Volume control issues [SOLVED]

christopherisnow · 2018-05-19 14:17:49

Hi all, just installed Helium -- splendid

Unfortunately I see no volume icon in the system tray, nor does my volume control hardware (ThinkPad x220) have any effect

I suspect the problem is related to the old ~/.config/openbox/autostart file I copied over with my entire /home folder after install, which specifies

## Volume keys daemon
xfce4-volumed &

On Hydrogen I believe I had also removed Pulseaudio, according to this tutorial which I have done after all BL installs since #! died: http://linuxg.net/how-to-properly-repla … n-squeeze/

Can anyone please offer either

- a quick fix to get back volume control (through the correct new autostart file I'm guessing) OR
- tips on how to properly remove Pulseaudio, and if indeed removal is still advisable for audio work?

Last edited by christopherisnow (2018-05-22 13:59:41)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-19 15:22:24

christopherisnow wrote:

- a quick fix to get back volume control (through the correct new autostart file I'm guessing)

Check /usr/share/bunsen/skel/.config/openbox/autostart for the current version

how to properly remove Pulseaudio

We've made that simpler for BL-He:

sudo apt purge pulseaudio

christopherisnow · 2018-05-19 15:43:27

christopherisnow wrote:
- a quick fix to get back volume control (through the correct new autostart file I'm guessing)
Check /usr/share/bunsen/skel/.config/openbox/autostart for the current version wink

Thanks, I just copied that over!

pnmixer shows up in the system tray and I can adjust with the mouse. However, my hardware controls still have no effect.

Hopefully I didn't create more problems by removing pulseaudio as you suggested?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-19 15:49:43

christopherisnow wrote:

Hopefully I didn't create more problems by removing pulseaudio as you suggested?

We use PA to set the default audio output in machines with multiple cards, how many do you have?

cat /proc/asound/cards

^ That should also show the default card, to change that under pure ALSA see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad … sound_card.

christopherisnow · 2018-05-19 16:44:15

cat /proc/asound/cards gives:

 0 [PCH            ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel PCH
                      HDA Intel PCH at 0xf2520000 irq 30

The alsa.conf stuff is over my head. Is there a simple solution, or shall I just reinstall PA?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-19 17:16:11

^ You only have one card and the index is correct.

Please post the output of

speaker-test -l 1
amixer

christopherisnow · 2018-05-19 17:37:42

speaker-test 1.1.3

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 192 to 2097152
Period size range from 64 to 699051
Using max buffer size 2097152
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 524288
was set buffer_size = 2097152
 0 - Front Left

amixer gives:

Simple mixer control 'Master',0
  Capabilities: pvolume pswitch pswitch-joined
  Playback channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Playback 0 - 65536
  Mono:
  Front Left: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
  Front Right: Playback 65536 [100%] [on]
Simple mixer control 'Capture',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Front Left - Front Right
  Limits: Capture 0 - 65536
  Front Left: Capture 10386 [16%] [on]
  Front Right: Capture 10386 [16%] [on]

FYI I reinstalled PA just to see what would happen. Still no hardware volume control.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-19 17:49:33

My apologies, I have totally misunderstood you, I was working under the impression that you had no sound at all but that is not the case, is it?

For hardware control of volume, check the relevant tickboxes in the right-click preferences menu of the systray audio tool.

christopherisnow · 2018-05-19 18:06:35

I always had audio -- just no control from my volume knob on the laptop!

This problem persists. Any ideas?

EDIT: my laptop audio *does* communicate with the volume control inside VLC... in case that's of any diagnostical use.

Last edited by christopherisnow (2018-05-19 18:13:52)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-19 18:17:52

christopherisnow wrote:

This problem persists

What is the status of the checkboxes to which I referred in my last post?

Are there any relevant messages in ~/.xsession-errors?

Alternatively, run pnmixer from the terminal to see the errors as they appear:

pkill pnmixer
pnmixer

(Then try the volume controls)

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2018-05-19 18:18:27)

hhh · 2018-05-20 03:59:10

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

christopherisnow wrote:
This problem persists
What is the status of the checkboxes to which I referred in my last post?

Specifically, in the Preferences of pnmixer, how do you have the Notifications tab set?

christopherisnow · 2018-05-21 12:35:58

Restarting pnmixer from the terminal gives no errors -- my hardware buttons simply fail to change anything.

Prefs > Notifications has the default settings: HotKeys and Mouse Scroll are clicked. The rest are unclicked.

In case it's of any use, PNMixer > Volume Control tells me:

Unable to run command: Failed to execute child process "xfce4-mixer" (No such file or directory)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-21 21:43:42

Copy the configuration file over and restart the program:

cp /usr/share/bunsen/skel/.config/pnmixer/config ~/.config/pnmixer
pkill -usr1 pnmixer # or maybe pkill -hup if it's traditional :-)

johnraff · 2018-05-22 06:34:33

christopherisnow wrote:

I suspect the problem is related to the old ~/.config/openbox/autostart file I copied over with my entire /home folder after install...

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Copy the configuration file over and restart the program:
cp /usr/share/bunsen/skel/.config/pnmixer/config ~/.config/pnmixer
pkill -usr1 pnmixer # or maybe pkill -hup if it's traditional :-)

In fact, you might well want to go over the whole /usr/share/bunsen/skel/ directory and compare the contents with what you have in $HOME, there will almost certainly be other archaic configurations there.

If that seems like too much trouble, you could run:

bl-user-setup --refresh

That will overwrite any files with the default BunsenLabs settings. Backup copies will be made though, so you can copy back anything you want to keep. Files not included in the BL skel/ will be left alone.

<off-topic>
This is why I do not recommend making a separate $HOME partition to use for all systems on a machine. Much better IMO to use a $DATA partition only for system-agnostic files.
</off-topic>

christopherisnow · 2018-05-22 13:59:09

Thanks again, @Head -- all I had to do was refresh the config file. All working fine now.

I'll leave well enough alone and not remove PA at this point. But if you can point me to any other relevant threads for removing it (and cleaning up afterwards) I'd appreciate it.

@johnraff I see your point. I thought I was doing myself a favor by copying over all my config files from Hydrogen, but obviously that was a mistake!

Can you suggest a tutorial for partitioning/setting up separate DATA and HOME folders? I only use BL -- no other systems or users on this machine.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-05-23 05:57:04

christopherisnow wrote:

I'll leave well enough alone and not remove PA at this point. But if you can point me to any other relevant threads for removing it (and cleaning up afterwards) I'd appreciate it.

Simply removing the pulseaudio package should do the trick but you may have to configure ALSA afterwards if your machine has multiple sound cards:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ad … sound_card

johnraff · 2018-05-23 06:16:32

christopherisnow wrote:

Can you suggest a tutorial for partitioning/setting up separate DATA and HOME folders? I only use BL -- no other systems or users on this machine.

Have you got any unused disk area to make a new partition? If not, you'd have to resize existing partitions from a live session - not impossible if you've got plenty of free space at the moment, but the only advantage would come later, when you install a new system.

#1 2018-05-19 14:17:49

Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#2 2018-05-19 15:22:24

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#3 2018-05-19 15:43:27

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#4 2018-05-19 15:49:43

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#5 2018-05-19 16:44:15

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#6 2018-05-19 17:16:11

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#7 2018-05-19 17:37:42

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#8 2018-05-19 17:49:33

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#9 2018-05-19 18:06:35

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#10 2018-05-19 18:17:52

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#11 2018-05-20 03:59:10

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#12 2018-05-21 12:35:58

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#13 2018-05-21 21:43:42

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#14 2018-05-22 06:34:33

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#15 2018-05-22 13:59:09

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#16 2018-05-23 05:57:04

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

#17 2018-05-23 06:16:32

Re: Volume control issues [SOLVED]

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