Issue with multiple audio devices

[GKNByNW]

I've had a little bit of experience with Kubuntu 12.04 so I thought I'd try out 14.04 on the PC I recently built. Just for the record, here are the basic specs on the machine in question:

Intel Extreme DP55KG motherboard
Intel i5-760 quad-core @ 2.80GHz
16GB DDR3
MSI gfx card (Nvidia GeForce 210 chipset)

The DP55KG has onboard sound (7.1-ch analog & SPDIF outputs) and the MSI graphics card has sound output capability through the HDMI port. My display, which does NOT have built-in speakers or any audio capabilities, is connected using that HDMI port. I have a set of "2.1-ch" (Left & Right speaker + subwoofer) speakers connected to the stereo audio output on the motherboard. For reasons unknown to me, Kubuntu thinks that I do have an audio device connected to the HDMI port and, therefore, sets that as my default audio output. I DO get system sounds (logon, logoff, notifications, etc.) through my speakers but I have absolutely no volume control. As you can see here:



everything under Audio Playback in my Multimedia Settings is set to "prefer" the onboard analog output. As I stated, I have absolutely no way to control the output volume. As a test I opened a movie file in VLC:



When I click on the volume icon in the taskbar (is it even called that in Kubuntu? LOL) I get four options as you can see. The VLC slider on the right does control VLC's volume as does the volume control built in to VLC itself. The other three sliders make no difference at all on the volume level for the movie or system sounds.

So what, if anything, am I doing wrong? Any suggestions on what I can change or settings I can play around with? I really don't care to wake the neighbors every time I log on LOL

Also FWIW, I did download and install the recommended NVIDIA drivers for my gfx card but that didn't seem to have any bearing on this situation. Any thoughts or suggestions you guys can give a n00b would be very much appreciated.

[life0riley]

You might want to check out Veromix. It is in the repositories. The package is called plasma-widget-veromix. Veromix is a mixer for the PulseAudio sound server.

[claydoh]

First, try moving sound output in Kmix to the other sound device: Right click on the Vlc output slider in Kmix, and select Move, the select your other sound card. Does this make it go to your speakers?

Also, in Kmix, if you right-click on the icon, you can select the master channel, which is the one that the volume controls work with. I will guess that it is defaulting to the HDMI.

[GKNByNW]

You might want to check out Veromix. It is in the repositories. The package is called plasma-widget-veromix. Veromix is a mixer for the PulseAudio sound server.

First, try moving sound output in Kmix to the other sound device: Right click on the Vlc output slider in Kmix, and select Move, the select your other sound card. Does this make it go to your speakers?

Also, in Kmix, if you right-click on the icon, you can select the master channel, which is the one that the volume controls work with. I will guess that it is defaulting to the HDMI.

I added the widget to my main screen and now have a little bit better control over things. @claydoh, I was only using VLC as an example and I probably wasn't very clear. I do have audio playback via my analog speakers, though I have limited or no control over playback volume. I did "Move" the individual sliders to analog and that seems to have made a difference. At least now when I boot I am not overwhelmed by the logon sound at max volume LOL I know I can always remove the system notification sounds via Settings but I like having them :-)

I *think* it comes down to that Kubuntu is seeing the HDMI audio output on my gfx card as the "primary" device over the mobo's analog output. I have looked through all of the audio settings and can't seem to find any way to change the "primary" output I definitely appreciate the help so far but I feel like it's only a temporary solution. If anyone has any further suggestions I'm all ears.