Bug 449527

Summary: Volume Buttons do not work unless Audio Volume widget is on the desktop
Product: [Unmaintained] plasma-pa Reporter: landon.carbenia
Component: appletAssignee: Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE    
Severity: normal CC: landon.carbenia, me, nate, nowrep
Priority: NOR    
Version First Reported In: 5.23.5   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: Manjaro   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description landon.carbenia 2022-02-02 22:00:46 UTC 
-------------Steps to Reproduce-------------
1. Make sure that the Audio Volume widget is not on the desktop.
2. Press either volume key on the keyboard (on mine, Function+3 to decrease, Function+4 to increase).
3. Observe the fact that absolutely nothing has happened.

-------------Observed Result-------------
Nothing happens.

-------------Expected Result-------------
Volume changes up or down.

-------------Software/OS Versions-------------
Linux/KDE Plasma: Manjaro 21.2.2 & Kubuntu 20.04 LTS
KDE Plasma Version: 5.23.5 & 5.18 LTS
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.90.0 & 5.68 LTS
Qt Version: 5.15.2 & 5.12 LTS

-------------Additional Information-------------
This happened on an earlier installation of Kubuntu 20.04 LTS, and is still happening on my current Manjaro 21.2.2 installation. All audio works perfectly, and volume can be changed via Audio Volume on the system tray, both by dragging the slider and by scrolling while hovering over the icon. However, the volume buttons on the keyboard do nothing. When I put the Audio Volume widget on the desktop, the buttons will cause the volume to change. Once it starts working, it continues to work, even through reboots, until the second I remove Audio Volume from the desktop. This problem has never happened on other operating systems on this same laptop (Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, even Android-x86. Yeah. I was curious).

-------------Possible Solutions------------
After reading issue #391,578, where it is explained that Audio Volume shortcuts go to the most recent instance of the plasmoid, even if that instance no longer exists, I think that there are three possible solutions:

1) Send Audio Volume shortcuts to all instances - a simple fix, but it may end up making problems for people with several audio devices active at the same time.

2) Have plasmashell receive Audio Volume shortcuts, and send them to the most recent instance that still exists. This could be nice, but it's a little roundabout.

3) Have kded handle Audio Volume shortcuts, and send them to the most recent instance that still exists. This could be nice, but it's a little roundabout.

If any committers have some input for me, I'd be glad to make this my first Linux contribution!
Comment 1 Nate Graham 2022-02-03 20:14:39 UTC 
Having kded do it would make sense to me; that way the kded module could be shipped in plasma-pa. That would be nice!

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 391578 ***
Comment 2 landon.carbenia 2022-02-03 22:58:11 UTC 
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1)
> Having kded do it would make sense to me; that way the kded module could be shipped in plasma-pa. That would be nice!

So, we need to have Audio Volume shortcuts be handled by kded (something about keysyms and the X server that I don't really understand all that well), add a function to kded which makes it forward the command to the most recent Audio Volume widget, and add a function to kded which lets it switch over to a new Audio Volume widget if the most recent one no longer exists.

How can I make this happen?
Comment 3 Nate Graham 2022-02-03 23:03:08 UTC 
It's all above my head technically, so I'm not the best person to ask. You might try sending an email to kde-devel@kde.org or visiting the #kde-devel Matrix room.