Arch Linux

Flemur

Member

Registered: 2012-05-24

Posts: 72

pipewire - strange volume control in pavucontrol [SOLVED workaround]

Solved in that I can do what I want to do, although the controls are still strangely linked to each other.  Feel free to leave info on that issue.  For "solution", see note at end.

Hi - I installed pipewire(-pulse) and while playing audio thru the "pulseaudio" labeled setting, and recording "what you hear" thru "Monitor of ...", I can successfully record the sound but:

Running

amixer set Master playback  1-

(and alsamixer) controls "Master", but it ALSO controls/changes
-- "Monitor of ..Analog Stereo" (pavucontrol.tab: Input Devices), AND 
-- "Built-in...Stereo" (pavucontrol.tab: Output Devices)
so that the audio is REALLY LOUD* if the recording has proper input level. 

Also, changing the "Monitor of..." recording level in pavucontrol changes the Master levels as shown in alsamixer.

* This can be fixed, sort-of, by changing the PCM volume, which changes the output volume without messing with the recording volumes.

When using pulseaudio (rather than pipewire), changing the Master level didn't affect recording level, and the pavucontrol controls weren't tied together and pavucontrol didn't change the alsa Master settings.

Q: how can I make the volume controls in pipewire(-pulse) act like they did with pulseaudio?

Thanks!

PS.Q2: is it better to change the final output volume (to headphones, etc) by changing "Master" or "PCM"?

+++ "Solution":

Leave all the controls in pavucontrol set at 100% and change output volume with alsa PCM rather than Master.  The recording level and quality is maintained with PCM level = 0. (it doesn't have 'Mute').

~/.fluxbox/keys controls changed from Master to PCM:

        82    :Exec amixer set PCM playback  1%-
Control 82    :Exec amixer set PCM playback  0   # fake mute
Mod4    82    :Exec amixer set PCM playback  5%  # fake unmute
#
        86    :Exec amixer set PCM playback  1%+

Last edited by Flemur (2021-04-10 21:03:01)

---

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." -- L.T.

euromatlox

Member

Registered: 2017-02-10

Posts: 152

Re: pipewire - strange volume control in pavucontrol [SOLVED workaround]

I have not switched to pipewire-pulse (yet) since I think all kinds of problems might arise (it's still pretty new replacement).
I wonder why my desktop's pacman update offers this replacement, but my laptop's pacman update do not ?
(I currently have pipewire ignored in my desktop's pacman.conf.)
Is pulseaudio going to be removed some day from repository, and this pipewire replaces it in every computer ?

Last edited by euromatlox (2021-04-10 20:11:58)

Flemur

Member

Registered: 2012-05-24

Posts: 72

Re: pipewire - strange volume control in pavucontrol [SOLVED workaround]

I have not switched to pipewire-pulse (yet) since I think all kinds of problems might arise (it's still pretty new replacement).
I wonder why my desktop's pacman update offers this replacement, but my laptop's pacman update do not ?
(I currently have pipewire ignored in my desktop's pacman.conf.)
Is pulseaudio going to be removed some day from repository, and this pipewire replaces it in every computer ?

pipewire is supposed to replace pulseaudio AND jack(d), with pipewire-jack replacing jack itself (and supposedly you can still use qjackctl, etc).

While researching this problem I saw (reddit?) someone mention that Arch had automagically replaced his pulseaudio with pipewire, which didn't happen with me.  Not sure I believed it...

I dunno much about future plans (except that pipewire is the default on the latest Fedora) but I DO know that I did not really enjoy using pulseaudio or jack (jackd, etc)...but so far pipewire is just about as confusing and fussy as either of its predecessors...

Last edited by Flemur (2021-04-10 21:10:37)

---

"If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading." -- L.T.