On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 12:00 AM, Owen Taylor <otaylor@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Thu, 2015-09-17 at 23:26 +0200, Germano Massullo wrote: >> Il 17/09/2015 21:13, Andrew Lutomirski ha scritto: >> > >> > To clarify: did you get blasted by music or by video conference >> > sounds? If the music volume got louder, then it sounds like either >> > a >> > straight-up bug in PulseAudio (and a severe and dangerous one at >> > that) >> > or a serious bug in your video conference volume in which it >> > adjusts >> > the volume of streams other than its own. >> > >> > If you got blasted by video conference sounds, then I'd say it's a >> > serious design flaw in PulseAudio. PulseAudio should offer an >> > easy-to-configure maximum volume (probably A-weighted power, but >> > peak >> > level works, too, if considerably less well) on a per-output basis >> > with which to protect your ears. >> > >> > --Andy >> I got blasted from the music because I was not making a conference, I >> only logged into the software, so the music was the only sound I was >> listening to. PulseAudio pushed the master audio level to 100% >> (therefore all applications audio level changed to 100%, due flat- >> volume setting). > > I'm not an expert in the subject, but I'm pretty sure this is not how > flat volumes are supposed to work - it doesn't sound like useful > behavior at all! > > Experimenting with GNOME, the model presented to the user seems to be: > > - Each application's volume control separate goes from 0-100% of the > maximum system volume. > - Adjusting each application is independent > - Modifying the system global volume slider proportionally adjusts the > volume of each application > - The system global volume slider is always maintained to be at least > as much as the maximum of any application > > NOTE: The system global volume slider is *not the same as the hardware > volume and does not represent a multiplication factor for > application volumes. It's just something that the user can > drag to change the volume of all applications. > > There is danger to the ears if an application assumes that 100% volume > is a safe volume and blindly sets its volume to 100% without user > input. But that only affects that application - one application's > misbehavior never affects another application. > > It sounds like KDE ends up implementing a different model, either > intentionally or because of bugs. It's also possible that lower level > bugs (sound card driver, for example) might be making things misbehave. > > In general, the fact that pulseaudio is configurable in this area is > going to be the source of almost infinite bug chasing, as applications > and desktop environments are "fixed" for one setting or another. It's > also very easy for people to stop investigating problems and say that > "changing the setting fixed it for me." :-( Flat volumes only make sense if we have an appropriate UI for them ... but we do not. Such a UI would show all volumes in relation to each other and the system volume like windows does: http://blog.nirsoft.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/volume_mixer_win7.png What we currently have makes no sense the user has to guess what each volume control actually does and how it affects the global volume. -- devel mailing list devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel Fedora Code of Conduct: http://fedoraproject.org/code-of-conduct
