Bug 504362

Summary:	Increasing/decreasing audio volume with keyboard keys sometimes gets "sticky"
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	Ron Veetrill <ron.veetrill>
Component:	Audio in general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	isma.af, john.kizer, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	6.3.5
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Ron Veetrill 2025-05-16 21:39:34 UTC

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Use some application that plays audio.
(Note: For me it can happen while listening music in VLC, or while watching YouTube in Firefox, or while playing a videogame in Lutris. So the application seems to be irrelevant. But at least some audio should be playing. I never encountered this bug when changing the volume while no audio played.)
2. Hit the keyboard buttons for increasing or decreasing volume several times.

OBSERVED RESULT
Sometimes hitting a +/- volume button doesn't do anything. Sometimes it works with a delay (~0.5s). Sometimes instead of giving a singular increment/decrement it gets "stuck" and drives the volume all the way to 100% or 0%, depending on the button used.

EXPECTED RESULT
Hitting a + volume button should change audio volume by +5%.
Hitting a - volume button should change audio volume by -5%.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.14.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Linux Kernel Version: 6.14.6-arch1-1 (64-bit)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
I use the Lenovo Thinkbook 14 G6 laptop, in case it matters. For changing the volume, I use the combinations of Fn+F2 (-volume) and Fn+F3 (+volume).

Comment 1 Nate Graham 2025-05-19 15:16:46 UTC

I'm quite doubtful that this is a software issue in our audio code. I think it's likely to be deeper in PipeWire, in the Kernel audio drivers, or even a firmware or hardware issue.

Comment 2 John Kizer 2025-05-22 06:14:52 UTC

Hi - just checking, at the times that this is occurring, is using the mouse to control the volume slider in the Audio Volume widget similarly unresponsive or delayed?

Thanks!

Comment 3 Ron Veetrill 2025-05-22 11:32:53 UTC

(In reply to John Kizer from comment #2)
> Hi - just checking, at the times that this is occurring, is using the mouse
> to control the volume slider in the Audio Volume widget similarly
> unresponsive or delayed?
> 
> Thanks!

Hi John,
Volume control with mouse click-and-drag works smoothly, I never any encountered problems with it. Though, to be fair, I don't use it as often as the keyboard hotkeys. I could try mouse control more regularly in order to make sure whether it's actually flawless or not.

Comment 4 John Kizer 2025-05-23 03:01:06 UTC

Thanks! And just checking, is this a newly-occurring issue? If so, do you know what might have changed when it began?

Comment 5 Ron Veetrill 2025-05-23 10:32:59 UTC

(In reply to John Kizer from comment #4)
> Thanks! And just checking, is this a newly-occurring issue? If so, do you
> know what might have changed when it began?

Well, I've been experiencing it for a couple of months for sure.
And since I use a rolling release system (Arch) with frequent updates, I can't exactly recognize at which update it started, unfortunately.

Comment 6 John Kizer 2025-05-24 02:00:45 UTC

(In reply to Ron Veetrill from comment #5)
> Well, I've been experiencing it for a couple of months for sure.
> And since I use a rolling release system (Arch) with frequent updates, I
> can't exactly recognize at which update it started, unfortunately.

Hmm - for what it's worth, starting a couple of months ago would potentially fit with when the Arch package for pipewire was upgraded from 1.2.7 to 1.4.0.

I'm not an Arch expert by any means, but is there a way to (safely :-) ) test downgrading pipewire to see if that impacts things?

Comment 7 Bug Janitor Service 2025-06-08 03:47:37 UTC

🐛🧹 ⚠️ This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least 15 days. Please provide the requested information, then set the bug status to REPORTED. If there is no change for at least 30 days, it will be automatically closed as RESOLVED WORKSFORME.

For more information about our bug triaging procedures, please read https://community.kde.org/Guidelines_and_HOWTOs/Bug_triaging.

Thank you for helping us make KDE software even better for everyone!

Comment 8 Bug Janitor Service 2025-06-23 03:47:28 UTC

🐛🧹 This bug has been in NEEDSINFO status with no change for at least 30 days. Closing as RESOLVED WORKSFORME.