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

[Simo Sorce]

On Tue, 2015-09-22 at 16:31 -0500, kendell clark wrote:
> hi
> Just a polite request. I'm having trouble following the thread because
> there are so many intermingled responses, with different bits of it
> quoted and commented on. Would everyone mind putting their responses
> either on the top or the bottom of the message? Top would be better for
> me, but I also don't want to irritate anyone, since I've been yelled at
> on the arch list for top posting, even though as a blind person it makes
> following messages, especially long threads like this, easier.
> Sorry for the OT

This list traditionally follows the good rule of *not* top-posting, and
commenting inline.

You are the only one top-posting and breaking the thread as far as I can
see. You also commented on a sub-thread that had no top-posting
whatsoever and seem perfectly understandable, and replied to my post as
if I was the cause of your trouble (which doesn't seem so from the
content of your post), so your comment may come a little bit irritating.

It sucks that gmail has poor threading support and confuses you, but you
chose that tool, maybe you can find something better.

Simo.

> 
> 
> On 09/22/2015 01:29 PM, Simo Sorce wrote:
> > On Tue, 2015-09-22 at 09:56 -0400, Matthias Clasen wrote:
> >> On Tue, 2015-09-22 at 15:51 +0200, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> >>> On Thu, 17.09.15 20:59, Germano Massullo (germano.massullo at gmail.com)
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Today I had a scary experience with the audio of my computer.
> >>>> I was listening to music with Amarok, using my headphones... The
> >>>> KMix
> >>>> volume level was ~ 35%. When I logged into a video conference
> >>>> application, the volume suddenly reached the 100%. I was shocked,
> >>>> having
> >>>> the maximum audio level shooted in your ears is a painful
> >>>> experience.
> >>>> The conference application that triggered PulseAudio pushing volume
> >>>> to
> >>>> maximum level probably should have never asked the system for a
> >>>> 100%
> >>>> audio level, but on the other hand, PulseAudio should never allow
> >>>> an
> >>>> application to make such sudden changes.
> >>>> To avoid that, you have to set
> >>>> flat-volumes = no
> >>>> in /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
> >>>
> >>> This is a non-sensical request. If an app uses the mixer APIs to set
> >>> the volume of something to very loud, that's what happens. Flat
> >>> volumes have nothing to do with that.
> >>>
> >>> I mean, the app you are using shouldn't set the volume like this, and
> >>> that's the key here. If you turn off flat volumes you win about
> >>> nothing, you just work around this specific app. Soon the next app
> >>> will come along and play the same game with the actual device volume,
> >>> and you won *zero*.
> >>>
> >>> Don't mix flat volumes with misbheaving apps. Turning off flat
> >>> volumes
> >>> is a hack around the broken apps at best, and completely pointless..
> >>
> >> For better or worse, misbehaving apps are a reality that is probably
> >> not going to go away... I think we need to have a volume control
> >> approach that is at least somewhat tolerant against such apps and has
> >> some safeguards.
> > 
> > Indeed, sticking your head in the sand and saying it is a misbehaving
> > app is not a useful answer.
> > 
> > Apps misbehave, its a fact of life, you can deal with it, or not deal
> > with it, if you do not deal with it you have a bad system that causes
> > grief.
> > 
> > I disabled flat-volumes long ago for the same reasons people had to in
> > this thread. Yes in theory I can beg every app to be perfect, but in the
> > mean time I can't get my ears blasted (or in some cases end up with
> > un-audible input/output). whatever it is with flat-volumes I could never
> > figure out what was going on, while w/o flat-volumes it is very simple
> > as each app is individually either low or high and an app raising its
> > volume doesn't cause all other apps to disappear never to return ...
> > 
> > Disabling flat-volumes may be a workaround but it works very well
> > apparently. So something probably needs to be improved in flat-volumes,
> > and until then it is as good an option to disable it by default.
> > 
> > Simo.
> > 


-- 
Simo Sorce * Red Hat, Inc * New York