September 2015 - Alsa-devel - mailman.alsa-project.org

[alsa-devel] feature request: alsamixer should show alternatives to function key bindings, at least F1/Help
by frederik＠ofb.net 01 Sep '15

01 Sep '15

In alsamixer, many options are bound to function keys. These are used by my window manager, so I cannot use them in my terminal. The alsamixer man page mentions that 'gnome-terminal' cannot use function keys either. I noticed from the "Help" screen that many function keys have non-function-key alternatives, for instance instead of F6 I can press "s". This is great, but there is one remaining problem: The legend (at the top of the alsamixer screen) labels commands with their function-key bindings. This includes "Help" which is labelled with "F1". Seeing this, users are likely to assume that "F1" is the only binding for "Help". But it turns out that one can also access "Help" with "?" and "H". This can be learned by reading the man page or pressing keys experimentally, but it would be nice if "Help" was just labeled with either "?" or "H", as that allows people who are unable to use function keys to easily access the help screen and then see that alternate (non-function-key) bindings exist for other commands as well. As an aside, it seems odd to map "q" to "increase left volume"... (from https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91782, edited)

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[alsa-devel] feature request: "mute" indication in alsamixer is not self-evident
by frederik＠ofb.net 01 Sep '15

01 Sep '15

When a user presses 'm' for 'mute' in alsamixer, then a string "MM" appears at the bottom of a volume control. This change makes it obvious to the user that "MM" stands for "Mute". However, when a new user opens alsamixer after some software on his computer has (perhaps by mistake) automatically muted a volume control, the "MM" won't indicate anything obvious. Among other things, this makes it difficult for new users to debug issues with the auto-mute feature. The fact that the volume control can be at maximum, even when the control is muted, contributes to the potential for confusion. The problem would be solved if, for instance, the "Item: " string at the top of the alsamixer screen were changed to contain the word "(muted)" for muted controls. This way, users who don't have sound will see what the problem is when they open alsamixer. (from <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91781>, edited)

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[alsa-devel] bug tracker down?
by frederik＠ofb.net 01 Sep '15

01 Sep '15

Hi guys, For some reason I can't connect to https://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/alsa-bug I want to file two bugs which I mistakenly sent to the Pulseaudio bug tracker, having to do with alsamixer. They are here and here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91781 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=91782 Thanks, Frederick

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