On 01/20/2016 06:30 AM, sajolida wrote:
> I'm still in the process of understanding the problem here, sorry...
>
> In Tails, when I set the master volume from the system menu to 25% and
> play an MP3 with Totem (the default media player), raising the volume of
> Totem to 100% doesn't change my master volume. The volume of Totem is
> relative to the master volume.
>
> The same applies to YouTube from Tor Browser and Audacity and seems to
> not reproduce what you're saying about media players having the power to
> maximize the master volume and become dangerous.
>
> Now, if I install Audacious in Tails and plays an MP3 with it, then
> raising the volume of Audacious to 100% brings my master volume to 100%.
> I guess that's what you're talking about.
>
> So my conclusion for now is that, with the flat-volumes on, PulseAudio
> allows applications to misbehave (= "blow your ears") but that well
> configured applications, like Totem, Tor Browser, and Audacity don't
> present this dangerous behavior.
>
> If I'm right until now, then I think that we should check whether all
> applications included in Tails respects the master volume and fix it if
> we find some that don't.
>
> While doing my research I also found that this seems to be a hot debate
> on Internet, but at the same time, I was surprised to found little
> information about it on the PulseAudio bug tracker. If this is such a
> controversial behavior, I guess PulseAudio also have a strong opinion
> about it themselves. But I could find it, apart from this
> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57355#c2.
I am shocked to hear Totem's volume is relative to the master volume. I
loathe most Gnome software and use stuff like VLC, so I did not test
with Totem.
Are you running GStreamer 0.10?
I think that programs that are integrated with PulseAudio give the
behavior I described.
For example, Kodi and VLC are fully integrated.
With flat-volumes disabled, VLC's volume slider is synchronized with the
VLC stream's slider in the pavucontrol window. The in-app volume slider
and the output stream for PulseAudio belonging to VLC are the same.
With flat volumes enabled, most apps' volume sliders are at or below the
master volume and will raise the master volume to 100% if the program's
master volume goes up.
Apps that output that output to ALSA or have broken integration (like
Clementine) will always be relative to their own audio stream on
PulseAudio and will never ever affect the master volume slider. This
behavior is the same whether flat-volumes are enabled or not enabled.
I think Totem is the exception rather than the rule.
Is fixing each application within Tails to not override master volume
really a good idea? A system-wide setting in /etc or in users' home
folders in .dot folders would be easier and it is what others do.
Arch, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, and even Fedora(!) (and RedHat is home to the
PulseAudio founders and most current key developers) have switched away
from the "modern" PulseAudio default and their packages install
Pulseaudio with a custom /etc configuration file disabling flat volumes.
I intend to report this upstream to Debian. If Debian switches, then
Tails will be switched automatically in version 3.0 (based on Debian
Stretch).
Thank you for hearing me out and sorry for this very late follow-up.
