Volume up/down keyboard keys stoped working after gnome-settings-daemon package update

[Petar Velkovski]

After updating gnome-settings-daemon from version 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4 to version 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5 the keyboard volume keys are not working.

Pressing the keys does not produce the volume OSD, neither the volume is increased or decreased.

The following packages were updated by synaptic:
cjs (2.0.0-20131021020602-precise) to 2.0.0-20131105020703-precise
duplicity (0.6.18-0ubuntu3.2) to 0.6.18-0ubuntu3.3
gimp (2.8.6-0precise1~ppa) to 2.8.8-0precise0~ppa
gimp-data (2.8.6-0precise1~ppa) to 2.8.8-0precise0~ppa
gnome-settings-daemon (3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4) to 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5
libcjs0c (2.0.0-20131021020602-precise) to 2.0.0-20131105020703-precise
libgimp2.0 (2.8.6-0precise1~ppa) to 2.8.8-0precise0~ppa
xkb-data (2.5-1ubuntu1.4) to 2.5-1ubuntu1.5
xserver-common-lts-quantal (2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.3~precise1) to 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.5~precise1
xserver-xorg-core-lts-quantal (2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.3~precise1) to 2:1.13.0-0ubuntu6.5~precise1

I suspected that the bug might be in xkb-data and/or gnome-settings-daemon.
Downgrading the xkb-data package the previous version (2.5-1ubuntu1.4) didn't work.
Downgrading the gnome-settings-daemon package to the previous version (3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4) worked!
Afterwords I upgraded xkb-data to the latest version (2.5-1ubuntu1.5) and left gnome-settings-daemon package to the previous version (3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4). And this works!!!

In conclusion there is some regression introduced into gnome-settings-daemon 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5.

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Release: 12.04

[Petar Velkovski (pvelkovski)]

I also tried to submit the bug report using the "ubuntu-bug" command so that more data would be submited, but launchpad reported error (server down or something like that). I'm telling this in case someone gets a funny idea to mark the bug report invalid.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report!

James, that seems an issue due to your changes for the micmute key, could you have a look?

[Tormod Volden (tormodvolden)]

Petar, what hardware is this?

[Petar Velkovski (pvelkovski)]

Tormod, we are talking about a plain keyboard with multimedia keys.
Manufacturer: Genius
Product name: SlimStar310

Here's a link with a picture of it. http://pc.zoznam.sk/test-slim-klavesnic?page=1

If I open the keboard settings Keyboard->Shortcuts->Sound and media and do Volume up and Volume down key mapping:
1. I click on Volume up in the left column
2. "New accelerator.." is shown on the right collumn
3. If I press the keboard key for "Volume up", the right column shows "Audio raise volume"

All this means that the keyboard sends a STANDARD code for increasing the volume level, so it's not that my keyboard is some kind of esoteric unstandard hardware.

[Petar Velkovski (pvelkovski)]

Also mapping the keys with the procedure from above works the same even with the broken 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5 package installed, but as I said before, pressing the keys afterwards doesn't have any effect.

The Play/Pause and the Stop keys are working fine -mapped as "Audio play"/"Audio pause" and "Audio stop" (right column labels)
Launch media player key also works (It launches Rhytmbox), although the mapping shows (strangely) "Tools"

[Simao (simaomm)]

Hi,

I think that this might be related to the media-keys plugin being moved out of gnome-settings-daemon into gnome-panel.

Anyway we can get the fix backported from trusty to saucy? All media keys stopped working :(

[Ray Chen (ray.chen)]

Test on E431 and E531,
The version of gnome-settings-daemon and xkb-data are the same after and before dist-upgrade.

And the mic mute key and Vol up/down key work well after and before dist-upgrade

Before dist-upgrade:
ii gnome-settings-daemon 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5 daemon handling the GNOME session settings
ii xkb-data 2.5-1ubuntu1.5 X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configuration data

After dist-upgrade:
ii gnome-settings-daemon 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5 daemon handling the GNOME session settings
ii xkb-data 2.5-1ubuntu1.5 X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configuration data

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I can't confirm that issue either :/

@Petar: do you still have the problem? Could you add your ~/.xsession-errors to the bug? Could you also try to run the buggy version with "gnome-settings-daemon --debug --replace", try to use the keys and copy the log to the bug?

[Petar Velkovski (pvelkovski)]

Sebastien, I'm not sure how, but I don't have this problem anymore.

I thought that the offending patch was removed from the update, since I haven't been forced to stay to gnome-settings-daemon 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4 for a very long time now.
It might have something to do with me reinstalling the system (for reasons totally unrelated to this one). gnome-settings-daemon is at version 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.5, and the volume keys are working as expected.

[Simao (simaomm)]

I confirm this no longer happens after some update to gnome-settings-daemon.

I had the same problem before, but now it's fine.

[Svenja (svenja22)]

I still face this issue on my Lenovo G550.
Do you need any further information?

At the moment I am using version 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4. This fixed the issue for me temporarily.

[Benedikt (benedikt-klotz)]

I see this issue, too (12.04.4 and Lenovo T420). After the gnome-settings update the volume keys stopped working. The logs show no warning and error messages... I will try if a rollback to 6.4 will help.

[Benedikt (benedikt-klotz)]

Ok rollback to 6.4 and the volume keys started working again.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for gnome-settings-daemon (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Anton Anikin (anton-anikin)]

I have the same problem with fresh installed Ubuntu Unicorn.
If I assign any other keys for volume up/down/mute - it works, if I assign it for multimedia keys - they not works

[Russell King (rmk+ubuntu)]

I also have this problem with Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS. I have just down-graded gnome-settings-daemon to 3.4.1-0ubuntu1 (the only other version apt-cache showed me) and restarted, and this has fixed the issue. Volume up/down/mute all fail to work with 3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.6 - these keys appear ignored (though a terminal loses focus when they're pressed.)

Comment #8 requested information by running gnome-settings-daemon in debug mode using "gnome-settings-daemon --debug --replace" - with the above version, I get "** (gnome-settings-daemon:6486): WARNING **: Unknown option --replace
". I tried some other approaches, and finally got it running in debug mode.

When I press the media keys, I get:

(gnome-settings-daemon:7320): media-keys-plugin-DEBUG: Launching action for key type '4' (on device id 7)
(gnome-settings-daemon:7320): media-keys-plugin-DEBUG: Launching action for key type '5' (on device id 7)
(gnome-settings-daemon:7320): media-keys-plugin-DEBUG: Launching action for key type '3' (on device id 7)

So it seems to be detecting the key presses - but still, nothing happens.

[Russell King (rmk+ubuntu)]

Here's also a strace of gnome-settings-daemon while pressing and releasing one of the volume keys. I've also checked the other (two) threads which have no activity upon pressing these keys. gnome-settings-daemon seems to black-hole these key presses.

[Russell King (rmk+ubuntu)]

It seems that 64_micmute.patch is the culpret... this patch adds support for the microphone mute button, which is fine if you have an input stream. If you don't have an input stream, the side effect of this patch is to disable _all_ the buttons, including the ones affecting output volume - see this hunk:

@@ -1203,13 +1256,18 @@
                 stream = manager->priv->stream;
         if (stream == NULL)
                 return;
+ input_stream = manager->priv->input_stream;
+ if (input_stream == NULL)
+ return;

Fixing this resolves the issue for me.

[Russell King (rmk+ubuntu)]

There are other problems with that patch:

@@-1327,8 +1430,12 @@
                        g_object_unref (manager->priv->stream);
                        manager->priv->stream = NULL;
                }
+ if (gvc_mixer_stream_get_id (manager->priv->input_stream)
+ == id) {
+ g_object_unref (manager->priv->input_stream);
+ manager->priv->input_stream = NULL;
+ }

The if() block which encloses all this code checks that manager->priv->stream is non-NULL. Nothing checks that manager->priv->input_stream is non-NULL before passing it to gvc_mixer_stream_get_id()... and this results in... "** (gnome-settings-daemon:32266): CRITICAL **: gvc_mixer_stream_get_id: assertion `GVC_IS_MIXER_STREAM (stream)' failed"

[Dave Gilbert (ubuntu-treblig)]

Based on Russell's comment #19

[hansvschoot (hansvschoot)]

Hi, I was suffering from the same problem.
For everybody who ends up here looking for a quick fix, you can manually downgrade the package by downloading it from here (select your platform on the right side of the page below builds):
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-settings-daemon/3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4

then open a terminal and install it using dpkg (replace the path with the file you downloaded, amd64bit for me):
sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/gnome-settings-daemon_3.4.2-0ubuntu0.6.4_amd64.deb

[hansvschoot (hansvschoot)]

I forgot to mention that I'm running kernel 3.13.0-30, and my keyboard is a "Logitech Illuminated keyboard"

[Brian Z (brian-zbr)]

My volume key is not responding, but I don't have gnome-settings-daemon installed (at least, it's not showing as installed in Software Center. Would it be a bad idea to try hansvschoot's quick fix anyway?

[Teo (teo1978)]

My volume up/down keys were working fine and they have stopped working right NOW.

Was there some recent update that attempted to fix this bug and instead screwed things up further?
Or am I experiencing a different (though apparently identical) issue?

This did NOT work for me:
  gsettings reset org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys volume-up
  gsettings reset org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys volume-down

Is there any other workaround?

[Hai NGUYEN VAN (psaxl)]

It appears that this bugs only affects my main account. Other new created accounts are not.

The following commands did work for me :

  gsettings reset org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys volume-up
  gsettings reset org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.media-keys volume-down

[quequotion (quequotion)]

The most likely cause of this is that gnome-settings-daemon no longer supports media keys.

You can restore functionality with gnome-fallback-media-keys-helper, but it's only packaged for Zorin OS:

https://launchpad.net/~zorin-os/+archive/ubuntu/packages/+sourcepub/3778150/+listing-archive-extra

[Russell King (rmk+ubuntu)]

As I mentioned above, it is caused by a bug in the 64_micmute.patch patch that Ubuntu add to this package. This problem is entirely Ubuntu's own making!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Seb - Could you have somebody take a look at this?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The issue should be fixed in the current gnome-settings-daemon version, some changes might need to be backported to older series though

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The buggy code doesn't seem to be in unity-settings-daemon either

[Hai NGUYEN VAN (psaxl)]

Sometimes deleting `.pulse/` is enough. I do not really understand where the problem is coming from.

Source: http://askubuntu.com/questions/387379/ubuntu-12-04-volume-up-down-mute-stopped-working

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

I have similar problem now on Xenial, but literally all hotkeys are not working.
I can assign them on gnome-control-center, but can't trigger real actions afterward.
I'm only using Compiz (no unity, no gnome-shell). Is there any workaround for this issue?

[quequotion (quequotion)]

>Nazar
Without Unity or Gnome-shell running, nothing is listening for the keys; you need gnome-fallback-media-keys-helper.

[Nazar Mokrynskyi (nazar-pc)]

Thanks quequotion, works wonderfully!
Do you know something else that can be used as an alternative for gnome-fallback-media-keys-helper? (it is only present for Saucy release in Zorin OS ppa, which is not very reliable in long-term).

[quequotion (quequotion)]

>Nazar
Unfortunately not. That package could be recompiled for newer versions of Ubuntu, but the code itself is from gnome-settings-daemon 3.6.4 and will never be updated. It should really be released in it's own PPA, but I could never grasp debian packaging--it is more difficult to package programs for Ubunu than to write them.

Some other gnome-derivative desktops have followed gnome's example by incorporating the media-keys listening service into their own desktop shell.