How to change the systems volume?

answered Jul 11 '12

loblik
256 ●1 ●3 ●7

I have amixer binded to multimedia keys and use i3status to watch current volume level.

bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec amixer -q set Master 2dB+ unmute
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec amixer -q set Master 2dB- unmute
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec amixer -q set Master toggle

answered Apr 7 '13

Michael
3081 ●13 ●28 ●50 http://i3wm.org/

In case you are using PulseAudio:

bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume 0 -- +10% && killall -SIGUSR1 i3status
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume 0 -- -10% && killall -SIGUSR1 i3status

Killing i3status with SIGUSR1 will trigger an immediate refresh. This works with i3status ≥ v2.7.

answered Jul 14 '12

bapt
31 ●2 ●2

updated Jul 14 '12

Michael
3081 ●13 ●28 ●50 http://i3wm.org/

On FreeBSD:

bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec mixer vol +1
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec mixer vol -1

answered Jul 10 '12

leyouser
21 ●2

I recommend volnoti. If you want to have an icon hovering in the center, and showing the current volume, as well as the changes, it is a lightweight solution.

BlockquoteVolnoti is a lightweight volume notification daemon for GNU/Linux and other POSIX operating systems. It is based on GTK+ and D-Bus and should work with any sensible window manager. The original aim was to create a volume notification daemon for lightweight window managers like LXDE or XMonad. It is known to work with a wide range of WMs, including GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, XMonad, i3 and many others. The source code is heavily based on the GNOME notification-daemon.

You can find it here: https://www.github.com/davidbrazdil/volnoti

For archlinux users: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=55159

answered Oct 19 '14

Jens Erat
21 ●1 ●3

updated Oct 19 '14

On systems with changing output device (for example headphones, docked and laptop speakers), you need to read the active sink before changing volume:

set $sink `pactl list short sinks | grep RUNNING | cut -f1`
bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume $sink -- +10%
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume $sink -- -10%
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-mute $sink toggle

answered Jun 16 '12

fernandotcl
96 ●2 ●4

For PulseAudio, I recommend pa-applet. It displays a tray icon, allows you to control the volume level in a number of ways (including using the multimedia keys in your keyboard), and allows you to change the configuration (say, from built-in speakers to HDMI) with two clicks.

answered Jul 3 '12

sycamorex
76 ●2 ●2 ●8 http://www.slackword.net/

That's what I do (alsa):

bindsym $ms+equal exec --no-startup-id /usr/bin/aumix -v +5
bindsym $ms+minus exec --no-startup-id /usr/bin/aumix -v -5

answered Jun 15 '12

bruno.braga
836 ●13 ●21 ●39 http://brunobraga.net/

I tried to use volwheel, but got some issues there. I was already using volumeicon-alsa, which works pretty good, although it launches the alsa-mixer terminal window for you to manage the volume.

volwheel seems in deed a better option (if you are doing this with the mouse and not with keyboard keys), but it looks like the popup is not recognized as a floating window, so opening it now shows a creepy tiled window. I wrote to the developers and let's hope there is a solution for this.

answered Jan 16 '14

NoMansEyes
1 ●1

updated Jan 16 '14

I have run into a bizarre issue. When I mute the master volume with amixer it automatically mutes all of the other controls as well. But unmuting only affects the Master. So I can mute with

# amixer set Master toggle 

but to unmute I have to use

# amixer set Master unmute; amixer set Center unmute; amixer set Side unmute ... 

In the end I opted to just use the mute button to zero out the Master volume and then instead of unmuting I just turn the volume up from zero...

answered Dec 1 '12

josephbales
1

For Fedora 18 beta, note the use of sset instead of set.

bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec amixer -q sset Master 5%+ unmute
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume  exec amixer -q sset Master 5%- unmute
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec amixer -q sset Master toggle