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...where applicable of course.

I had a brainwave tonight after I updated Pulseaudio on my computer. Code was fixed which means that Pulseaudio now respects the output device port and profile as set in the pavucontrol program. As a result, today I found that sound came out of my laptop speakers, laptop stereo jack and IEC958 digital output to my surround sound system. To restrict where sound came from, I had to use pavucontrol (as KMix doesn't utilise these options) to change them.

But then I thought, couldn't there be an easier way from the taskbar that you can switch between headphone, laptop speakers and digital output with a pop-up plasma widget or a widget on the desktop? The alternative is to install pavucontrol, drag in the Gnome dependencies it needs, go through the kickoff menus, launch pavucontrol and then work through the tabs in order to change the device. Quite a hassle.

I mocked up a design in QT Designer of how a widget could look, which would work in the same way that the calendar and KNetworkManager widgets do when you single click them. If you click the thumbnail below, you'll be able to see the full image.



Also included there is the individual volume controls for programs and event sounds, as KMix does now and the master control, in the same method as KMix does now when you single click the system tray icon now.

Setting up KMix like this to allow changes to the profiles and ports would allow me to silence outputs and use other outputs with a few mouse clicks instead of having to go through the hassle of installing and using pavucontrol.

There is a plasmoid called Veromix out there that does most of what you describe. I don't think it's in default KDE, I'm not sure if it has the option to change the PORT on an audio device.

There is a plasmoid called Veromix out there that does most of what you describe. I don't think it's in default KDE, I'm not sure if it has the option to change the PORT on an audio device.

nerdopolis wrote:There is a plasmoid called Veromix out there that does most of what you describe. I don't think it's in default KDE, I'm not sure if it has the option to change the PORT on an audio device.

Good find. Although I searched for ages before submitting this idea. I did wonder why this functionality was not put into KMix? Installing Veromix through the Arch User Repository and whilst it's getting near to what I wanted, still has a few shortcomings. Might be worth seeing if bug reports have been submitted to add the bits missing.

tghe-retford wrote:

nerdopolis wrote:There is a plasmoid called Veromix out there that does most of what you describe. I don't think it's in default KDE, I'm not sure if it has the option to change the PORT on an audio device.

Good find. Although I searched for ages before submitting this idea. I did wonder why this functionality was not put into KMix? Installing Veromix through the Arch User Repository and whilst it's getting near to what I wanted, still has a few shortcomings. Might be worth seeing if bug reports have been submitted to add the bits missing.

They updated Veromix to version 15 which says something about supporting changing ports for a device... But I still don't think it's in mainline

Veromix has some serious performance problems and layout issues, so it is not suitable for production use, or for giving it so somebody that does not know what to do when the process python runs amok, etc. And this definitly needs to go into KDE, all the major desktop environments (except for Windows ) have a nice volume mixer that can also handle your music player, so why doesn’t KDE have one?