I’ve tried hunting through both the UI & /etc/pulse for a setting that let’s me change the max decibels but have yet to find anything that would allow me to set the max volume to 150% instead of the 100% allowed via volume controls (keyboard & a dial on a USB sound card). There are a lot of vids on youtube that even at 100% volume settings on both the system and the vid are still too quite to actually hear what is being said.
In Audio Settings
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Like I said, I already checked UI, I knew where to look for it from cinnamon but XFCE for some reason does not have the settings there.
XFCE should use pavucontrol. I cannot believe that it is not there.
That is the ONLY UI I have for the audio settings
In the audio applet, the slider only moves up to 100% when you use the keyboard volume control.
You can move it farther up with the mouse.
Clicking on the applet will also have an item at the bottom that lets you open the mixer - where you can do the same.
I was looking for a solution that allowed me to skip that and just use my keyboard & dial for it, having to open the UI every time is super inconvenient, hence the need to change the max volume from 100% to 150% - Note that I said MAX volume, not CURRENT volume.
Maybe
pactl set-sink-volume 0 150%
where 0 is the id of your card, if only one exists it is ID 0. Otherwise look from pactl list sinks
Well, I can increase it unlimited. It could be even 10.000%, but you know that could harm the boxes. However…
Increase sound by 5%
pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +5%
Decrease sound by 5%
pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ -5%
Now you just need to set the shortcut with these commands. But as said, be careful, it is unlimited and can harm your sound boxes, if you set it too loud.
That looks like what I want, since there’s 2 sound cards I had to list them 1st, not quite sure what represents the ID and whether the ID is offset from 0 or just as is, here’s the output of pactl list sinks:
Sink #1
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.6.analog-stereo
Description: Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 48000Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 8
Mute: no
Volume: front-left: 55705 / 85% / -4.24 dB, front-right: 55705 / 85% / -4.24 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.6.analog-stereo.monitor
Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "ALC293 Analog"
alsa.id = "ALC293 Analog"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "1"
alsa.card_name = "HD-Audio Generic"
alsa.long_card_name = "HD-Audio Generic at 0xd04c0000 irq 79"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:04:00.6"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.6/sound/card1"
device.bus = "pci"
device.vendor.id = "1022"
device.vendor.name = "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD]"
device.product.id = "15e3"
device.product.name = "Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller"
device.string = "front:1"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "352768"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "176384"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
device.description = "Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller Analog Stereo"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
Ports:
analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, availability unknown)
analog-output-headphones: Headphones (type: Headphones, priority: 9900, availability group: Legacy 2, not available)
Active Port: analog-output-speaker
Formats:
pcm
Sink #3
State: SUSPENDED
Name: alsa_output.usb-CMEDIA_USB2.0_High-Speed_True_HD_Audio-00.analog-stereo
Description: USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio Analog Stereo
Driver: module-alsa-card.c
Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
Channel Map: front-left,front-right
Owner Module: 7
Mute: yes
Volume: front-left: 66032 / 101% / 0.20 dB, front-right: 66032 / 101% / 0.20 dB
balance 0.00
Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
Monitor Source: alsa_output.usb-CMEDIA_USB2.0_High-Speed_True_HD_Audio-00.analog-stereo.monitor
Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
Properties:
alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
device.api = "alsa"
device.class = "sound"
alsa.class = "generic"
alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
alsa.name = "USB Audio"
alsa.id = "USB Audio"
alsa.subdevice = "0"
alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
alsa.device = "0"
alsa.card = "2"
alsa.card_name = "USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio"
alsa.long_card_name = "CMEDIA USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio at usb-0000:04:00.3-3, high speed"
alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_audio"
device.bus_path = "pci-0000:04:00.3-usb-0:3:1.0"
sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:08.1/0000:04:00.3/usb1/1-3/1-3:1.0/sound/card2"
udev.id = "usb-CMEDIA_USB2.0_High-Speed_True_HD_Audio-00"
device.bus = "usb"
device.vendor.id = "147a"
device.vendor.name = "Formosa Industrial Computing, Inc."
device.product.id = "e055"
device.product.name = "USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio"
device.serial = "CMEDIA_USB2.0_High-Speed_True_HD_Audio"
device.string = "front:2"
device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"
device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"
device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"
device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"
device.description = "USB2.0 High-Speed True HD Audio Analog Stereo"
module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
device.icon_name = "audio-card-usb"
Ports:
analog-output-speaker: Speakers (type: Speaker, priority: 10000, availability unknown)
Active Port: analog-output-speaker
Formats:
pcm
Thanks, don’t need unlimited though so won’t be going with that solution. I’ll use this post to point out that I have to go to a meeting so won’t be responding for a while
ID = # = number
for some reaon yours are 1 and 3
you can probably also use what is after name:
If audio is too quiet in PulseAudio at 100% level it could be an audio codec issue in ALSA
but ALSA is generally considered difficult by users habituated to software sound servers, so it is not unusual to blame this on PulseAudio
need to change the max volume from 100% to 150%
pulseaudio-ctl can be configured to set maximum volume for Xfce panel control by uncommenting line for UPPER_THRESHOLD in ~/.config/pulseaudio-ctl/config
# $HOME/.config/pulseaudio-ctl/config
# The default setting is for pulseaudio-ctl to NOT increase to volume level
# above 100 % but Some users may wish exceed this level. If this describes
# your use case, uncomment the UPPER_THRESHOLD variable below setting it to
# the new upper threshold.
#
#UPPER_THRESHOLD=150
To set sink volume when PulseAudio is started
create custom PulseAudio configuration in user home folder
cp /etc/pulse/default.pa ~/.config/pulse/default.pa
and add volume level setting at the end of configuration file (after .nofail)
set-sink-volume alsa_output.pci-0000_04_00.6.analog-stereo 150%
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Just to be clear, you need to both set it in pactl AND allow accessing said raised limit by the UPPER_THRESHOLD ?
That’s sounds like what I’m looking for, where would I find/set that?
Edit: Just read through nikgnomic’s post and looked for said folder, it doesn’t exist, ~/.config/pulse exists but not ~/.config/pulseaudio-ctl. Should I just create it and the file and just fill it with the text given?
Edit 2: Tried doing so, nothing changed, gonna reboot and see if it gets loaded
Edit 3: Nope, still have to use the UI for anything above 100%
you need to both set it in pactl AND allow accessing said raised limit by the UPPER_THRESHOLD ?
Only one is needed
If ~/.config/pulseaudio-ctl/config is not present pulseaudio-ctl is probably not installed
package is not necessary to change volume, just another way to control audio via shell or keyboard
If ~/.config/pulse/default.pa has already been created by user to reconfigure audio, volume setting can be added to configuration after .nofail
I also suggest delete device-volumes database to remove any user volume settings before restarting PulseAudio to load new configuration
rm ~/.config/pulse/*device-volumes.tdb
systemctl --user restart pulseaudio
I would’ve said it’s not possible on Pulseaudio itself, before i read @nikgnomic’s post.
Out of this, from experience, having a low volume output despite at maximum is because that volume is not actually the one you want to set. You should check in pavucontrol whether you use the right device, and if it uses the right profile.
You’re mistaken the file. The route is
~/.config/pulseaudio-ctl/config
The file is config inside a folder pulseaudio-ctl
Is the standard procedure in Linux, folders inside .config for each program, and inside it the config files
I almost forgot.
There was also a thing with alsamixer, in which a volume besides the Master was set low, and was actually relevant to the output. Though i don’t remember which one, nor if it is still relevant today…
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pulseaudio-ctl was already installed, I actually tried running pulseaudio-ctl --help in the terminal just to see what would happen and if there was any options it had to related to the upper threshold.
Given that I already rebooted the laptop I expect restarting pulseaudio would have no effect on the setting, how ever I will try it after deleting those files you mentioned
Edit: Nope, no effect