Need help configuring audio in Mint.

Raxyz

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Hello everyone!

Currently I'm in the process to migrating from Windows to Linux. I decided on Mint which seems to be agreed on one of the best "just works" distros, and true enough, I've been loving it.

That being said, there are a few wrinkles, and I can't seem to find workarounds for it so far. Mainly about audio device management. The system default "Sound" app is pretty great, but there's a couple of things that I haven't been able to find an equivalent in Linux.

  1. The first one is a way to toggle between audio devices. Mainly outputs. I have a headphone, and a soundbar. I regularly switch between the two depending on the situation, so it's kind of troublesome to change them through the GUI every time. For windows there's an app called SoundSwitch that does exactly that. I can set a binding for CTRL+SHIFT+F11 and it toggle between the two (side note: that's a devilish shortcut for Linux that I'm still not sure what it does, nor how to disable it. But that's beside the point ATM). For Mint I found one alternative in SoundSwitcher, but it doesn't have a toggle option, I can only specifically select which output I want it, which means at least two distinct hotkeys. That would be an acceptable workaround, but I've had that program suddenly stop working or lose configuration between boots. Not ideal.
  2. I'm still trying to understand how Linux' "sinks" work. I get that they're sort of containers, but I haven't been able to properly manage them. The way my machine seems to have set them up is putting both headphone and soundbar in a single sink with two different ports. Every single forum post I find trying to offer a solution to that assumes that both devices are on different sinks. And the only guide I've found so far that explains how to split sinks is for Ubuntu, and doesn't seem to work on Mint. Can I split these devices on different sinks, or is that something Mint simply doesn't allow? I think this also messes up with Discord, because it only allows for me to select "Built In Audio Analog Stereo" as an output device, which means whichever sink/port is active at the moment. I cannot split Discord from desktop audio, which can be a problem sometimes.
  3. Is there any way to disable certain devices from showing up? The Sound app recognizes both HDMI audio and Dualsense speakers. Both have terrible audio quality and I will not be using them. Yet even disabling them in Pulse Audio control doesn't stop them from showing up in the sound app, which only further adds to the annoyance of switching default audio output through the GUI.
Do these have any solution for Mint, or is it better for me to check other distros with different way to handle audio devices? Thanks in advance!
 


This won't be of any help to you, personally.....but in 'Puppy' Linux, my own 'daily driver' for the last ten years, I long ago built my own GUI-based audio card 'switcher' app to handle just this kind of situation.

I have the HP desktop rig's internal audio card + speaker system, and then there's my USB headphones, which have their own, built-in audio card. So; two different, separate cards.

Puppy doesn't use PulseAudio, OR the newer Pipewire (supposedly, an easier, more modern replacement for the much-maligned PA); with us, it's always been good old ALSA itself, which underpins Pulse Audio/Pipewire anyway. Personally, I find ALSA far simpler to script for; like you, I too find PA's use of "sinks" very confusing!

As I said, this doesn't help you ATM (for which, my apologies!) .....but it just illustrates that, on this side of "the fence" at least, if you can't find anything "readymade" that suits your purpose, then if all else fails you CAN always throw something together yourself that will do what you want.

Try doing THAT in Windows.


Mike. ;)
 
G'day Raxyz, Welcome to Linux.org

In Linux Mint 22, open software manager and type in .. Pwvucontrol ...

This may work for you...I am unsure, I do not have it installed. There are other alternatives there oyu may wish to try

There is a site worth bookmarking/taking a note of...


Note, that I had already navigated to that page
The site is not as simple as it appears...you can spend quite a bit of time learning to navigate around it....the effort is definitely worthwhile. Marking the OS you need the alternative for, is of course imperative.

HTH
 
This won't be of any help to you, personally.....but in 'Puppy' Linux, my own 'daily driver' for the last ten years, I long ago built my own GUI-based audio card 'switcher' app to handle just this kind of situation.

I have the HP desktop rig's internal audio card + speaker system, and then there's my USB headphones, which have their own, built-in audio card. So; two different, separate cards.

Puppy doesn't use PulseAudio, OR the newer Pipewire (supposedly, an easier, more modern replacement for the much-maligned PA); with us, it's always been good old ALSA itself, which underpins Pulse Audio/Pipewire anyway. Personally, I find ALSA far simpler to script for; like you, I too find PA's use of "sinks" very confusing!

As I said, this doesn't help you ATM (for which, my apologies!) .....but it just illustrates that, on this side of "the fence" at least, if you can't find anything "readymade" that suits your purpose, then if all else fails you CAN always throw something together yourself that will do what you want.

Try doing THAT in Windows.


Mike. ;)
I hear ya. I'm definitely jumping ship from Windows, everything I've read about 11 so far has been the epitome of undesirable. I mean... Not like W10 was any better, but I still felt like the friction to switch OS was bigger than dealing with the usual bs from Windows, lol.

Anyways, I'm still unsure which distro seems a better fit for what I need. Mint has some pretty great customization options, but I'm far, faaar away from being a power user. The allure of being able to build what you need is interesting, but I don't have enough programming skills to do so. I hate bothering people, but I feel like I can't fix this one without help from users that are more knowledgeable. I'll fiddle around some more and possibly check other distros for a better solution. Thanks for the answer!
 
G'day Raxyz, Welcome to Linux.org

In Linux Mint 22, open software manager and type in .. Pwvucontrol ...

This may work for you...I am unsure, I do not have it installed. There are other alternatives there oyu may wish to try

There is a site worth bookmarking/taking a note of...


Note, that I had already navigated to that page
The site is not as simple as it appears...you can spend quite a bit of time learning to navigate around it....the effort is definitely worthwhile. Marking the OS you need the alternative for, is of course imperative.

HTH
Appreciate the pointers! I read about Pipewire from a few other forum posts I've found, I'll mess around a little with it and see I can get what I need from it. And I've bookmarked that site to check first if any other issue arises. Thank you!
 
@Raxyz :-

Well, DO take heed of what the other guys have to say. Many of them actually run Mint, so will have a better idea of what can or can't be done. I haven't used Mint since my distro-hopping days a decade ago, so any knowledge I might have would be horrendously out-of-date!

My post was intended as inspiration more than anything else (which is why I said that it wouldn't actually help you immediately). Like you, I too started out with zero Linux knowledge....in my case, I was curious enough to keep experimenting & trying stuff out. And then, it was time to test out what I'd learnt; instead of simply typing out commands in the terminal every time, I had a go at this magical process called 'scripting'. This is where you type commands into a blank document with a text editor - there IS a certain way this needs to be done, though it's a piece of cake, it really is. You then make that document executable (this is the point at which it becomes a 'script'), so that you can simply click on the script, annnnd.......assuming you've got your commands right, it'll run those commands FOR you, and carry out what the commands are intended to do.

No, it's not going to happen overnight. Nobody learns that quick, but Bash scripting - the most common type in Linux - is very simple and easy to learn.....and once you've had a few successes, it becomes rather addictive, as you begin to realise that the possibilities really ARE "endless", and are limited only by your skill level & your imagination.

See what the others suggest. My colleague @Condobloke has years of experience with Mint, and if HE can't help you he can call in several others who almost certainly can. And even if you switch to another distro, we can still continue to help you; between them, our members run most of the well-known & popular distros. Somebody, somewhere here, will be able to advise with most issues you'll run into on a day-to-day basis.

Don't be a stranger!


Mike. ;)
 
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