can't toggle mute on and off

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-03 13:52

I am running Trinity desktop.
I have a Dell laptop. It has a mute key.
xev says:
KeyRelease event, serial 39, synthetic NO, window 0x4000001,
root 0x108, subw 0x0, time 5280594, (341,624), root:(343,653),
state 0x0, keycode 121 (keysym 0x1008ff12, XF86AudioMute), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

The key should toggle muting on and off. On the screen, it indicates that it is toggled on and off, but it really is not.

When I press the key once, the sound is muted. When I press it again, it stays muted.

The only way I can unmute is by using pulse audio volume control.

Please tell me how to fix this problem. Thanks!

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-03 14:00

BTW KMix also falsely says I am toggling the sound on and off.
The only way to truly toggle mute on and off is with pulse audio volume control

bin · 2021-07-03 17:34

If you right click on the speaker volume icon and go to Select Master Channel is Pulse selected?

Where you say 'BTW KMix also falsely says I am toggling the sound on and off.' - is that in response to right click>mute?

It may help if you could please copy and paste the output of inxi -F so we can get a better idea of the hardware.

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-03 17:52

System:
Host: billybob-pc Kernel: 4.19.0-17-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Trinity R14.0.6 Distro: Q4OS 3.15.1-n1
Machine:
Type: Portable System: Dell product: Latitude E6400 v: N/A
serial: <root required>
Mobo: Dell model: 0W620R serial: <root required> BIOS: Dell v: A14
date: 05/11/2009
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 37.1 Wh condition: 37.1/57.7 Wh (64%)
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo P8400 bits: 64 type: MCP
L2 cache: 3072 KiB
Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 800/2268 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 798 2: 798
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
resolution: 1280x800~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-17-amd64
Network:
Device-1: Intel 82567LM Gigabit Network driver: e1000e
IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: 00:24:e8:b3:c2:c8
Device-2: Broadcom Limited BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY driver: b43-pci-bridge
IF-ID-1: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
IF-ID-2: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:25:56:3e:6a:6f
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 149.05 GiB used: 5.55 GiB (3.7%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST9160411ASG size: 149.05 GiB
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 143.71 GiB used: 5.53 GiB (3.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 19.9 MiB (1.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2
Sensors:
Missing: Required tool sensors not installed. Check --recommends
Info:
Processes: 141 Uptime: 5h 49m Memory: 1.90 GiB used: 965.2 MiB (49.6%)
Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.32

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-03 18:06

>If you right click on the speaker volume icon and go to Select Master Channel is Pulse selected?
yes

> Where you say 'BTW KMix also falsely says I am toggling the sound on and off.' - is that in response to right click>mute?
I meant when I run KMix from settings>sound mixer

When I right click on the speaker icon on the desktop in the lower right corner: mute is not toggled on and off. Sound just stays off. KMix is not able to deal with this. Funny how KMix is worse than pulse audio in this respect.

My take on it is that the mute key is interpreted simply as mute (XFree86AudioMute) and NOT as a togglable key. This is what needs to be fixed. I think this is a general linux (X?) problem and not q4os specific. Possibly it can be fixed using pulse audio and keymodmap. A dotfile to put in my home directory with some magic in it maybe?

Thanks!

Tolkem · 2021-07-03 21:11

Billy-Bob wrote:

When I right click on the speaker icon on the desktop in the lower right corner: mute is not toggled on and off. Sound just stays off. KMix is not able to deal with this. Funny how KMix is worse than pulse audio in this respect.

Kmix uses pulseaudio, it's just GUI to interact with it.

My take on it is that the mute key is interpreted simply as mute (XFree86AudioMute) and NOT as a togglable key. This is what needs to be fixed. I think this is a general linux (X?) problem and not q4os specific. Possibly it can be fixed using pulse audio and keymodmap. A dotfile to put in my home directory with some magic in it maybe?
Thanks!

I use Plasma and I don't have this issue, so it's not a "Linux general problem". Did you check that the same key is set to toggle sound on? Maybe, it is set to toggle it off, but no on? Just a thought.

bin · 2021-07-04 05:41

Seeing as how it's a Dell Latitude it may be worth going to Control Centre>Regional & Accessibility>Keyboard Layout and switching to Dell Laptop from the drop down list.

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-04 09:25

Thanks bin, I did try setting the keyboard to Dell Latitude, but there is no change in behaviour.

I don't think this is a keyboard specific issue. When I right click on the speaker icon in the lower right of desktop to get KMix, there is a Mute selection. It behaves in exactly the same way: select first time, it mutes. Select again, it is still muted. Even though KMix says it is not muted (tickmark gone).

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-04 09:35

Thanks Tolkem for your reply. When I say it seems to be a general Linux issue, I meant that when googling I see the same issue popping up with multiple Linux distributions, desktop environments, and GUI libraries (I think q4os trinity uses qt).

The fundamental problem is the toggling. That needs to be set somewhere. It is not just the keyboard, because KMix exhibits the same problem.

You say that KMix is just a front end for pulseaudio. That's puzzling, because when I run pulseaudio Volume Control I can toggle muting on and off no problem. It is a gui found by TDE icon in left corner>Applications>Programs>Accessories>Multimedia>Volume Control. It seems there is a problem with KMix communicating with pulseaudio??

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-04 09:53

I can toggle mute correctly with alsamixer

bin · 2021-07-05 06:08

Billy-Bob wrote:

........It seems there is a problem with KMix communicating with pulseaudio??

Too right!

Just out of interest you may want to have a look at Gemini as a number of fixes have gone in to TDE 14.0.10

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-05 09:31

OK thanks bin! I will have a look.

Another idea I had was to create a shell script. Then maybe make an icon of it I could click, so then I could mute/unmute that way. Not sure how to do that, but a possible project for me...

q4osteam · 2021-07-05 10:42

It seems OP encountered known TDE bug what should be fixed in Q4OS Gemini.

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-05 11:22

Thanks Q4OS Team. I will install Q4OS when it is in final form and not testing.

Until then I have made a workaround using this script mute.sh:
#!/bin/sh
pactl set-sink-mute 0 toggle
exit

I made it executable
chmod u+x mute.sh

This works fine from bash.
./mute.sh

However when I click on the file icon it opens it in Kate, rather than executing it.
I can't figure out how to tell Konqueror to run executable files when clicked rather than opening in Kate.

Can someone please tell me how to do that? I have looking various places including Konqueror>settings>configure Konqueror>behaviour
Thanks!

aluma · 2021-07-05 18:31

That's where it says. what to do with files *.sh.
But why open the Konqueror to run the file?
If the file is placed in the Desktop folder, its icon will appear on the desktop and will be executed when clicked.

Attachments:

снимок60.jpg, Size: 61.21 KiB, Downloads: 300

Billy-Bob · 2021-07-05 20:08

> If the file is placed in the Desktop folder, its icon will appear on the desktop and will be executed when clicked.

Thanks Aluma!

So if I use the file manager to view the contents of ~/Desktop folder and double click the mute.sh icon it is opened in the text editor. But if I use the desktop view (not using file manager) and double click it executes mute.sh

That seems really strange to me. For one thing, the only way I can use a shell script is if I place it on the desktop.

Anyway thanks for that tip, I would never have guessed it.

detoo · 2021-07-06 08:24

q4osteam wrote:

It seems OP encountered known TDE bug what should be fixed in Q4OS Gemini.

I wonder if it's related to what I was dealing with here.

aluma · 2021-07-06 08:33

Billy-Bob
"...That seems really strange to me. For one thing, the only way I can use a shell script is if I place it on the desktop...."

For x-shellscript files:

Last edited by aluma (2021-07-06 08:37)

Attachments:

снимок61.jpg, Size: 66.37 KiB, Downloads: 297

Baloo · 2022-03-10 17:57

I am also running into this bug with Gemini TDE, namely that the KMix window operates fine, but the dock control in the system tray for KMix is non-functional to control any sound. Additionally, the designated keyboard keys I have for mute, volume up and volume down do not work at all, unlike in XFCE on Pop! OS where they work just fine. Has anyone figured out a solution to this issue?

Humming Owl · 2022-03-27 06:23

Billy-Bob wrote:

When I press the key once, the sound is muted. When I press it again, it stays muted.

I have experienced this, as a workaround you can:

- Go to "Settings > Control Panel > Regional & Accessibility > Input Actions"
- Set a "New Action"
- Change the "Action name" to Toggle Mute (for example).
- Change "Action type" to "Keyboard Shortcut -> Command/URL (simple)"
- Go to the Keyboard Shortcut tab and set a shortcut like "Alt+M" (don't set the default mute key it wont work).
- Go to "Command/URL Settings" and add this command:

amixer -D pulse set Master Playback Switch toggle

- Hit "Apply" and OK.

It should toggle correctly now.

I think the issue is the same as in this topic --> https://askubuntu.com/questions/118675/ … -only-alsa

In Konqueror go to "/opt/trinity/share/doc/tde/HTML/en/khelpcenter/releasenotes/" and search in the "r14.0.09.docbook" file for the "XF86AudioMute" string. Seems to be that the issue is related to kmilo (a keyboard plugin for trinity I believe). The file also suggests a command to mute/unmute and it also works:

dcop kmix Mixer-1 toggleMasterMute

Both commands work (at least with me).

Last edited by Humming Owl (2022-03-27 06:27)

Q4OS Forum

#1 2021-07-03 13:52

can't toggle mute on and off

#2 2021-07-03 14:00

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#3 2021-07-03 17:34

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#4 2021-07-03 17:52

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#5 2021-07-03 18:06

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#6 2021-07-03 21:11

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#7 2021-07-04 05:41

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#8 2021-07-04 09:25

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#9 2021-07-04 09:35

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#10 2021-07-04 09:53

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#11 2021-07-05 06:08

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#12 2021-07-05 09:31

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#13 2021-07-05 10:42

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#14 2021-07-05 11:22

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#15 2021-07-05 18:31

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#16 2021-07-05 20:08

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#17 2021-07-06 08:24

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#18 2021-07-06 08:33

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#19 2022-03-10 17:57

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

#20 2022-03-27 06:23

Re: can't toggle mute on and off

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