speaker/volume Problem

[Larry Hartman]

On Thursday 31 May 2007 10:33:40 pm Paul Kaplan wrote:
> On Thursday 31 May 2007 9:23:01 pm Larry Hartman wrote:
> > On Thursday 31 May 2007 08:58:29 pm Paul Kaplan wrote:
> > > I am currently running Kubuntu Feisty on a Thinkpad T43, having
> > > recently moved up from Edgy.  My external speakers, which are attached
> > > through the headphone jack, have their own volume control.
> > >
> > > On Edgy (and Dapper), I could use the Thinkpad mute button to turn off
> > > the internal speakers and use only the external speakers.  The external
> > > speaker volume was controlled independently by both kmix and the
> > > hardware volume control.  If the internal speakers were un-muted
> > > (through the Thinkpad button), their volume was controlled by Thinkpad
> > > volume buttons and kmix.  So kmix controlled the system volume at the
> > > software level, and each set of speakers had its own independent
> > > hardware volume control.
> > >
> > > With Feisty, the Thinkpad buttons control kmix directly, not the
> > > Thinkpad speakers.  As a result, I can't turn off the Thinkpad speakers
> > > (and their marginal sound quality) and still use the external speakers.
> > >  If I use the Thinkpad mute button, it mutes the entire sound system.
> > >  As a result, in order to get sound out of the external speakers, I
> > > need some volume on the internal speakers.
> > >
> > > I don't want to permanently inactivate the internal speakers since I do
> > > use them when I'm not connected to the dock.
> > >
> > > How can I restore the old situation where the Thinkpad sound buttons
> > > are controlling only the internal speakers, not kmix?
> >
> > Have you played with the mixer portion of KMix at all?  There is a tab
> > labled "switches" in the window that may do what you need.
> >
> > You can also add a "Sound Mixer" applet to your panel that will put some
> > of the options of KMix onto your panel in the form of tiny sliders...this
> > has been useful to me.
> >
> > Larry
>
> The Sound Mixer applet seems to have the same controls as kmix and I've
> tried a bunch of settings on kmix, including the switches, all  to no
> avail.  The problem seems to be that the Thinkpad buttons control the kmix
> master channel (whcihever is set) in Feisty, but the hardware only in prior
> versions.

A while back I asked the question on this list about how to configure laptop 
keyboard buttons.  The answer pointed me to several WIKI pages dealing with 
this issue.  I don't think these pages will solve your problem, but maybe 
give you some insights to what is going on that may help your analysis.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/HotkeyResearch
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KubuntuLaptopButtons
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KubuntuLaptopKeycodes

Beyond this I am sorry to say I can not offer any more help.

Larry