GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 658248
Have a consistent way to push volume beyond 100%
Last modified: 2018-07-31 18:20:40 UTC
Bug 657607 and bug 649411 chose to avoid forcing sound volume to 150% from the indicator and the media keys. This is a reasonable decision since users could get distorted sound by default without noticing. OTOH, many recent laptops have quite weak speakers that require you to go beyond 100% several times a day (I know a few of them). Before GNOME 3.0, and after the new change, you had/will have to go to the sound preferences, where the slider allows going to 150%. This is both annoying and kind of inconsistent (notably, the volume indicator is still blocked at 100% even if you went to 150%). I suggest we add a way to go to 150%, but not by default, and not without a clear notice. I see three options: - Only when using media keys, or when scrolling on the indicator, allow the user to go beyond 100% by insisting a little. In that case, the slider and OSD should show the part between 100% and 150% in red to explain amplification is beyond its normal level. - Use the Alt key trick in the volume indicator to allow the slider to go until 150% (suggestion made by Florian). This is less intuitive but would be relatively efficient for people who know it exists.
+1 Not only Gnome doesn't allow to go beyond 100% using media keys. It also resets volume to 100% when it's already more than that and "volume up" key pressed.
(In reply to comment #1) > Not only Gnome doesn't allow to go beyond 100% using media keys. It also resets > volume to 100% when it's already more than that and "volume up" key pressed. Please file a bug about that against gnome-settings-daemon. That's really a bug, while this report is more about design issues.
*** Bug 725009 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I think Ubuntu provides the best solution, a checkbox to always allow higher than 100% volume: http://i.imgur.com/aC3FWMZ.png
*** Bug 768694 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Want to throw my +1/hat/whatever into the ring with this ticket. I currently run Fedora 26 on a Lenovo T430s. Like many modern(ish) laptops, the speakers are quite weak when cranked up to 0Db and thus I have a need to overdrive them regularly to be able to get reasonably audible sound. Because of this need I regularly experience the same frustration that Milan described above. Any of the above solutions would be fine (though I would personally prefer the Ubuntu solution of requiring a user to click a check box that allows them to make this change). This allows the default to be sane and distortion-less, but enables us with crippled speakers to actually have them be usable without having to dig into settings. I would also point out that even pulse audio has a recommended max UI volume value (PA_VOLUME_UI_MAX) that is higher than PA_VOLUME_NORM (which is what Gnome currently limits its max to). While this may not be the best user experience in the end for users (because of the distortion issues that can occur above volume normal), it does show the need for this overdrive functionality to exist.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 790280 ***