changing the volume is impossible while muted

[Nicolò Chieffo]

Binary package hint: indicator-sound

Steps to reproduce:
1. Mute the sound
2. click on the indicator-sound button and try and move the slider with the mouse

I find that this feature is useful in a scenario in which you can't make any loud noise: you keep mute and lower the volume to an acceptable value, then you release the volume, so that any eventual running sounds won't disturb.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: indicator-sound 0.2.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-19.28-generic 2.6.32.10+drm33.1
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-19-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Apr 9 00:10:48 2010
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100318)
SourcePackage: indicator-sound

[Conor Curran (cjcurran)]

This is actually a design choice. G-V-C works the preferred way you described above while Pavucontrol works the same was as the current implementation. Marking this as wishlist because technically it is not a bug.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

@Conor: I am confused. You stated this bug would go to Wishlist, assigned yourself to it, then marked it as Invalid. If it is invalid, what is the reason?

Marking as confirmed/Wishlist, waiting on feedback.

[Conor Curran (cjcurran)]

I think this needs to be discussed on the ayatana mailing list as it is purely a design issue.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

The other problem is that if you change the volume to minimal level and then click 'mute all' now to listen music you have to first unmute and then again click on the indicator to increase the volume. which makes it annoying.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

bug 661072 explains the desired behavior for Natty.

[René Vangsgaard (rene-vangsgaard)]

In my opinion, the behavior before Maverick was far better than the proposed behavior: it is very nice that you can see the volume level before un-muting.

[michael perigard (overprescribed)]

If this was a design choice, it's a poor design choice, if you ask me. Consider this use case: audio is being played, and mute is toggled because the audio is painfully loud. the audio source must then be stopped to turn the volume down, otherwise the user is forced to deal with the too-loud volume until the desired volume is reached. If I'm using some sort of remote control to adjust the volume, say an infrared remote, it may not be possible to quickly lower the volume while its un-muted (maybe someone walks in front of me while I'm using the remote and the volume-down action is stopped, causing me to hold the button down again, and causing everyone in the room to deal with the too-loud audio for a few more seconds). Plus, my great-grandmother isn't so great with the mouse, and forcing her to un-mute the audio before changing it effectively means she's going to stop the audio before un-muting so she doesn't have to deal with the too-loud audio while she's changing the volume level.

second use case where I can see this being a problem; when audio is automagically muted because a speaker/headphone change has been detected, saving me from possibly having way-too-loud audio coming out of my headphones, I'm forced to stop the audio, un-mute, then change the volume level, rather than just moving the slider and un-checking mute. I think one of the largest uses of the mute toggle is when audio is started and the volume was previously set too high for the new source. I'm certainly used to toggling mute, turning down the volume, and toggling mute again.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

It was a mistake in my original design, but I corrected it in May. <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SoundMenu?action=diff&rev2=8&rev1=7>

[Christian Giordano (nuthinking)]

I don't understand where is the problem on unmuting the audio when the user changes the volume and the audio is muted (this not only happens on MacOS X, but also on YouTube and in many other multi-media piayer, you could argue this is a standard behaviour).
How many times happens that you unmute a sound and it's too loud and how many times it happens that is not? How long does it take to turn down a too loud volume?

[Christian Giordano (nuthinking)]

On my installation seems to work as suggested... trying to find out more...

[Conor Curran (cjcurran)]

Need to do the second half of automatically unmute when volume is changed.

[Conor Curran (cjcurran)]

Completed in the second branch

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package indicator-sound - 0.5.7-0ubuntu1

---------------
indicator-sound (0.5.7-0ubuntu1) natty; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
    - Music control buttons flicker (LP: #684755)
    - Sound Menu should re-read playlists from MPRIS apps when
      PropertiesChanged is postec (LP: #707042)
    - Spotify crashes the service (LP: #707367)
    - Refactor service dbus code plus state handling (LP: #708793)
    - changing the volume is impossible while muted (LP: #558784)
    - Banshee icon changes to coloured icon once in use (LP: #692648)
 -- Ken VanDine <email address hidden> Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:57:41 -0500

[Chris Johnston (cjohnston)]

Can we get this backported into 10.10 please?