[DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-01-21 19:13:33

@matmutant has noticed some undesirable behaviour in respect of per-application volume setting on the desktop:

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=3252

This happens because the PulseAudio package ships from upstream with flat-volumes enabled:

There is no single well-defined meaning attached to the 100% volume for a sink input. In fact, it depends on the server configuration. With flat volumes enabled (the default in most Linux distributions), it means the maximum volume that the sound hardware is capable of, which is usually so high that you absolutely must not set sink input volume to 100% unless the the user explicitly requests that (note that usually you shouldn't set the volume anyway if the user doesn't explicitly request it, instead, let PulseAudio decide the volume for the sink input). With flat volumes disabled (the default in Ubuntu), the sink input volume is relative to the sink volume, so 100% sink input volume means that the sink input is played at the current sink volume level. In this case 100% is often a good default volume for a sink input, although you still should let PulseAudio decide the default volume.

https://freedesktop.org/software/pulsea … olume.html

Arch ships the package with flat-volumes disabled and I think that we should do the same (albeit via a skel configuration file).

Opinions?

Last edited by johnraff (2017-12-07 02:31:35)

Sector11 · 2017-01-21 19:55:15

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you are talking about. I frequently have my volume at 100% or I would not hear most things (headphone only). At the moment it's sitting at 90% because of a particularly loud video I was watching a while ago. Fahrenheit 9/11

Probably not what you mean though - also: I have no pulseaudio here. Pure ALSA.

Funny thing; searching with:

unix|linux set volume for the sink input

and every response is talking: PulseAudio.

Is this like:

app1 has a default volume set at 65% while app2 uses volume set at 80% ? NO!

OH!!!!!!!!!! I see now (I read too!)

If that's it: turn it off! And I don't even use it!

johnraff · 2017-01-22 02:57:24

I've had flat-volumes disabled on my personal system for some time, and posted the tweak last July:
https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=2277
(That "Scripts, Tutorials and Tips" section gets a lot of traffic...)

Anyway, yes I'd be in favour of making it default in BunsenLabs, either system-wide in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf or in the default user settings in /usr/share/bunsen/skel/.config/pulse/daemon.conf

Sector11 · 2017-01-22 03:27:18

^ System wide is my choice.

But then if Pulse still doesn't act right on my equipment next release it's like a tooth with an ache - Pluck!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-01-22 11:34:21

johnraff wrote:

posted the tweak last July

Oh yes, I forgot about that, sorry.

I think perhaps /etc/pulse/daemon.conf is the way to go as it would be applied to all users upon upgrade whereas the skel file would only apply to new users created after the upgrade.

nobody · 2017-01-22 11:48:32

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

johnraff wrote:
posted the tweak last July
Oh yes, I forgot about that, sorry.
I think perhaps /etc/pulse/daemon.conf is the way to go as it would be applied to all users upon upgrade whereas the skel file would only apply to new users created after the upgrade.

Yes, I like the suggestion. Let's add it to the package (bunsen-configs?) as a system-wide config diversion.

johnraff · 2017-01-23 08:52:10

^ OK easily done.
One more file for config-file-diversion I guess.

o9000 · 2017-01-23 09:56:32

Sector11 wrote:

But then if Pulse still doesn't act right on my equipment next release it's like a tooth with an ache - Pluck!

I'd make a comment too about PA in the same general direction, but it won't be constructive, so I'll keep my mouth shut.

cloverskull · 2017-01-23 21:48:57

Actually, I had a ton of success recently plugging PA directly into jack and skipping ALSA. Turns out latency is attributable to ALSA. PA works just fine.

nobody · 2017-01-23 23:01:08

cloverskull wrote:

Actually, I had a ton of success recently plugging PA directly into jack and skipping ALSA. Turns out latency is attributable to ALSA. PA works just fine.

It probably was more of an ALSA misconfiguration (which is not your blame to take because ALSA config has next to zero documentation and only snippets flying around) than an ALSA problem per se as PA is a layer over ALSA (or OSS): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ … iagram.svg.

cloverskull · 2017-01-23 23:43:23

Without derailing too much, and not to split hairs, but jack (properly configured) is much lower latency than the userspace alsa library. Having PA sit on top of a properly configured jack stack results in the best current linux desktop audio experience, IMO. I'm happy to fire up a new thread to talk about this if you're interested!

johnraff · 2017-01-24 01:58:40

twoion wrote:

Let's add it to the package (bunsen-configs?) as a system-wide config diversion.

bunsen-configs sounds right. Do an upgrade right away?

o9000 · 2017-01-24 09:34:37

cloverskull wrote:

Without derailing too much, and not to split hairs, but jack (properly configured) is much lower latency than the userspace alsa library. Having PA sit on top of a properly configured jack stack results in the best current linux desktop audio experience, IMO. I'm happy to fire up a new thread to talk about this if you're interested!

If you have the time, I would appreciate it.

Last edited by o9000 (2017-01-24 09:35:12)

johnraff · 2017-11-16 08:13:27

Flat volumes now disabled in bunsen-configs-pulse in the helium-dev repo.
(Using /etc/pulse/daemon.conf.d/bunsen.conf)

#1 2017-01-21 19:13:33

[DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#2 2017-01-21 19:55:15

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#3 2017-01-22 02:57:24

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#4 2017-01-22 03:27:18

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#5 2017-01-22 11:34:21

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#6 2017-01-22 11:48:32

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#7 2017-01-23 08:52:10

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#8 2017-01-23 09:56:32

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#9 2017-01-23 21:48:57

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#10 2017-01-23 23:01:08

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#11 2017-01-23 23:43:23

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#12 2017-01-24 01:58:40

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#13 2017-01-24 09:34:37

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

#14 2017-11-16 08:13:27

Re: [DONE] Disable flat-volumes for BunsenLabs?

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