[Solved] On screen display for volume

[kevin79]

I was just rereading the release notes for II and noticed that they have support for Keyboard Multimedia keys and shows a picture of the volume level indicator.

I have a Dell Latitude D620 and I'm running II 64bit that was upgraded from 8.04. My volume keys work but I don't get any volume indicator on the screen. What packages do I need to install to make that work?

On the same note, the little volume icon in the tray (the one that you can use to adjust the volume) has the same icon when the volume is muted as well as when it isn't. Should the icons change depending on the mute state?

[Stormbringer]

Re: On screen display for volume

I believe KMix is the default sound control application, and should have come with the system. If it is absent (or somehow broken), it can be installed/reinstalled through the Adept Package Manager.

As for setting the volume keys and volume indicator to work together:

1.) Go to: KMenu -> Applications -> System -> System Settings.
- Open the "keyboard and Mouse" menu (near the lower-right corner of the window).
- Click on "Keyboard shortcuts".
- Select "KMix" from the drop-down list labeled "KDE Component".
- Ensure that whatever keys you want mapped to volume control are mapped to "Decrease Volume" (without the extra text/options), "Increase Volume" (without the extra text/options), and "Mute" (without the extra text/options). For push-button volume control, select the "Custom" radio button, click the wrench button next to the "Custom" radio button, and press whichever buttons you wish to use to decrease/increase volume and toggle mute. For wheel-type volume control, select the "Custom" radio button, click the wrench button next to the "Custom" radio button, and scroll the wheel in whichever direction you wish to use to decrease/increase volume.
- Click "Apply"

2.) Right-click on the KMix icon in the system tray select "Select Master Channel". Select the appropriate master channel and test the volume control settings (This may take several trial-and-error iterations. On my system, the appropriate master channel turned out to be the second/lower-listed "front" channel, as it's apparently the one that controls the volume for everything, while the first/higher-listed "front" and "PCM" only changed the volume for certain things, but not others; that might be something particular to my system/install, however...).

This process allowed me to have volume control through both the volume wheel on the front of my laptop and through the system tray (controlled by hovering the cursor over the icon and using the mouse's scroll wheel to adjust volume), as well as the pop-up volume indicator bar (when the volume wheel is used) on my system.

As for the muting issue... when I mute mine, the green arcs next to the speaker in the KMix icon change into a small red "x". It's not a very big change, but it's there.

Hope this helps.

[kevin79]

Re: On screen display for volume

Thanks, but like I said, the buttons work fine, I just don't have any notification show up on the screen. Since the icon doesn't change either, it makes it a little difficult to know whether or not my volume is muted and how high it is set.

[Stormbringer]

Re: On screen display for volume

My own experience with the volume settings showed that the notification bar seems to show up only when the volume keys are mapped to those specific options, as outlined in the first step (at least, that's how it behaved on mine). Looking through the "Configure KMix" menu and the notifications menu under "System Settings" doesn't seem to show any other way of directly modifying that. Are those keys already mapped to those options?

[kevin79]

Re: On screen display for volume

Hmm, I followed your steps and changed it to the correct ones and it works now. Thank!