Kubuntu 24.04: microphone volume at 100 per cent on every reboot

[lednyk]

I generally set the microphone volume to 70%. But, at every reboot, I find it set to 100% and I have to reset the volume by hand. It seems to be a bug that was not present in the 22.04 LTS.

[Virginio Miranda]

It works for me on 24.04.

System Settings>Audio>Configure Volume Controls>Uncheck Raise Maximun Volume and set the preferable sound volume.

[lednyk]

"Raise Maximum Volume" is disabled by default. The problem persists. The sound card is integrated on the motherboard.

[Virginio Miranda]

Well, i have two sound cards. One's onboard and one"s an old live drive creative. Both of them works fine to adjust volume what i want and no need to reset. Raise maximum volume is disable and if i check this it maintain in 100%. I am not using pulseaudio. I decided to pipewire server. I dont know what you are using ( i am not sure, but i think the new 24.04 version use pipewire for default ), but in the past a gui program for pulseaudio called " Pavucontrol " used to fix this issue. Anyway, if you are going to try this it will ask to install pulseaudio too ( at least in my case ).

[lednyk]

I have installed ‘pavucontrol-qt’ and ‘pulseaudio’. I set the microphone volume with ‘pavucontrol-qt’ to 70%, but when I restart the computer the microphone volume automatically returns to 100%. So at each reboot, I have to manually reset the microphone volume to 70%. I have a 2014 Asus motherboard with integrated audio and I have never had this problem with Kubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Audio device: Intel Corporation 9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller

Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. 9 Series Chipset Family HD Audio Controller

Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 33

Memory at f7e10000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]

Capabilities: <access denied>

Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

Kernel modules: snd_hda_intel

Is it possible that the problem is related to the introduction of ‘pipewire’ in Kubuntu 24.04 LTS?

[Virginio Miranda]

Is it possible that the problem is related to the introduction of ‘pipewire’ in Kubuntu 24.04 LTS?

As i said before i am running pipewire audio server and dont even installed pulseaudio. Works fine for me on pipewire. In your case i really dont know, but you can check if pipewire is running as background service with this line command:

systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-session-manager and look if pipewire is loaded and active (running)

another way is in line command : pactl info and check if the server name is Pulseaudio (on Pipewire version .... )

you can try to disable the service using mask and unmask to see if the problem go away:

systemctl --user mask pipewire.service
systemctl --user mask pipewire.socket

Using the commands above, the pipewire service cannot start either automatically or manually. In the same way unmask command gets the things to the default and pipewire are going to start automatically or manually. In the same way using pulseaudio.service and pulseaudio.socket together with mask and unmask stop/start the service for pulse audio too.

[lednyk]

'Pipewire' is installed by default in Kubuntu 24.04 LTS, but 'pipewire-session-manager' does not exist in Synaptic.

Anyway the command...

sudo systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-session-manager

...reports:

Failed to connect to bus: No support found

[Virginio Miranda]

Do not use sudo. Its only:

systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-session-manager

If Pipewire is loaded and running you need to isolate if pipewire is the culprit or not. You have pulseaudio installed, so mask pipewire is not a problem. Here is how to do that:

systemctl --user mask pipewire.service ( no sudo)
systemctl --user mask pipewire.socket ( no sudo )

Reboot the system and check if pipewire is loaded and running again.

If not, try to uncheck the Raise Maximum Volume box. Change the mic volume, Reboot and check.

If not, type alsamixer ( no sudo ) in line command and try to work there. Raise the mic volume there and check if the problem is solved.

[claydoh]

pipewire-session-manager

This service and package simply does not exist past Ubuntu 22.04, as a full-pipewwire with wireplumber setup is now used.

[Virginio Miranda]

This service and package simply does not exist past Ubuntu 22.04, as a full-pipewwire with wireplumber setup is now used.

Thatś true.

At the end the result from command shows if pipewire is loaded and actvice or not; About the pípewire-session-manager it shows that service could not be found.

At my system:

systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-session-manager
Unit pipewire-session-manager.service could not be found.
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-07-30 00:00:04 -03; 22h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
Main PID: 5525 (pipewire)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 38309)
Memory: 41.5M (peak: 42.4M)
CPU: 26.741s
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
└─5525 /usr/bin/pipewire



So, the correct command now on 24.04 is :

systemctl --user status pipewire

and the result if pipewire is enable and running will be:

systemctl --user status pipewire
● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2024-07-30 00:00:04 -03; 22h ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
Main PID: 5525 (pipewire)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 38309)
Memory: 41.5M (peak: 42.4M)
CPU: 26.795s
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
└─5525 /usr/bin/pipewire

Anyway, thanks for make the correction now on the new 24.04.

[claydoh]

I don't think

sudo systemctl --user status pipewire pipewire-session-manager

Do not use sudo

This may be a potential cause, if sudo usage somewhere touched user configs, which would cause user settings to not stick


One can try a reset of the audio settings
Delete or move ~/.local/state/wireplumber/
Or on the command line:

rm -rf $HOME/.local/state/wireplumber/

Then restart pipware service

systemctl --user restart pipewire.service

See if that allows new settings to hold.
If the configs are now owned by root, you will get an error when trying to delete things.

[lednyk]

For 'claydoh'

I executed as a normal user the command:

rm -rf $HOME/.local/state/wireplumber/

Then, always as a normal user:

systemctl --user restart pipewire.service

I did not receive any error messages.

I checked the volume settings: they were reset to the default values (40% speaker volume, 100% microphone volume). It appears that Plasma's default values for the microphone are: 'microphone volume at 100 per cent'. In fact, the first time I installed Kubuntu, the microphone volume was set to 100% by default.

I then set the speaker volume by hand to 90% and the microphone volume to 70%.

Finally, I restarted the desktop PC.

After restarting the desktop, the speaker volume remained stationary at 90 per cent (all fine), while the microphone volume was automatically reset to 100 per cent (and I had to reset it to 70 per cent manually).

I did not install any third-party repositories or backports, just the default Kubuntu 24.04 repositories. The menu voice 'Raise Microphone at Maximum Volume' is disabled by default in Kubuntu.

For 'Virginio Miranda'

systemctl --user status pipewire

● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2024-07-31 16:42:15 CEST; 54min ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
Main PID: 1647 (pipewire)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 9287)
Memory: 7.1M (peak: 7.6M)
CPU: 253ms
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
└─1647 /usr/bin/pipewire

lug 31 16:42:15 watt systemd[1635]: Started pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service.
lug 31 16:42:15 watt pipewire[1647]: mod.jackdbus-detect: Failed to receive jackdbus reply: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.jackaudio.service was not provided by any .service files

[Virginio Miranda]

@claydoh

.......

@Virginio Miranda

● pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2024-07-31 16:42:15 CEST; 54min ago
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire.socket
Main PID: 1647 (pipewire)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 9287)
Memory: 7.1M (peak: 7.6M)
CPU: 253ms
CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire.service
└─1647 /usr/bin/pipewire

lug 31 16:42:15 watt systemd[1635]: Started pipewire.service - PipeWire Multimedia Service.
lug 31 16:42:15 watt pipewire[1647]: mod.jackdbus-detect: Failed to receive jackdbus reply: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.jackaudio.service was not provided by any .service files

lednyk

Before we continue in the sequence of the commands that i wrote above, i think i found the culprit.

i did some tests here and found the same problem as you, but only on " Digital Stereo Output + Analog Stereo Input ". If i choose this option i ended up with the same problem and stuck at 100% and does not matter if "Raise Maximum Volume" is disabled or not . The 100% mic volume continue to be in this way even after reboot the system.

For me i have been using " Pro Audio option ". Look if you have this option and try that. It seems a bug on Pipewire.

In Time: I have Ubuntu Studio 24.04 in a separate drive and the problem happens there too. In the same way as Kubuntu 24.04.