[Bug 922401] New: System sound volume gets restored to 100% after each knotify event
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401 Bug ID: 922401 Summary: System sound volume gets restored to 100% after each knotify event Classification: openSUSE Product: openSUSE Distribution Version: 13.2 Hardware: Other OS: Other Status: NEW Severity: Normal Priority: P5 - None Component: KDE4 Workspace Assignee: kde-maintainers@suse.de Reporter: chris@infosun.fim.uni-passau.de QA Contact: qa-bugs@suse.de Found By: --- Blocker: --- System sounds, e.g. KDE system start are too loud. After setting the loudness of systems sounds (during playing the sound from system settings' notifiations panel to 50%) in kmix icon, it is automatically restored to 100%. That means, playing it anew is too loud again. As far I can remember this "feature" was already present in 13.1 . I am not the only one: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/492575-66-sound-volume Looks like an upstream bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=324975 Any workaround? Thx, Chris -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
Wolfgang Bauer
System sounds, e.g. KDE system start are too loud. After setting the loudness of systems sounds (during playing the sound from system settings' notifiations panel to 50%) in kmix icon, it is automatically restored to 100%. That means, playing it anew is too loud again. As far I can remember this "feature" was already present in 13.1 .
I am not the only one: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/492575-66-sound-volume
Hm? That thread is 2 years old and actually about the VolumeOverdrive feature, i.e. that PulseAudio/pavucontrol allow to crank up the volume to 153%, but this is shown by KMix as 100%. So PA's 100% volume would be shown as 66% by KMix.
Looks like an upstream bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=324975
Yes. But openSUSE has a patch for this since 13.1. Are you really using the package kdebase4-runtime from the distribution?
Any workaround?
Yes, several: - turn off PulseAudio (YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration) or uninstall it - set "flat-volumes = no" in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, this will prevent any application from changing the overall volume - you could also set a lower volume in the notifications settings, but that is removed/disabled by openSUSE's patch, but have a look into ~/.kde4/share/config/knotifyrc and modify the "Volume=" setting to a lower value (I'm not sure whether this has any effect though) -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #2 from Christian Bachmaier
That thread is 2 years old and actually about the VolumeOverdrive feature, i.e. that PulseAudio/pavucontrol allow to crank up the volume to 153%, but this is shown by KMix as 100%. So PA's 100% volume would be shown as 66% by KMix.
You are right. Playing a system sounds raises up the master volume slider and the system sound slider to 66% each, regardless of their prior setting.
Yes. But openSUSE has a patch for this since 13.1.
Then the patch did and does not work. As far I can see, there are others (Forum-Thread) for which the patch did not help.
Are you really using the package kdebase4-runtime from the distribution?
Definitively, I am on the distribution version. However, I upgraded my system from 12.3 (probably without patch) to 13.1 and then to 13.2 and did no clean install inbetween. Could there be some cadaver files or settings left over?
Any workaround?
Yes, several: - turn off PulseAudio (YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration) or uninstall it
Ok, seems to be rather hard.
- set "flat-volumes = no" in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, this will prevent any application from changing the overall volume
Then my music player cannot make it louder also. Or am I missing something?
- you could also set a lower volume in the notifications settings, but that is removed/disabled by openSUSE's patch, but have a look into ~/.kde4/share/config/knotifyrc and modify the "Volume=" setting to a lower value (I'm not sure whether this has any effect though)
Would be the best workaround (despite a patch) in my eyes, however, as you have suspected, it has no effect. Thanx, Chris -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #3 from Wolfgang Bauer
Yes. But openSUSE has a patch for this since 13.1.
Then the patch did and does not work. As far I can see, there are others (Forum-Thread) for which the patch did not help. AFAICT the patch does work. At least it did when I last tried to enable PulseAudio here.
But you are right, on some systems the problem seems to occur despite the patch. Maybe you raised the volume for notifications in PulseAudio itself? PulseAudio basically allows a separate volume setting for each application. You should be able to set the volume for notifications in KMix or pavucontrol.
Are you really using the package kdebase4-runtime from the distribution?
Definitively, I am on the distribution version. However, I upgraded my system from 12.3 (probably without patch) to 13.1 and then to 13.2 and did no clean install inbetween. Could there be some cadaver files or settings left over?
Well, the files in /etc/pulse/ are config files, if you ever modified them, they won't get changed on updates. But flat-volumes=false, which is the source of this problem, is set by default.
- turn off PulseAudio (YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration) or uninstall it
Ok, seems to be rather hard.
Hm? What's hard about that?
- set "flat-volumes = no" in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, this will prevent any application from changing the overall volume
Then my music player cannot make it louder also. Or am I missing something?
Of course it can. But it cannot change the overall volume. Why not just try it? Most people were satisfied afterwards.
- you could also set a lower volume in the notifications settings, but that is removed/disabled by openSUSE's patch, but have a look into ~/.kde4/share/config/knotifyrc and modify the "Volume=" setting to a lower value (I'm not sure whether this has any effect though)
Would be the best workaround (despite a patch) in my eyes, however, as you have suspected, it has no effect.
I thought so. The openSUSE patch actually disabled this setting (so the patch is indeed working... ;) ). Do you have the same problem with a fresh user account? Maybe it's caused by your user's volume settings. Anyway, this should be fixed upstream in 15.04. Although IMHO (and I'm not alone in this) this is actually a bug (or at least unfortunate default settings) in PulseAudio. But PA upstream thinks differently, and similar openSUSE bugs already got closed as WONTFIX or FEATURE request by the sound maintainers. https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=800616 https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=718728 -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #4 from Wolfgang Bauer
Maybe you raised the volume for notifications in PulseAudio itself? PulseAudio basically allows a separate volume setting for each application. You should be able to set the volume for notifications in KMix or pavucontrol.
If you click on KMix's icon in the system tray, you should see _two_ volume controls. The left one is the general volume, whereas the right one is the volume for notifications (although it has the same label). If the right one is set to (nearly) 100%, this would exactly cause what you describe: notifications would be played at 100% volume, and also crank up the overall volume to 100% (because of PulseAudio's flat-volumes). So move the right slider to a lower value, about 25% maybe, and your problem should be "solved". If that's the case, the only (KDE) bug I can see here is the incorrect labelling of the right slider (which can of course be confusing), probably caused by openSUSE's patches. But then, we should be able to drop the patches completely anyway next month, because this should be fixed upstream. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #5 from Christian Bachmaier
If you click on KMix's icon in the system tray, you should see _two_ volume controls. The left one is the general volume, whereas the right one is the volume for notifications (although it has the same label). If the right one is set to (nearly) 100%, this would exactly cause what you describe: notifications would be played at 100% volume, and also crank up the overall volume to 100% (because of PulseAudio's flat-volumes).
I see 2 sliders. No matter which one (or both) I move to say 25%, playing the next system sound in KDE control panel or e.g. automatically at login time resets (automatically) both to 66% again. This cannot be intended.
So move the right slider to a lower value, about 25% maybe, and your problem should be "solved".
Unfortunately, this has only an effect to a currently playing sound. This was my first and logical try... In the evening I will try flat-volumes = no. The the music player cannot set the master volume any more, but only its own, as far I have red. Chris -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #6 from Wolfgang Bauer
I see 2 sliders. No matter which one (or both) I move to say 25%, playing the next system sound in KDE control panel or e.g. automatically at login time resets (automatically) both to 66% again. This cannot be intended.
IIRC, playing a system sound in the KDE control panel will always play it at 100%. So don't use that to verify the volume. But actual notifications should be played at the correct (lower) volume. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #7 from Christian Bachmaier
IIRC, playing a system sound in the KDE control panel will always play it at 100%. So don't use that to verify the volume.
If you are asking me, then this is also a bug: playing a sound manually in control center resets both loudness sliders to 66% instead of leaving them as they are.
But actual notifications should be played at the correct (lower) volume.
Unfortunateley, no. As I wrote, the automatic login notification (or some other) resets both sliders to 66%. Thx, Chris -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #8 from Wolfgang Bauer
IIRC, playing a system sound in the KDE control panel will always play it at 100%. So don't use that to verify the volume.
If you are asking me, then this is also a bug: playing a sound manually in control center resets both loudness sliders to 66% instead of leaving them as they are.
Yes. But that's a different bug, and also exists without PulseAudio. In the latter case it doesn't cause the same problems of course (because it will not change the overall system volume).
But actual notifications should be played at the correct (lower) volume.
Unfortunateley, no. As I wrote, the automatic login notification (or some other) resets both sliders to 66%.
Well, the question is whether this is really caused by the login notification, or it is some other problem like incorrect restoring of the sound volume on boot e.g. Is this also happening while logged in whenever a notifcation plays? Is this also happening if you disable the login notification? And as I already asked: have you tried with a fresh user account too? (might be a problem with the saved volumes of your user account) I don't use PulseAudio myself (because of other reasons), but I also haven't experienced such a problem when I tried it out (with 13.1 and 13.2) But then, I never had the login notification activated (it is disabled by default). I think I will install/enable PulseAudio again and play with this over the weekend... -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
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--- Comment #9 from Christian Bachmaier
But flat-volumes=false, which is the source of this problem, is set by default.
flat-volumes = yes was commented out, and yes is the default and not false. I have never changed the file daemon.conf before.
- turn off PulseAudio (YaST->Hardware->Sound->Other->PulseAudio Configuration) or uninstall it Ok, seems to be rather hard. Hm? What's hard about that?
I mean, it is not hard to do that. But openSUSE default is to have it active and to use it. I suspect, that this has some reasons.
Maybe you raised the volume for notifications in PulseAudio itself?
No. pavucontrol was not installed on my system until now.
PulseAudio basically allows a separate volume setting for each application. You should be able to set the volume for notifications in KMix or pavucontrol.
Changeing the loudness of system sounds in pavucontrol to 25% does not change anything.
I think I will install/enable PulseAudio again and play with this over the weekend...
Wolfgang, thanks again for your help.
But actual notifications should be played at the correct (lower) volume.
No, I don't see that. It is rather hard to find/trigger an automatic sound without using the control center despite logoff. Any suggestions? The old behavior with a slider in control center was better. In my opionion the system sound level should not be changed automatically. So once has changed in KMix (or with the slider in the control center since in KMix is is only shortly during playing the notification sound) the level should be left as is. pavucontrol should not be needed, since a KDE user has KMix and pavucontrol is not installed in a default installation. Chris -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #10 from Wolfgang Bauer
As a work-around I have now set flat-volumes = no. Then the master is not changed without user interaction any more. However, the system sound slider in KMix is set automatically to 66% every time a system sound is played destroying the balance to other sound sources.
But flat-volumes=false, which is the source of this problem, is set by default.
flat-volumes = yes was commented out, and yes is the default and not false. I have never changed the file daemon.conf before.
Yes, that was a typo, sorry. flat-volumes = yes is the default, and causes this behaviour, that notifications are even able to change the overall volume.
Maybe you raised the volume for notifications in PulseAudio itself?
No. pavucontrol was not installed on my system until now.
But you may have changed it in KMix, knowingly or unknowingly.
PulseAudio basically allows a separate volume setting for each application. You should be able to set the volume for notifications in KMix or pavucontrol.
Changeing the loudness of system sounds in pavucontrol to 25% does not change anything.
As I don't use PulseAudio myself, I have no idea whether "system sounds" would be the correct thing here for KDE I have to admit.
But actual notifications should be played at the correct (lower) volume.
No, I don't see that. It is rather hard to find/trigger an automatic sound without using the control center despite logoff. Any suggestions?
Well, depends on your notification config of course. An easy way might be to open more than one tab in Konqueror or Dolphin and close the window. A dialog should appear asking you whether you want to close the current tab, the whole application, or cancel, and also a notification sound should be played (with the default settings at least).
The old behavior with a slider in control center was better. In my opionion the system sound level should not be changed automatically.
This slider is removed by openSUSE's patches. And it's that slider (or rather the option to configure the notification volume at all) that actually causes the problem with PulseAudio/flat-volumes=true. KDE 15.04 disables this volume control by default, but allows the user to enable it if (s)he wants to. I haven't tried that patch myself either though, so cannot tell if that would fix all problems, or the same problems would remain.
So once has changed in KMix (or with the slider in the control center since in KMix is is only shortly during playing the notification sound) the level should be left as is. pavucontrol should not be needed, since a KDE user has KMix and pavucontrol is not installed in a default installation.
Yes, but in my experience the right volume slider in KMix does exactly this. It is available permanently, and sets the volume for notifications to a fixed value. You don't have to use pavucontrol. But I have to say again, personally I find this whole flat-volumes behaviour irritating at best. E.g. if you raise the notification volume (and probably the volume for any other application), the general volume gets raised as well when this plays a sound. But lowering the notification volume does not do any change to the general volume... Again, IMHO this is a design issue in PulseAudio and/or a bad default, or maybe the problem lies in KDE's PulseAudio support. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #11 from Wolfgang Bauer
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
Wolfgang Bauer
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
Wolfgang Bauer
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
Wolfgang Bauer
I'll report that upstream, but I want to check the situation in Plasma5 first.
The same problem exists in Plasma5, I reported it here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=345651 I also reported the similar problem with the phonon settings test sound: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=345652 -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
--- Comment #14 from Christian Bachmaier
http://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=922401
Wolfgang Bauer
I can confirm, I used phonon-backend-vlc. Now I switched to phonon-backend-gstreamer seems, which behaves better.
Thanks for confirming. So let's close this as UPSTREAM, as the bug is reported there as well now (and it is an upstream problem AFAICT). If/when this gets fixed, we can add the fix to the openSUSE packages of course, or just update them to the latest version.
No idea which one is/was the default. gstreamer.
phonon-backend-vlc is not installed by default in openSUSE. -- You are receiving this mail because: You are on the CC list for the bug.
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