Muted Sound Indicator randomly remains red when no sound is playing

[teo1978]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Mute the main Ubuntu volume
2. Play some short sound

Expected behavior:
Obviously you won't hear the sound. While the sound plays, the indicator should become red; then, when the sound is done playing and nothing else is playing, either immediately or after a very short period (e.g. a couple of seconds), the indicator should go back to its normal color.

Observed behavior:
Sometimes it behaves as expected, but sometimes it will remain red forever, until you unmute it.

It's utterly random.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: indicator-sound 12.10.2+16.04.20160406-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-101.124-generic 4.4.95
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-101-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_uvm nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.13
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Wed Dec 13 17:09:25 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1523 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
SourcePackage: indicator-sound
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
upstart.indicator-sound.log:
 (process:2339): indicator-sound-WARNING **: accounts-service-access.vala:218: unable to sync volume 0,608643 to AccountsService: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs: No such interface 'com.ubuntu.AccountsService.Sound'

 (process:2339): indicator-sound-WARNING **: accounts-service-access.vala:218: unable to sync volume 0,848633 to AccountsService: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.InvalidArgs: No such interface 'com.ubuntu.AccountsService.Sound'

[Khurshid Alam (khurshid-alam)]

The error is due to not having "accountsservice-ubuntu-schema". But I can't reproduce the error. Could be a issue with icon theme.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for indicator-sound (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

I don't know why the fuck this was changed to incomplete (leaving aside the idiotic policy of "incomplete" bugs automatically expiring).

The issue still exists on 16.04

[Khurshid Alam (khurshid-alam)]

It's most likely the issue with icon-theme issue. For me it turns red or blue depending or icon-theme. See https://i.imgur.com/zWYqIrl.png

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

Sorry for my deleted comment, since you said "it's most likely THE issue with..." I thought you were referring to some specific issue that you failed to mention. I assume you meant "most likely AN issue with".

Anyway,

The icon is EXPECTED to become red when a sound plays and the volume is muted.

The issue is that the icon doesn't go back to normal and REMAINS red when the sound is finished playing.

I find it hard to believe this is an issue with an theme, are you sure it is?

[Khurshid Alam (khurshid-alam)]

> The issue is that the icon doesn't go back to normal and REMAINS red when the sound is finished playing.

That is expected behavior. It turns red only to notify user that volume is muted. It requires immediate action. Once user unmute the volume it will go back to normal.

Music may stop playing due to various other reason like pulseaudio error, so sound indicator couldn't possibly cover all scenarios why music has stopped playing.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

> That is expected behavior. It turns red only to notify user that volume is muted

NOPE, because sometimes it does go back to normal without any action.
It's RANDOM, and that cannot possibly be expected behavior.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

> sound indicator couldn't possibly cover all scenarios why music has stopped playing

It can easily do so. It can become red when the amplitude of the output waveform is non-zero and volume is muted, and go back to normal when either the amplitude of the output goes to zero or the volume is unmuted. THAT is the expected behavior.

Or, if the expected behavior was really the one you describe (only go back to normal when unmuted), which would be pretty useless, then it does not work either, because, as I said, it behaves randomly.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

Oh, and by the way, often it does not even become red in the first place when some sound starts playing while the volume is muted.

Both becoming red and going back to normal are COMPLETELY UTTERLY RANDOM.

(or there's some logic behind it that is so convoluted that it is incomprehensible and renders the "feature" of becoming red, to notify you of something, completely useless)

[Khurshid Alam (khurshid-alam)]

> NOPE, because sometimes it does go back to normal without any action.
> Both becoming red and going back to normal are COMPLETELY UTTERLY RANDOM.

You keep saying these random behaviors. But I am unable to reproduce any of them on 18.04 & 18.10. Can you explain, how to reproduce in a concise way?

And about sound indicator staying red after music stops, as I explained it is intended behavior. Once a explicit user action is requested, the program shouldn't do anything until that specific user action is completed. This is in-line with ux design & concept (I discussed this with previous dev). So I can't change anything in this area.

[teo1978 (teo8976)]

> You keep saying these random behaviors. But I am unable to
> reproduce any of them on 18.04 & 18.10. Can you explain, how to reproduce in a concise way?

If there was a reliable way of reproducing it, it wouldn't be random.

Here's what happens to me:

CASE 1:
- I mute the volume when no sound is playing
Expected behavior: the icon shouldn't go red
Observed behavior: usually the icon doesn't go red, but sometimes it does.

Then sometimes it remains red until I unmute, sometimes it goes back to normal a few seconds later

CASE 2:
- I mute the volume
- I start playing a sound (e.g. a youtube video or whatever), or some sound starts playing (e.g. a Facebook notification in a browser's tab).

Expected behavior: according to you, the icon should become red and remain so until you manually unmute the volume. That's nonsense. What's the logic behind that? Why would I need a reminder that at some point a sound played? Why is a "specific user action required"? Why should I unmute the volume after the sound has already stopped playing?
To me, the expected behavior is that the icon should become red and only remain so while some sound is playing, and then go back to normal. It's useful to know when some sound IS playing and I am not hearing it because my volume is muted. When no sound is no longer playing, there's no use in knowing that at some point there had been a sound playing.

But whatever the expected behavior is, the observed behavior is that sometimes the icon goes back to normal after the sound stops playing without any action on my part, while sometimes it remains red until I unmute the volume.

> But I am unable to reproduce any of them on 18.04 & 18.10

I don't know, maybe it's fixed on those versions. I'm using 16.04