Bug 379316

Summary: Notification sounds don't play
Product: [Plasma] plasmashell Reporter: Nate Graham <nate>
Component: generalAssignee: David Edmundson <kde>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED    
Severity: major CC: bhush94, bugseforuns, nate, nl, nowrep, orbmiser, plasma-bugs
Priority: NOR    
Version: 5.9.4   
Target Milestone: 1.0   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In: 5.11
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Nate Graham 2017-04-28 16:37:03 UTC 
Linux distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed
Plasma version: 5.9.4



Summary:
Plasma isn't producing system sounds when I adjust the volume via the keyboard, when I empty the trash, when updates are available via plasma-pk-updates, or any other place where there's normally a system notification sound.



Regression:
All other sounds play just fine. I get sound from Gstreamer- and phonon-based audio and video players and videos on websites.

The problem with system notification sounds reproduces when I use either the Phonon VLC as well as the Phonon Gstreamer backends in the Audio and Video system settings module.

The actual sound files at /usr/share/sounds/ play just fine from any A/V player program.



Impact:
Lots of other people seem affected; not just me:
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/plasma-5-audio-settings-cant-adjust-default-notifications-volume/21109
https://www.reddit.com/r/kde/comments/6838fr/system_sounds_keep_breaking/



Additional information:
In the Audio Volume system settings module, the volume slider for "Notification sounds" is locked at 0%, as in this bug: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=367688

However this isn't the same bug, because many people reporting that issue *do* hear system sounds (they just can't change the volume).

I'm happy to gather any and all additional information needed to debug the issue.
Comment 1 Orbmiser 2017-04-28 16:49:24 UTC 
Yep same issue ongoing Plasma 5.9.5 here on Manjaro Arch based.
Also missing popping sound on mouse wheel volume change. 
Use to be there and other notifications sounds work.
Comment 2 Nate Graham 2017-04-29 00:10:24 UTC 
A workaround has been discovered: install the `pavucontrol` package and use `/usr/bin/pavucontrol` to adjust the notification volume. This change becomes "sticky" such that uninstalling pavucontrol along with its deps restores both system sounds as well as the notification sound slider adjust-ability (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=367688).
Comment 3 David Rosca 2017-04-29 06:11:51 UTC 
If you have Notification Sounds muted, you won't hear any of those sounds, that's just how it works.
The only bug here is 367688.
Comment 4 Paul Sommer 2017-09-13 22:27:58 UTC 
Don't know if this will be read by anyone, because this bug is now marked as "resolved invalid" which is not true.

Since years I am not able to set the volume of the notification sound at all. It always sticks at 0%. When I move the slider to higher volumes it immediately moves back to 0%. 
But in spite of that setting notification sounds are played with full volume, always kicking me out of my chair.
Only now, after installing pavucontrol and setting the volume there I also can change the volume in the "standard" plasma mixer too.

Furthermore, the notification sound doesn't respect the main volume setting (it's the same volume all the time). That's especially annoying at night.

Distro: Debian Stretch and Kubuntu 16.04
Comment 5 Nate Graham 2017-09-13 23:58:10 UTC 
Re-opening.
Comment 6 David Rosca 2017-09-14 06:34:51 UTC 
Another fix comes in Plasma 5.11.
Comment 7 Patrick Silva 2017-10-14 17:56:32 UTC 
I'm running plasma 5.11 with gstreamer backend and the notifications sound does not play here when I press shift+del to delete a file/folder in dolphin, for example. Notifications sound is not muted.
Comment 8 Nate Graham 2017-10-14 18:01:34 UTC 
Is that the only sound that doesn't play, or do they all not play? You can easily test with the volume OSD, which should play little bloop noises.
Comment 9 Patrick Silva 2017-10-14 18:38:18 UTC 
It works with volume osd, but it does not with K3b or ktorrent.
Comment 10 Nate Graham 2017-10-14 19:11:28 UTC 
That's a different issue, then. I suggest filing a new bug.