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

johnraff · 2016-05-23 03:11:05

@Doctor xaos that's great news! Thank you for checking it so quickly.

At least we now seem to have a potential default setup that should work for most people.

BTW that same bit of alsa config showed up in the Debian Wiki in the context of flashplayer troubleshooting.
"Remember that if you need the Flash Player to work with pulse, you can ask libasound to do so in your ~/.asoundrc: [that code]"

johnraff · 2016-05-26 04:16:48

Can anyone else who was suffering from the muting issue confirm that the above procedure fixes it?

Till a new iso comes out it would be possible to offer to change users' setups in bl-welcome.

tmq · 2016-06-05 03:12:54

johnraff wrote:

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

Xfce4-volumed has been removed, the hot keys are enabled, but I haven't bothered to revisit the rc.xml file (to correctly comment out the bindings). The hot keys work, I can hear the music - I'll have to revisit the commenting another day.

cloverskull · 2016-06-06 22:27:17

Hey @johnraff,

I tried this and followed your guide on post #1. The XF86 keys worked, everything _looked_ good, however, I had no volume at all.

I had to make an /etc/asound.conf

pcm.!default {
    type pulse
    # If defaults.namehint.showall is set to off in alsa.conf, then this is
    # necessary to make this pcm show up in the list returned by
    # snd_device_name_hint or aplay -L
    hint.description "Default Audio Device"
}
ctl.!default {
    type pulse
}
pcm.pulse {
    type pulse
}

ctl.pulse {
    type pulse
}

and I also added the line

channel=PCM

to .config/volumeicon/volumeicon.

Now everything is good to go. Thanks!

martix · 2016-06-07 22:07:13

Well, I do not consider this as "issues" as sound works, but I'd like to give a short description of my experiences so far: First - I think it was the alpha release - the volume hot keys worked and while using it a volume level notification popped up. A "no volume" problem was solved by "alsactl init", which still happens sometimes, but not too often. After some upgrades the volume hotkeys worked (mute as well) but there was no notification popping up. After new upgrades the hot keys stopped working for a while but I could use the volume icon. This issue was solved by new upgrades and the hot keys started working, however they only work with certain programs, e.g. while using mpv player. If I use audacious, they do not do anything and there is no volume icon notification (and mute does not work either). As I said, I do not consider this as a problem because sound is working and I usually do not use the hotkeys (and I have to mention that the multimedia repo did mess up some things but nothing serious so far). Just a short description, my 0.02$.

johnraff · 2016-07-23 06:52:06

I've just recently noticed that even without the /etc/asound.conf (or ~/.asoundrc) code posted earlier and generally agreed to be the fix for the "sticky-mute" issue - it's OK!

I'm not sure if this is due to our new way of starting pulseaudio (earlier in startup and before volumeicon) or because I installed pulseaudio-module-x11. I'll try reversing those changes and see if I can bring back sticky-mute. Has anyone else noticed that asound file becoming unnecessary?

Whatever, it seems to be recommended for getting alsa and pulse to play nicely together, so we might just decide to keep it anyway I guess...

hhh · 2016-07-23 06:52:54

Testing...

Confirmed on my setup. More feedback is needed though.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-07-23 18:14:16

johnraff wrote:

I've just recently noticed that even without the /etc/asound.conf (or ~/.asoundrc) code posted earlier and generally agreed to be the fix for the "sticky-mute" issue - it's OK!
I'm not sure if this is due to our new way of starting pulseaudio (earlier in startup and before volumeicon) or because I installed pulseaudio-module-x11. I'll try reversing those changes and see if I can bring back sticky-mute. Has anyone else noticed that asound file becoming unnecessary?
Whatever, it seems to be recommended for getting alsa and pulse to play nicely together, so we might just decide to keep it anyway I guess...

I was actually wondering about the validity of the /etc/asound.conf and ~/.asroundrc files, because according to this:

http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc

"Neither the user-side .asoundrc nor the asound.conf configuration files are required for ALSA to work properly. Most applications will work without them. These files are used to allow extra functionality, such as routing and sample-rate conversion, through the alsa-lib layer. "

So I was sort of questioning what the volti icon would need to do with extra functions such as routing and sample rating...but I kept my mouth shut!

johnraff · 2016-07-24 07:18:32

Horizon_Brave wrote:

I was actually wondering about the validity of the /etc/asound.conf and ~/.asroundrc files, because according to this:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Asoundrc
"Neither the user-side .asoundrc nor the asound.conf configuration files are required for ALSA to work properly. Most applications will work without them. These files are used to allow extra functionality...

The answer's there - the file isn't necessary but it adds extra functionality. In this case, it's intended to get alsa to use PulseAudio by default, and is recommended in several places on the interwebs. However, my recent experimenting has suggested that it's not directly relevant to the "sticky-mute" issue. It does affect the way volumeicon interacts with PulseAudio though.

So I was sort of questioning what the volti icon would need to do with extra functions...

Volti has been ditched, and will be replaced by volumeicon (99% sure) in the "deuterium" sub-release.

johnraff · 2016-07-24 08:25:38

PulseAudio startup and volumeicon

tl:dr For those without the time/inclination to go through all the tests, conclusions:

The volumeicon "sticky-mute" problem can be fixed by making sure PA is started before volumeicon.
The asound.conf file makes volumeicon refuse to start if PA is not running, but doesn't fix the mute problem itself.
PA does not have to be started explicitly, any library that needs it will trigger a start when it tries to contact PA - except volumeicon!
If PA is started by '/usr/bin/pulseaudio --start' it will continue running after X closes.
If PA is started indirectly, eg by loading a module, it will exit with the X session.
The the modules provided by pulseaudio-module-x11 do not affect this issue, although they might help with other apps.
The absence of that package will cause the script start-pulseaudio-x11 to exit and not run the "xprop" fork.

OK if you want to look at this stuff, remember that, depending on how it was started, PA might continue running after a logout. That can make the sticky-mute issue (SMI) appear to be fixed after a logout/in. Open a new tty with Ctrl+Alt+F2, log in and run 'pgrep -a pulse' to see if PA is up, and what its command was. You can also run 'pulseaudio --kill' while logged out of X to make sure the next X session you start from Ctrl+Alt+F7 via LightDM is clean.

Our current recommended fix of disabling pulseaudio.desktop with a local copy before starting volumeicon works well. I would just like to suggest changing the commands we use to start PA. The PA5 version of start-pulseaudio-x11 starts PA explicitly with 'pulseaudio --start', and then uses 'xprop -spy' to kill it with the X session.

I have confirmed that if PA is started directly with 'pulseaudio --start' then even after logging out tty2 will confirm that PA is still running. (Kill it with 'pulseaudio --kill' before logging back in.) However, if the command

/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-publish "display=$DISPLAY"

is run during an X session it will start up PA indirectly. After logging out of the X session, 'pgrep -a pulse' on tty2 shows no PA running. (A PA process that exits with X is a Good Thing.)

The asound.conf code published earlier affects the way volumeicon interacts with PA. If it is present, then VI will refuse to start up if PA is not running (leaving that Pulse Server message in ~/.Xsession-errors); if it is absent then VI will start up without PA, but if PA is started afterwards the SMI shows up. Either way, VI needs to be started after PA. However, while it doesn't help with the SMI it is recommended in the Debian Wiki, Arch Wiki and elsewhere, so I'd suggest keeping that asound.conf.

The XDG autostart .desktop files are executed by Openbox after it runs openbox/autostart, so PA will be too late if it's left there - that's why our .desktop file fix works.

start-pulseaudio-x11 starts with 'set -e' so any command that fails will cause the script to exit immediately. That means if pulseaudio-module-x11 is not installed the load-module commands will fail, the script will exit, and the (memory-leaking) xprop stanza that kills PA with an X logout will not be executed. If the package is installed then some PULSE related X properties will be set by start-pulseaudio-x11. Run

xprop -root -display :0 |grep -i PULSE

to see them. While those properties don't seem to help volumeicon, other apps might well use them to connect to PA so I suggest installing pulseaudio-module-x11, but changing start-pulseaudio-x11 so as not to use xprop.

The PA daemon does not need to be started explicitly - it will be invoked any time it seems to be needed, for example by playing a song in VLC or a station in Radiotray. Unfortunately VI doesn't do this. Another action that causes PA to start is loading a module via pactl. In fact that's exactly what start-pulseaudio-x11 in the Stretch (7) and Sid (9) versions does. I have tried that same script here on Jessie, launched from openbox/autostart, and it also seems to be working. This way, PA is started up before VI, and still exits with X without using xprop.

Suggestion

*) Create a script /usr/bin/bl-start-pulseaudio-x11 with this code:

#!/bin/sh

# header

set -e

if [ x"$DISPLAY" != x ] ; then

    /usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-publish "display=$DISPLAY" > /dev/null
    /usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-cork-request "display=$DISPLAY" > /dev/null

    if [ x"$KDE_FULL_SESSION" = x"true" ]; then
       /usr/bin/pactl load-module module-device-manager "do_routing=1" > /dev/null
    fi

    if [ x"$SESSION_MANAGER" != x ] ; then
	/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-xsmp "display=$DISPLAY session_manager=$SESSION_MANAGER" > /dev/null
    fi
fi

*) And use this in openbox/autostart:

bl-start-pulseaudio-x11
volumeicon &

*) Add the package pulseaudio-module-x11 to our default list.
ie install it to test this fix.

*) Keep (or add) the /etc/asound.conf file

*) And of course, as before:
purge volti and xfce4-volumed, and install volumeicon-alsa.
make sure volumeicon's hotkeys are set to the XF86* keys
remove any references to XF86* media keys in rc.xml
remove any reference to volti from openbox/autostart

That seems to be doing the job, but anyone who feels inclined, please try it out and check if volumeicon is working OK, notification bars and keyboard shortcuts, and no sticky-mute, and also that there is no PulseAudio process running after logging out.

Also, anyone who disagrees with any of this, please comment!

Last edited by johnraff (2016-08-01 05:11:50)

Maki · 2016-07-24 12:47:13

Whatever is decided; I'm in the pnmixer camp and will always prefer it over the rest unless something better comes along.
Volti just doesn't cut it and has random muting issues. At least pnmixer allows to reload alsa from the taskbar menu so occasional soundbugs can be overcome.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-24 18:38:33

johnraff wrote:

That seems to be doing the job, but anyone who feels inclined, please try it out and check if volumeicon is working OK, notification bars and keyboard shortcuts, and no stick-mute, and also that there is no PulseAudio process running after logging out.

This all works perfectly for me on a fresh install (Intel Haswell hardware with dual sound cards), the autostart file was otherwise un-modified and still contains the controversial ampersands and old scripts.

PA is killed correctly after logging out:

empty@TheLab:~$ pgrep -a pulse
1175 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog
empty@TheLab:~$ tmux detach # drop to TTY1
empty@TheLab:~$ pgrep -a pulse # no output
empty@TheLab:~$ tmux detach # back to TTY7 & log in via LightDM
empty@TheLab:~$ pgrep -a pulse
1447 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog

johnraff · 2016-07-25 03:19:34

^ ...phew...

It will be nice to finally get this sorted.

johnraff · 2016-07-31 04:38:01

Can anyone else confirm that the stuff in "Suggestion" here fixes everything with pulseaudio and volumeicon?

If, say, one more person could test it then I think we might move to implementing it for the Deuterium release.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-31 09:12:33

johnraff wrote:

Can anyone else confirm that the stuff in "Suggestion" here fixes everything with pulseaudio and volumeicon?

Ah, sorry I should have posted this link here :8

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic … 753#p32753

jalexander9 · 2016-07-31 16:31:33

@johnraff and @HoaS - The above link details the volumeicon fix working for my Bunsenlabs Thinkpad; the nm-applet issue is not gone but it only happened once since the fix. If I need nm-applet, I can use a CLI for functionality.

johnraff · 2016-08-01 05:30:46

Thanks @HoaS - I'm referring specifically to the customized (same as PA in Stretch & Sid in fact) version of start-pulseaudio-x11 which I posted. Using that should (if I've got this right) free us of the memory-leaking xprop --spy process and still make sure the PA daemon closes down with the X session.

ie to do this (note the new command bl-start-pulseaudio-x11) :

johnraff wrote:

*) Create a script /usr/bin/bl-start-pulseaudio-x11 with this code:
#!/bin/sh

# header

set -e

if [ x"$DISPLAY" != x ] ; then

    /usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-publish "display=$DISPLAY" > /dev/null
    /usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-cork-request "display=$DISPLAY" > /dev/null

    if [ x"$KDE_FULL_SESSION" = x"true" ]; then
       /usr/bin/pactl load-module module-device-manager "do_routing=1" > /dev/null
    fi

    if [ x"$SESSION_MANAGER" != x ] ; then
	/usr/bin/pactl load-module module-x11-xsmp "display=$DISPLAY session_manager=$SESSION_MANAGER" > /dev/null
    fi
fi
*) And use this in openbox/autostart:
bl-start-pulseaudio-x11
volumeicon &
*) Add the package pulseaudio-module-x11 to our default list.
ie install it to test this fix.
*) Keep (or add) the /etc/asound.conf file
*) And of course, as before:
purge volti and xfce4-volumed, and install volumeicon-alsa.
make sure volumeicon's hotkeys are set to the XF86* keys
remove any references to XF86* media keys in rc.xml
remove any reference to volti from openbox/autostart

If that works, maybe you'd consider adding it to your how-to?
(In fact, for a one-off local user tweak it would probably be easier to put bl-start-pulseaudio-x11 in ~/bin.)
It's a subtle change which might not bring any obvious benefits to many users, but anyway if there are no issues, we might want to use it in the default Deuterium setup.

@jalexander9 I'm not sure, but I tend to think your nm-applet problem is something different.

xaos52 · 2016-08-01 12:17:39

^ Above works for me.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-08-01 17:58:20

johnraff wrote:

If that works, maybe you'd consider adding it to your how-to?

Yes, I have already tested this method (I use it on my BL desktop) and it seems to work well.

I will update the guide.

EDIT: Updated, here documents ftw!

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2016-08-01 18:33:19)

jalexander9 · 2016-08-01 22:38:42

Sorry, I was enraptured with joy at the volumeicon fix, wishfull thinking - that it would fix nm-applet. Nevertheless, do each of the above methodologies complement each other? Can I use both at the same time?

#61 2016-05-23 03:11:05

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

#62 2016-05-26 04:16:48

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

#63 2016-06-05 03:12:54

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

#64 2016-06-06 22:27:17

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

#65 2016-06-07 22:07:13

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

#66 2016-07-23 06:52:06

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

#67 2016-07-23 06:52:54

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

#68 2016-07-23 18:14:16

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

#69 2016-07-24 07:18:32

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

#70 2016-07-24 08:25:38

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

PulseAudio startup and volumeicon

Suggestion

#71 2016-07-24 12:47:13

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

#72 2016-07-24 18:38:33

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

#73 2016-07-25 03:19:34

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

#74 2016-07-31 04:38:01

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

#75 2016-07-31 09:12:33

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

#76 2016-07-31 16:31:33

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

#77 2016-08-01 05:30:46

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

#78 2016-08-01 12:17:39

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

#79 2016-08-01 17:58:20

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

#80 2016-08-01 22:38:42

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

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