[Karmic] Get back Alsa Mixer Applet

[_matz_]

When I have recently updated my Ubuntu to Karmic Koala, I sadly realized that the good old Alsa mixer applet has been replaced by a new pulse-applet. As pulse for me only causes problems, I've uninstalled it. Now I had no more mixer applet and the keyboard hotkeys for volume control where no longer working.

I always need these features, so i had to get a solution. I found an applet on this forum, but it could only display a volume control bar and respond to hotkeys. Double-clicking on the icon did not open a mixer.

After a quick search xfce4-mixer turned out to be a good replacement for the Gnome mixer in older Ubuntu releases:





I modified the script in the way that xfce4-mixer opens by double-clicking on the speaker icon.

The modified script can be downloaded here. For getting it to work, you need to intall the following packages: python, python-notify, python-gtk2, python-alsaaudio and xfce4-mixer (for example using synaptic).

The files from "alsa_mixer_applet.tar.gz" can be extracted to any folder. I've stored them in /usr/local/bin .

When this is done, all contained files have to get execute permissions.





If you want to use your keyboard's volume hotkeys, you have to set them in System> Preferences> Keyboard Shortcuts (or something near it - i've got german localization...)





Finally the programs volbar.py and alsavol.py have to be set to start automatically. This can be set under System> Preferences> Startup Programs: (same here...)





Now logout and login to test if everything is working.



A click on the tray icon opens the slider, double-clicking opens the mixer




Volume changes are shown via libnotify.




German Version: Ubuntu Karmic (9.10) Alsa Mixer Applet Nachrüsten

[Aq32]

Besten dank! That is really useful since I am in the same situation and it's such a small script. It also allows mouse scroll on the icon to change the volume which you can't do without a third party app on WinXP!

[vadp]

Thanks for the hint. BTW I've just configured gkrellm's volume plugin to launch xfce4-mixer at a right click

[tlwolf]

I had to install python-eggtrayicon, which wasn't on your list. But once that was installed it does exactly what I needed. Thanks!

[JoshGreen]

My solution to this was to patch gnome-applets to include the mixer again and use the Jaunty version of gnome-media for the gnome-volume-control program, so clicking the "Volume Control" button on the applet actually works. Just like in Jaunty! Sheesh!

Wish they'd quit trying to push PulseAudio on everyone.

Here is a page I created for the unofficial deb packages I made and some other info:
http://resonance.org/~josh/ubuntu.html

[alldaylong]

Hey can someone help me get the volume control icon to reappear please? Your solution worked so that now I can control the volume with the keyboard "volume" buttons, which is great, but I still don't have the icon for volume in the top right and can't figure out how to get it back.

Also, if I go to system>preferences>sound - the sound controls don't open. I get a message that says "Waiting for sound system to respond" - I don't know if that's a big deal or not, but any insight on that would help a lot as well.

Pulseaudio didn't even work at all on my system, so the switch to alsa has been amazing - just need to get this last bit figured out and then my system will be perfectly the way I want it (for now, lol).

Thanks so much.

[alldaylong]

wow - the eggtrayicon package mentioned above and a restart did it.

However, the system>preferences>sound menu still gives the same message. Anyone have any advice for that one?

[kindr]

Very good job thanks very very much =D>
pulse bye bye ... alsa is the best

[defensorfedei]

I realize this is an older post, but I recently made the move from Jaunty to Lucid, which puts me in the same position as far as lacking an alsa volume applet is concerned.

I used the modified script and all works well except that the icon background does not play nicely with my panel. I have a semi-clear panel, but the icon wants to keep the default gnome panel icon as its background. I was wondering if anyone knows how to fix this, so that when the applet starts, it uses the background I have for my panel.

Is there something in the script that needs modification, or is it something else?

Thanks in advance

[DocteurX]

Here is a modified version of the volbar.py for Lucid. I simply replaced the egg.trayicon by a gtk.StatusIcon. The background color should be ok with this one...