this post was submitted on 22 Feb 2025

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[Plasma] Why audio output device selection at different places ? (jlai.lu)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi,

I was used to switching between laptop speakers and Bluetooth speaker on the normal audio menu.

But one day, I needed to use a TV's speakers through HDMI, and couldn't find it, so I initially thought it was a driver issue, but never found a fix, so I had to use a friend's Windows laptop at the last minute because people were waiting to watch something.

Today, months later, I have the same issue, but on a different laptop with more recent hardware, so I was hoping to have better luck, and I didn't... Until I accidentaly notice that the HDMI device is available under a submenu of the laptop's speakers, WTF ?

Attached to this post is a screenshot showing a Bluetooth speaker, the laptop's speakers and HDMI speakers. Why isn't the latter available at the same location as the former two ?

The submenu could be kept for selecting between 2.0/5.1/7.1, just like for Bluetooth devices it's used to select between aptX/LDAC/SBC, but I don't understand what's a whole different device doing in that submenu of the laptop's speakers.

Thanks

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I feel you bro: switching gaming headset to regular HDMI output is a pain in the ass every time.

More details: I have nari ultimate headset, with 2 channels, one for chat, one for games. I only use it TI game with friends, rest of the time I use HDMI regular output. I use discord on Firefox.

Here it comes: im watching YouTube with the HDMI output. Then, gaming time, log on discord (web) in Firefox, turn on headset. Wrong ! My friends can hear me, but I can't. No matter what I click in this applet that you screenshoted, Firefox always defaults to the HDMI output. The workaround: I need to turn on headset first, then open firefox. Then it works.

So it's like firefox doesn't know that the headset is on. Like it cannot detect it, or doesn't process the notification or something. Maybe wrong dbus message ?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

In the picture of the OP you can see the tabs Devices / Applications at the top. If you have changed the device, you may also have to change the active playback stream on the device under Applications.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago (4 children)

This menu is for switching the device profile. Different programs can output audio to different devices, but a device can only have a single profile at a time active.

So, this menu can’t be flattened because the driver for the device doesn’t support outputting to both the speakers and the HDMI port at the same time. If the hardware supports it, this would have to be fixed in the driver, or at least ALSA or PipeWire. Plasma can’t do anything about this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

would have to be fixed in the driver, or at least ALSA or PipeWire

coppwr

Set up a dummy device whose input is a monitor of the HDMI out, and make the dummy device's output the headphones.

Used to use pactl for pulse, but coppwr makes pipe wire configs very visually accessible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

To clarify a little bit for OP: the same sound device is shared between the laptop's speakers, headphone jack and its video outputs like HDMI.

It's the same sound card but under a different profile to send the audio to the HDMI instead. Technically the same also happens but more automatically when you plug in wired headphone, it triggers a port switch. It's an either or situation: it can only do one at a time except on some chipsets. That used to be an interesting audio quirk back in the days: plug in headphones and it keeps playing through the laptop speakers.

Plasma only shows independent audio devices because it's not just a global audio device selector, you can also select individual apps to go to different audio devices, for example an external mixer and a dedicated music channel.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

The thing is : I want my laptop to never have sound when using speakers, but always when connecting anything, e.g. Bluetooth or HDMI.

So, I mute Built-in Audio Analog Stereo, but I don't mute Turn It Up Wireless Speaker : then, when I connect the latter, it has sound, but when I disconnect it, the former stays muted, therefore I never risking being surprised by sound.

Except, when I need to use HDMI, I actually have to unmute Built-in Audio Analog Stereo because Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output is considered to be the same item by Linux, therefore when I unplug it, it turns back to Built-in Audio Analog Stereo but stays unmuted, which leaves me at risk of being surprised by sound.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I understand what you're getting at, but I feel like that's doing a disservice to plasma. They absolutely can (software!) display what they want, but it would require a paradigm shift.

I've struggled with this sort of thing for many years. Multiple audio devices (switching between speakers/headphones/headset), complex input/output schemas (e.g. audio passthrough for a console mixed with the podcast on my PC, or from the endurance race on a Chromecast (obligatory "🖕 peacock") mixed with the game I'm playing on the PC), echo cancellation between various sources and the selected output, etc.

Audio management is complex, but I think OP is getting at one of the weaker points in "year of the Linux desktop" adoption.

I'm managing only because I've spent so much time figuring things out over nearly 20yrs of Linux use. My setup is currently a combination of plasma (I think the app is just "volume"), qpwgraph, and individual app settings.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

The thing is : I want my laptop to never have sound when using speakers, but always when connecting anything, e.g. Bluetooth or HDMI.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I can see how it would be confusing. Your internal sound "card" is managing several outputs (profiles) and settings are per device rather than profile.

I'm sure there's a way to detect the HDMI plug/unplug and script an action to un/mute the audio. If you're connected to the other external speaker, that action could be confused, so you'd have to account for that.

I'm not expert in that department, but udev is where I'd start.

Here's a link to someone trying to trigger action on HDMI events that could get you started down the right path: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=343614

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So, this menu can’t be flattened because the driver for the device doesn’t support outputting to both the speakers and the HDMI port at the same time.

It's possible it does work if you use the "Pro Audio" profile, but just isn't supported by the existing profiles for whatever reason.

That's kind of a nuclear option for a normal user, though, and there's no guarantee it will help.

So, this menu can’t be flattened because the driver for the device doesn’t support outputting to both the speakers and the HDMI port at the same time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

This looks strangely yet sadly normal to me, and I'm running Mint MATE 20.3.

I just got used to manually changing the audio input and output sources back after unplugging the TV HDMI.

It would be nice to know more about this issue though and if there's a proper way to automate the changeover when connecting and disconnecting A/V devices..