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kalsan

Member

Registered: 2011-10-10

Posts: 119

[solved] amixer not working when using a docking station

Hi there!
I'm talking about an HP Elitebook 8050p and its docking station. When standalone, the audio control is working fine, amixer shows up plenty of devices, between them Master. I can use scripts and commands to control the volume and happiness everywhere.
When docked to the docking station, however, things are different. This is what amixer shows me (complete output):

$amixer
Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
  Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined
  Capture channels: Mono
  Limits: Capture 0 - 16
  Mono: Capture 9 [56%] [19.50dB] [on]

However, I do have sound. Much confused I am. I'm using pulseaudio and I can adjust the volume through pavucontrol..
How do I set my volume on docking? I don't want to use pulseaudio-ctl. Instead I need a way to control the volume with the same command whether I'm docked or not.
Thanks in advance!
Kalsan

Last edited by kalsan (2015-09-09 17:15:13)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: [solved] amixer not working when using a docking station

I don't want to use pactl

Why not? If all you switch is the master channel, then it should be completely indifferent to you. You are using pulseaudio, so make use of its tools.

pactl set-sink-volume SINKNAME VOLUME

That said, does your dockingstation add some kind of sounddevice?

aplay -L
aplay -l

anything in dmesg/journal that might point to why the device disappears?

kalsan

Member

Registered: 2011-10-10

Posts: 119

Re: [solved] amixer not working when using a docking station

Hi V1del,
thanks for your answer! I already use pactl for muting, but I wasn't able to increase / decrease the sound by a fixed amount, nor to read out the volume (for conky).

I found a solution though: pamixer! It does exactly what I need :-) At least i think so. will set status to solved and repost if otherwise.

In case you're curious, these are my outputs for your above questions (otherwise ignore):

$aplay -L
null
    Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
default:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    Default Audio Device
sysdefault:CARD=PCH
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    Default Audio Device
front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    Front speakers
surround21:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    2.1 Surround output to Front and Subwoofer speakers
surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers
surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers
surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0
    HDA Intel PCH, 92HD81B1X5 Analog
    7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers
hdmi:CARD=HDMI,DEV=0
    HDA ATI HDMI, HDMI 0
    HDMI Audio Output

$aplay -l
**** Liste der Hardware-Geräte (PLAYBACK) ****
Karte 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], Gerät 0: 92HD81B1X5 Analog [92HD81B1X5 Analog]
  Sub-Geräte: 1/1
  Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 2: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], Gerät 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Sub-Geräte: 1/1
  Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0

Have a nice day!
Kalsan

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,076

Re: [solved] amixer not working when using a docking station

Ah alright then, don't forget to prepend your title with [Solved] or similar.