

[BillGradwohl]

F12 completely patched.

Can someone provide some insight into the various volume controls available and why they seem to conflict with each other?

The incognito application that loads up on the task bar as a speaker icon keeps getting changed. I try to nail it at 100% but it keeps getting altered - how I don't know. BTW - I say its an incognito application as there is no way to identify what piece of software it actually represents. I assume it's the gnome-volume-control-applet, but there is no way to know for sure as it is devoid of any identification.

I run rhythmbox and its volume control also gets altered from where I attempt to set it.

I assume that gnome-volume-control-applet is the master to set a limit on what anything else can do.

I then assume that rhythmbos's volume control operates within the envelope that gnome-volume-control-applet allows.

Both assumptions are probably wrong as nothing makes any sense. Maybe all the pulseaudio stuff is also in there somewhere messing with the controls, but I see no user space apps to influence pulseaudio.

To top it off, I can push the volume control on rhythmbox around from 100% down to 16% and there is no discernible change in volume. When I hit 14% there is a halving of volume, and from there on down to 0% seems to function linearly as expected. Why is there this non responsive range between 16% and 100%?

Any help in illuminating how sound is handled would be appreciated.


Thank You.

[Gödel]

try disabling flat_volumes in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf (uncomment the line and set it =no, then reboot)

[BillGradwohl]

Setting that value to no changed nothing. The volume on 2 separate machines (ACER laptop w/AMD Chip, and ASUS desktop with AMD chip) is still a step function at 16%. Above 16% there is no change in volume all the way to 100%. Below 16% is somewhat linear towards 0%. This is on 2 separate architectures.

[PabloTwo]

Maybe all the pulseaudio stuff is also in there somewhere messing with the controls, but I see no user space apps to influence pulseaudio.

You can bet your bootie it is. Do you not have Applications > Multimedia > PulseAudio Volume Control ?

The usual (pre-pulseaudio) controls where MASTER sets the upper limit for everything else is now all wrapped up inside pulseaudio, which has it's own volume control sliders, and which have some kind of insane default settings. I also found that changing volume control settings were never 'saved'. To have a somewhat sane 'saved' starting point for my audio volume settings, I had to 'yum install alsa-utils', and then, after getting volume levels to where I wanted them, do 'sudo alsactl store', which saves the settings in /etc/asound.state

You need to find and use that PulseAudio Volume Control app... it must be there somewhere on your system. It's key to making any sense out of the audio control mess that PulseAudio is.

[BillGradwohl]

I have no Multimedia tab under applications.

During the O/S install, I don't remember doing anything special to negate such an option.

[PabloTwo]

The menu path I showed is under XFCE. Yours probably varies. In any event, do:

/usr/bin/pavucontrol to bring up the pulseaudio volume control panel.

You should have: /usr/share/applications/pavucontrol.desktop

which should put it in your menu somewhere.

[BillGradwohl]

I couldn't find a pavucontrol on either of my F12 boxes, so a :
yum provides pavucontrol
gave the rpm I needed and I installed it.

I'll see if this gives me a bit more control over sound.

Thanks.

[mpolo]

I recently experienced a change in F12's behavior. Up to very recently, the volume control on the menu and the volume control on my Logitech keyboard worked just fine.

Now I have to open pulse audio control and control each application individually. Even if I mute the volume with the keyboard or the Gnome applet, the volume is not muted in mplayer, for example. Also pulse keeps deciding to send output through the (nonexistent) internal speakers instead of through the USB speakers. After each reboot, I have to remind it...

[BillGradwohl]

I've tried everything indicated so far and I still have this step function volume control.

Volume control worked fine on the same hardware using F11 and F10. Something got hosed up for F12 but I can't seem to identify and remedy it.