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TheDukeofErl

Member

Registered: 2016-08-29

Posts: 7

[solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

I don't know when this happened, however, at some point after upgrading to Plasma 6, I lost the audio feedback for the volume changing on my system.

I have verified that the sound effect plays when running

canberra-gtk-play --id=audio-volume-change

in the terminal, which produces the expected feedback sound effect.

I have also verified that the "Play audio feedback for changes to: Audio volume" checkbox ix checked. Is there a different setting that could impact this sound effect and its playback?

Last edited by TheDukeofErl (2024-05-20 17:13:35)

TheDukeofErl

Member

Registered: 2016-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

Checking journald, I see an error when I adjust the volume level:

plasmashell[2603]: file:///usr/share/plasma/plasmoids/org.kde.plasma.volume/contents/ui/main.qml:125: Error: Insufficient arguments

Checking the code of the file in question:

    // Increment the preferredSink by %volume.
    function changeSpeakerVolume(deltaPercent) {
        if (!paSinkModel.preferredSink || isDummyOutput(paSinkModel.preferredSink)) {
            return;
        }
        const newPercent = changeVolumeByPercent(paSinkModel.preferredSink, deltaPercent);
        osd.showVolume(newPercent);
        playFeedback();
    }

which calls

    function playFeedback(sinkIndex) {
        if (!volumeFeedback) {
            return;
        }
        if (sinkIndex == undefined) {
            sinkIndex = paSinkModel.preferredSink.index;
        }
        feedback.play(sinkIndex);
    }

The odd part is that this works on my laptop that has the same code.

Last edited by TheDukeofErl (2024-05-15 06:17:21)

TheDukeofErl

Member

Registered: 2016-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

Fixed by installing optional dependency of pipewire, pipewire-session-manager. I don't know why this package wasn't pulled in automatically as a dependency though. Per the repos, pipewire-session-manager is required by pipewire-pulse, which I have installed, as it cascades in as a requirement of Plasma and many other packages.

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … n-manager/
https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … ire-pulse/

However, pipewire-session-manager is perfectly happy to be uninstalled:

sudo pacman -Rns pipewire-session-manager
checking dependencies...
:: pipewire optionally requires pipewire-session-manager: Session manager

Packages (1) pipewire-session-manager-1:1.0.6-1


:: Do you want to remove these packages? [Y/n] 

Fascinatingly, pipewire-pulse successfully lists the dependency as well

pacman -Si pipewire-pulse
Repository      : extra
Name            : pipewire-pulse
Version         : 1:1.0.6-1
Description     : Low-latency audio/video router and processor - PulseAudio replacement
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://pipewire.org
Licenses        : MIT
Groups          : None
Provides        : pulse-native-provider  pulseaudio  pulseaudio-bluetooth
Depends On      : dbus  gcc-libs  glibc  libavahi-client.so=3-64  libavahi-common.so=3-64  libglib-2.0.so=0-64  libpipewire-0.3.so=0-64  libpulse.so=0-64  pipewire
                  pipewire-audio  pipewire-session-manager  systemd-libs
Optional Deps   : None
Conflicts With  : pulseaudio  pulseaudio-bluetooth
Replaces        : None
Download Size   : 185.25 KiB
Installed Size  : 471.36 KiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Thu May 9 10:07:31 2024
Validated By    : SHA-256 Sum  Signature

Can anybody explain what's going on here? I'm thoroughly confused.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,082

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

pipewire-session-manager is provided by pipewire-session-manager and wireplumber and the latter should generally be the preferred implementation, was that not installed?

TheDukeofErl

Member

Registered: 2016-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

Yes, I do have wireplumber installed. Originally, I only had wireplumber installed. I have been using wireplumber since the deprecation of pipewire-media-session.

Double checking with pacman, yes, it does appear that wireplumber provides pipewire-session-manager. However, pipewire-session-manager also requires wireplumber:

pacman -Si pipewire-session-manager
Repository      : extra
Name            : pipewire-session-manager
Version         : 1:1.0.6-1
Description     : Session manager for PipeWire (default provider)
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://pipewire.org
Licenses        : MIT
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : wireplumber
Optional Deps   : None
Conflicts With  : None
Replaces        : None
Download Size   : 3.68 KiB
Installed Size  : 0.00 KiB
Packager        : Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <heftig@archlinux.org>
Build Date      : Thu May 9 10:07:31 2024
Validated By    : SHA-256 Sum  Signature

Fascinatingly, I can now uninstall pipewire-session-manager and the volume change sound will still play, even after a reboot.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,082

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

Ah wait -- https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x8 … a-session/ would be the other implementation. Are you sure you didn't reboot in between "the fix" and the original report? I know there was a bug in wireplumber not properly remembering your notification volume, and afaik that's one of the things they fixed in one of their recent sub releases.

pipewire-session-manager is purely a meta package to pull in wireplumber by default with no further effect otherwise, it should be impossible for it on it's own to have an effect on anything.

Last edited by V1del (2024-05-15 18:04:47)

TheDukeofErl

Member

Registered: 2016-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

I did log out and log back in after installing pipewire-session-manager, which should have forced systemd to reload the user services for pipewire/wireplumber/pulse/etc. That said, I did not do a full system upgrade prior to installing pipewire-session-manager: I do those each morning and reboot after the updates, rather than in the evening, when I installed the package.

pipewire-session-manager is purely a meta package to pull in wireplumber by default with no further effect otherwise, it should be impossible for it on it's own to have an effect on anything.

I had a feeling this was the case, which leaves me even more confused as to why installing solely it and logging out and back in had any impact. Looking at the source, it really doesn't seem to do anything other than forcing wireplumber to be installed. I'm at a loss as to why it would have done anything at all. I suppose there's probably no harm in leaving it installed then, so I guess I'll just install it with --asdeps and leave it sitting there. Doing a package comparison with my post-Plasma 6 release installation laptop, it looks like pipewire-session-manager did get pulled in as an optdep anyways, so no harm there. I suppose I can mark this solved, though the reason for the resolution remains somewhat ambiguous at best.

TheDukeofErl

Member

Registered: 2016-08-29

Posts: 7

Re: [solved?] [Plasma 6] Volume keys have no sound effect

Oh, I did just have one more thought, prior to marking it as solved:

Normally, after starting my computer, I don't turn on my DAC/Preamp until after I'm logged in. I wonder if that's what made the difference in this case, and that since doing that once it hasn't been necessary to do again?

Last edited by TheDukeofErl (2024-05-15 21:27:39)