Bug 506791

Summary:	No visual distinction between the "preferred device zero volume" state and the "global mute" state
Product:	[Plasma] plasmashell	Reporter:	Jin Liu <ad.liu.jin>
Component:	Audio in general	Assignee:	Plasma Bugs List <plasma-bugs-null>
Status:	CONFIRMED ---
Severity:	minor	CC:	isma.af, nate
Priority:	NOR
Version First Reported In:	6.4.2
Target Milestone:	1.0
Platform:	Arch Linux
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed/Implemented In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Jin Liu 2025-07-09 10:09:16 UTC

SUMMARY

Keep pressing the "decrease volume" shortcut and it would decrease the volume of the preferred device to zero. Then both the OSD and the tray icon would show it as "muted", which is visually indistinguishable from the different "global mute" state.

The pressing the "mute/unmute" shortcut in this state would produce no visual feedback, as the OSD would keep saying "muted", leading the user to believe the shortcut is broken.

IMHO either we should visually separate the two states, or merge them (i.e., decreasing the volume of the preferred device to zero would automatically enable global mute, and disabling global mute would automatically increase the volume of the preferred device to non-zero).

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
1. Keep pressing the "decrease volume" shortcut, until the OSD says "muted".
2. Press the "mute/unmute" shortcut.

OBSERVED RESULT
The OSD still says "muted", as if the shortcut doesn't work.

EXPECTED RESULT
Some indication that the shortcut works, and it's now in a different "global mute" state.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
Operating System: Arch Linux 
KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.2
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.15.0
Qt Version: 6.9.1
Kernel Version: 6.15.5-arch1-1 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 12 × AMD Ryzen 5 5600H with Radeon Graphics
Memory: 16 GiB of RAM (15.0 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor: AMD Radeon Graphics