Disable PulseAudio flat volumes to prevent it from pushing volume level to max

[kendell clark]

hi
The only negative issue, although to me it's more of an oh, that's right
moment, is that you can no longer adjust application volumes up beyond
the master volume, only down, but that's kind of the idea. I do suggest,
and I don't know how easy this would be to do, that sound application
settings, such as gnome's control center, display volumes as percentages
rather than arbitrary numbers. I'm smart enough to know that 65536 is
somewhat equal to sorry, you've reached max, you can't go further, but
to most people, they'll see taht and go huh? Mind you I'm blind, and
there might be a percentage hidden somewhere. This is the case with the
volume slider on the top bar, and I have to use orca's where am I
functionality to read it. I then get output that looks like, volume
slider 0.5 47 percent, as opposed to just volume slider 0.5.
Thanks
Kendell clark


On 09/17/2015 04:30 PM, Major Hayden wrote:
> On 09/17/2015 01:59 PM, Germano Massullo wrote:
>> I found many users stories complaining about this default setting [2] [3] [4] and you can easily find other by searching "pulseaudio flat volumes".
>> I completely agree with user gaggra comment at [3]
>>
>> <<This is an interesting issue because it is one of the rare times misbehaving software can /physically hurt you/. You would think that once that was understood, the design of this sort of behaviour would be treated in a very conservative, careful manner.>>
>>
>> Moreover this default setting can cause sound crackling [5].
> 
> I've experienced the crackling and deafening sounds as well (as referenced in my blog post).  I've have zero issues for months after setting flat-volumes to 'no'.
> 
> What are the negative aspects of setting flat-volumes = no?
> 
> --
> Major Hayden
>