Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

kozimodo · 2016-05-20 14:01:07

xaos52 wrote:

^ pasystray from the Debian package?

Yes, from the Debian repository.

apt-cache policy pasystray
pasystray:
  Installed: 0.4.0-1
  Candidate: 0.4.0-1
  Version table:
 *** 0.4.0-1 0
        500 http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

kozimodo · 2016-05-20 14:04:52

Ah, pulse audio seems to have been uninstalled at some point. I don't think I did it but it was gone. pasystray now does not crash.

xaos52 · 2016-05-20 14:49:32

Thanks for reporting this.
Consider that a bug.
pasystray should handle the fact that pulseaudio is not installed more gracefully.

Sector11 · 2016-05-20 15:21:46

@xaos52 - Everyone seems to want pulse and that's OK. Works well with newer cards, I'm using the built in sound card. Pulse has always given me problems, and I really don't need the 'power' of pulse. Alsa works just fine with my old Sony disc-man earphones.

xaos52 · 2016-05-20 16:19:23

@Sector11,
OK. If it works for you and you don't need specific pulseaudio functionality, then by all means continue without pulseaudio.
What do you use to set the volume? volti or volumeicon? Or something else? I suspect you don't have any of the errors johnraff and hhh are experiencing - f.i the 'muting problem rearing its ugly head?

I also suspect that you don't install bunsenlabs from scratch when a new release becomes available. So, you would not be hampered by making pasystray the default for new releases, would you?

Have you tried using pulseaudio lately? Lots of problems with pulseaudio have been ironed out. I guess most major distros are using it now.

Sector11 · 2016-05-20 17:03:21

I'm using - BL RC1 - that has been updated as we progressed and tweaked to my liking - was and is ROCK SOLID! As far as the RC ISOs are concerned I have no problems with whatever it has or comes with, sound or otherwise. Linux is too easy to tweak to be that fussy. And like you said, most major distros come with pulse anyway. As for pasystray, if it clears up the problems that have been discussed here I'd be one of the first to advocate it's use as default.

I have to install a fresh BL and have been meaning to, just having a few problems lately, health, ISP is acting up and my computer isn't functioning at 100% - something doesn't seem right with it. I'll get a fresh install here soon enough, I have two partitions ready for it.

This came up a long time ago. I use qasmixer basically for the icon on the panel and the 'mouse-wheel' volume/mute control. I've turned off the popup notification balloon (it only ever showed one BTW) and use conky to show volume levels with three colours: 0-33, 34-66 and 67 -100. Always visible.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-05-20 17:13:41

xaos52 wrote:

Of course we should test it thoroughly on different hardware setups. on the live system, etc ...
Looking esp. at you, HoaS, with the multiple audio cards.

pasystray seems to work as expected on my 2-card laptop, the icon shows up and the (very nice) menu options all work.

However, all keyboard control of volume is lost and xfce4-volumed does *not* restore this.

Openbox keybinds could be added (obviously) but then there would be no notifications

Also, I don't like the way the main volume control is handed over to pavucontrol from the menu rather than simply bringing up a slider on the systray.

(Tested on my installed BL system, I will check from the live environment later)

xaos52 · 2016-05-20 17:42:14

Thx HoaS,
for the fair assessment.
It works for me on the live system, after purging volti and installing pasystray.
My HDMI output is selected and works OOTB. (of course we would have to test with a new ISO containing pasystray in stead of volti).
Changing volume levels by scrolling over the icon works too. (Did not work for me using volti nor volumeicon - perhaps HDMI specific problem?).
Muting with middle click on the icon works as well.
No slider and no working media keys.
There is a newer version available from sid, which compiles and runs well on Bunsenlabs.
Still have to research if it provides newer functionality (via modules).
Still being actively developed

pvsage · 2016-05-20 21:31:35

xaos52 wrote:

pasystray
no working media keys.

Unless the Sid version fixes this, I'd say this is a good reason to keep it out of Hydrogen; The People expect their media keys to work OOTB.

It could be that its developers expect the WM or DE to trap the XF86* keys; if this is the case (and if Openbox is still the WM of choice come freeze time for Stretch) pasystray could be reconsidered for Helium with an appropriate stanza in the Openbox rc.xml.

johnraff · 2016-05-21 04:24:25

I'm not sure if pasystray is a good choice for the default volume control on BL. As others have pointed out, keyboard control would require something in rc.xml. The volume bar that is displayed when scrolling is not the usual notification, but something geekier like "sink Built-in Audio Analog Stereo: 0: 75% 1: 75%" which is of little interest to the average user once things are set up, unless they are continually changing things. I certainly don't want that popping up on my desktop every time I change the volume. The tooltip is even worse. There are no user configurations available. Left and right click both do the same thing (bring up a menu). The menu again is IMO opinion almost useless once things are set up. Yesterday I thought there was no way to mute, but from xaos's post I now see it's a middle-click.

Yes, everything works OK, what it does.

xaos52 · 2016-05-21 08:45:05

Personally I am going for pasystray.
I will be trying to merge the slider functionality and the media keys from volti/volumeicon into it.
Don't hold your breath though.

damo · 2016-05-21 11:50:17

Phew, thanks to @johnraff's fix

I recently re-installed Hydrogen on the partition which previously had an ongoing upgraded BL alpha installation (sound and MM keys were OK). MM keys weren't working anymore (nothing with 'xev'; 'showkeys' values didn't match 'xmodmap'; nada. Constant problems with having to manually select or unmute cards in the mixer config; applications grabbing an output etc)

Now all seems sweet!

tmq · 2016-05-21 19:02:25

It worked for me -
*volti - uninstalled
*volumeicon-alsa - installed
*XF86 refs. commented out

Volume up/down/mute keys work well. However I must ask - why do the media buttons work whilst commented out in the rc file, but fail to work when those lines are fully removed?

damo · 2016-05-21 19:09:39

tmq wrote:

It worked for me -
*volti - uninstalled
*volumeicon-alsa - installed
*XF86 refs. commented out
Volume up/down/mute keys work well. However I must ask - why do the media buttons work whilst commented out in the rc file, but fail to work when those lines are fully removed?

How have you commented them out?

tmq · 2016-05-21 19:44:09

The comments I used look like this --

#<keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
     #<action name="Execute">
        #<command>amixer set -D pulse Master toggle</command>

After the media keys stopped working, I reinserted the commented text. It's a little more messy, but I don't particularly care as long as it works!

damo · 2016-05-21 20:01:27

tmq wrote:

The comments I used look like this --
#<keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
     #<action name="Execute">
        #<command>amixer set -D pulse Master toggle</command>
After the media keys stopped working, I reinserted the commented text. It's a little more messy, but I don't particularly care as long as it works!

They aren't comments in an xml file. You need to use ""

<!--  text to be commented out -->

See the rest of your rc.xml for many examples of how to do it

johnraff · 2016-05-22 03:04:08

tmq wrote:

It worked for me -
*volti - uninstalled
*volumeicon-alsa - installed
*XF86 refs. commented out

Did you remove xfce4-volumed too? That interferes with the key bindings, so also needs to go, or at least be commented out of ~/.config/openbox/autostart.

...why do the media buttons... fail to work when those lines are fully removed?

The keys should work even without any reference in rc.xml. Volumeicon binds them by itself. (Make sure you have "Hotkeys" enabled in volumeicon's preferences.) I think xfce4-volumed was grabbing them. If you let volumeicon handle keys you get the pretty notification bars.

johnraff · 2016-05-22 03:42:06

BTW the code I posted earlier doesn't have to go in /etc/asound.conf, you can also put it in ~/.asoundrc and leave the system settings alone. That's probably the better option.

Code similar to that appears in various places around the interwebs, including the Arch Wiki - in the context of getting pulse to work with Jack, but "...to redirect ALSA to PulseAudio" so it may be OK.

There is also a package called pulseaudio-alsa ("ALSA Configuration for PulseAudio") in the Arch repos which installs asound.conf with slightly different code:

# Use PulseAudio by default
pcm.!default {
  type pulse
  fallback "sysdefault"
  hint {
    show on
    description "Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)"
  }
}

ctl.!default {
  type pulse
  fallback "sysdefault"
}

# vim:set ft=alsaconf:

Maybe there's something to be said for having the fallback "sysdefault" entries?

EDIT: at least on my system, this Arch version works too for the muting fix.
EDIT2: after a reboot, the Arch code didn't work. Maybe it works with Arch's versions of alsa and pulseaudio...
For Jessie, use this:

pcm.pulse {
    type pulse
}
ctl.pulse {
    type pulse
}
pcm.!default {
    type pulse
}
ctl.!default {
    type pulse
}

Last edited by johnraff (2016-05-22 06:22:13)

johnraff · 2016-05-22 03:57:13

xaos52 wrote:

Changing volume levels by scrolling over the icon works too. (Did not work for me using volti nor volumeicon - perhaps HDMI specific problem?).

@xaos52 I found that adding the alsa config file mentioned above (which sets pulse as alsa's default output) fixed the muting issue with volumeicon and pulse. (It didn't help with volti though.)
After that, and disabling xfce4-volumed, volumeicon works perfectly for me - keys, scrolling, muting, pretty notification bars.

However, I'm using "Audio Analog Stereo" as my output, not HDMI.
While I also have an HDMI output, I have nothing to plug into it, so can't test it.
I wonder, if you have some free time, if you could help me out here by:

installing volumeicon
removing/disabling xfce4-volumed
removing any references to XF86* media keys in rc.xml
adding /etc/asound.conf or ~/.asoundrc with the code above
temporarily replacing pasystray with voumeicon in your systray
making sure volumeicon's hotkeys are set to the XF86* keys
reporting back what worked/didn't work...

Many thanks!

xaos52 · 2016-05-22 10:15:46

@john,
Glad to be able to report that it works
I guess that irons out all known wrinkles with volumeicon.
Well done

Oh, and I switched back to volumeicon now.
I don't really need the extra functionality that pasystray provides.

P.S.
I have xubuntu-16.04 installed just to have a look at their 'sound volume changer'.
It is neat looking and implemented by package 'indicator-sound' and working with gnome-music browser, but I wonder if it could be changed to get rid of the gnome dependencies and use xfce4 settings in stead, so that it could work in the default BL environment.
I will have a look into its sources to examine if that would be do-able.

#41 2016-05-20 14:01:07

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#42 2016-05-20 14:04:52

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#43 2016-05-20 14:49:32

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#44 2016-05-20 15:21:46

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#45 2016-05-20 16:19:23

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#46 2016-05-20 17:03:21

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#47 2016-05-20 17:13:41

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#48 2016-05-20 17:42:14

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#49 2016-05-20 21:31:35

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#50 2016-05-21 04:24:25

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#51 2016-05-21 08:45:05

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#52 2016-05-21 11:50:17

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#53 2016-05-21 19:02:25

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#54 2016-05-21 19:09:39

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#55 2016-05-21 19:44:09

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#56 2016-05-21 20:01:27

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#57 2016-05-22 03:04:08

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#58 2016-05-22 03:42:06

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#59 2016-05-22 03:57:13

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

#60 2016-05-22 10:15:46

Re: Replace volti with volumeicon after all? (and drop xfce4-volumed)

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