how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

rezad · 2022-05-13 18:04:22

I removed pulseaudio and plasma-pa.
sound works but I cant change audio volume.
is there any applet can I can use to make audio lower or higher?

is it even applicable in a pure pipewire system?

Fijxu · 2022-05-13 19:29:52

plasma-pa is required for pipewire tho

tucuxi · 2022-05-13 20:03:42

If you really don't want pipewire-pulse on your system (which lets you use a pulse applet), you can try this command line tool: https://github.com/smasher164/pw-volume.

rezad · 2022-05-14 01:57:08

Fijxu wrote:

plasma-pa is required for pipewire tho

no.
it is not even required by pulseaudio. it is the other way around. if you install plasma-pa then you need to install pulseaudio or pipewire-pulse.

rezad · 2022-05-14 02:04:10

tucuxi wrote:

If you really don't want pipewire-pulse on your system (which lets you use a pulse applet), you can try this command line tool: https://github.com/smasher164/pw-volume.

I tested that command but it doesn't work very good.
when I put audio at 100% audio in headphone is not max.
I have to disconnect and connect the headphone.
and the main audio output (from laptop speakers), the command line doesnt change audio at all.( it is muted)
when I use status after disconnecting headphone , that command shows muted (correctly) but changing audio doesn't make audio come out.
and the command shows status as 100%.

tucuxi · 2022-05-14 05:46:14

That is the downside of deviating from the mainstream - you end up using obscure programs that work more or less well. It is one of the attractions of Linux that you can do that. Otherwise, you could just install pipewire-pulse.

Maniaxx · 2022-05-14 07:03:50

'amixer' or any other alsa tool should work as well.

rezad · 2022-05-14 07:07:33

Maniaxx wrote:

'amixer' or any other alsa tool should work as well.

I am not a pro at linux.
so if this question is stupid, sorry.
question:
alsa just changes the master volume? I think pulseaudio is needed for per-app volume?
does pipewire has per-app volume? and not just added to applet?

Maniaxx · 2022-05-14 07:14:30

There might be multiple volumes in amixer (like 'master' and 'wave') that could affect final volume output.

I've never used per-app volume. Alsa doesn't support that as far as i know. Try pipewire-pulse to find out.

V1del · 2022-05-14 16:32:26

Don't use amixer, it has logical incompleteness that will confuse the session managers. Use pipewire-pulse and a pulseaudio utility, that's what it's there for and the relevant API compatibility as implemented in pipewire actually generally follows how pulseaudio implemented this.

There are in general too little applications that actually have a pipewire backend that running "pure" pipewire makes any logical sense. Pipewire's design expects you to use pulse utilities/clients for the mixing logistics.

Last edited by V1del (2022-05-14 16:35:03)

rezad · 2022-05-15 04:41:57

V1del wrote:

Don't use amixer, it has logical incompleteness that will confuse the session managers. Use pipewire-pulse and a pulseaudio utility, that's what it's there for and the relevant API compatibility as implemented in pipewire actually generally follows how pulseaudio implemented this.
There are in general too little applications that actually have a pipewire backend that running "pure" pipewire makes any logical sense. Pipewire's design expects you to use pulse utilities/clients for the mixing logistics.

so I went back to installing the pipewire-pulse.
does pipewire , for apps that it supports their backend, support per app volume?
I read that pipewire is supposed to replace pulse and jack.
so in future there is a day that if I remove pipewire-pulse then all apps dont get uninstalled, right?

kokoko3k · 2022-05-15 04:56:08

Pipewire already replaces jack and pulseaudio through pipewire-pulse and pipewire-jack.
Nobody knows if and when they will not be needed anymore.
It supports per app volumes for apps that don't use jack and pulse protocols too and that seems to be handled through the session manager (wireplumber).

I'm not sure I answered your questions/concerns, tho.

Last edited by kokoko3k (2022-05-15 04:59:03)

Maniaxx · 2022-05-15 16:15:30

V1del wrote:

Don't use amixer, it has logical incompleteness that will confuse the session managers.

Can you provide some more information?
To my experience, only amixer allows to control specific hardware features of some soundcards. For example, Audigy2ZS (emu10k1) allows to directly tweak (or bypass) DSPs (bass, treble) and dedicated hardware mixer (SigmaTel STAC9721). I've not seen any controls in any Pulseaudio tool Pavucontrol so far. Also, the standard (pulse/pipewire) card profile misconfigures the hardware mixer too loud (PCM 100%, Front 100%). That can only be fixed/tweaked in amixer (at least not in pavucontrol).

V1del · 2022-05-15 17:37:42

@rezad pipewire API also uses that and allows per app volume yes (... but still the underlying logic for that is copied from pulse, which is why no "official mixing" tool exists, as the underlying logic would work exactly the same as it does and has with pulseaudio tools)

@Maniaxx
That's correct and that's what you should use amixer for. But for general volume that's outside of very specific handling that requires exact knowledge of the card layout, you will have a more consistent experience using something that's "aware" of what the server volume state is (e.g. the server can actually remember stuff like which headphone state or similar did I have when I last inserted a headphone and the like). For a normal user that is used to the way audio works on other operating systems using amixer together with a sound server can lead to a bunch of logical inconsistency. E.g. you change the card volume of your PCM device with amixer to 50%, your sound server will not know of this change, this might work for as long as you keep the card busy/don't do an action (like inserting a headphone jack) that would make the server reevaluate it's volume, once you do you are "suddenly" back at 100%). Also in order to make this easier pulseaudio/pipewire exposes a single control and uses some heuristics to manipulate the various dedicated mixers you might have. When this works then your behaviour will be more consistent, it does sound like you have one case where this doesn't entirely work as intended in which case you might have grounds for a bug report (or try to play with what your system does with the profile information under /usr/share/alsa-cards (or/usr/share/pulseaudio on pulse)

More general information of what happens exactly: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Softwa … MyVolumes/ (again, all of this applies to pipewire as well, they use the same logic here)

Last edited by V1del (2022-05-15 17:39:11)

sommio · 2023-02-27 09:47:51

pw-cli is too complicated, you can use the wpctl provided by wireplumber

❯ wpctl get-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@
Volume: 0.35
❯ wpctl set-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@ 0.4
❯ wpctl get-volume @DEFAULT_AUDIO_SINK@
Volume: 0.40

SLATCH · 2023-04-13 14:01:05

use EasyEffects it allows changing volume of output and input devices, it also supports per-app volume control and sound effects.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-05-13 18:04:22

how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#2 2022-05-13 19:29:52

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#3 2022-05-13 20:03:42

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#4 2022-05-14 01:57:08

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#5 2022-05-14 02:04:10

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#6 2022-05-14 05:46:14

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#7 2022-05-14 07:03:50

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#8 2022-05-14 07:07:33

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#9 2022-05-14 07:14:30

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#10 2022-05-14 16:32:26

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#11 2022-05-15 04:41:57

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#12 2022-05-15 04:56:08

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#13 2022-05-15 16:15:30

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#14 2022-05-15 17:37:42

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#15 2023-02-27 09:47:51

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

#16 2023-04-13 14:01:05

Re: how can I change audio volume when using only pipewire?

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