volctl

Per-application volume control and OSD for Linux desktops.

I couldn't find a simple tray icon that allows to control multiple applications easily from the task bar. So I wrote my own.

Bug reports and patches welcome!

It's not meant to be an replacement for a full-featured mixer application. If you're looking for that check out the excellent pavucontrol.

Features

Runs on virtually every desktop environment (Needs to support the freedesktop system tray specs)
Control main volumes as well as individual applications
Mute individual applications
Shows application icons and names
Per-application VU meter
Double-click opens pavucontrol (or custom mixer application)
Mouse-wheel support
On-screen volume display (OSD)

Installation

Manual installation

Clone this repository somewhere and cd into it.
To install: sudo ./setup.py install Note: You might need to copy data/apps.volctl.gschema.xml to /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ manually.
For the application icon to show up in the menu: sudo update-desktop-database
Compile GSettings schemas: sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/ or sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/local/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

Arch Linux

Available in AUR: volctl

Status/tray icon implementation

volctl strives to achieve a high level of support across different Desktop Environments. Unfortunately, on the Linux Desktop several tray icon implemenations with various levels of support and capabilities co-exist.

volctl supports

SNI
Supported on modern Desktop Environments, like Gnome, KDE, works also on Wayland
XEmbed (through Gtk.StatusIcon)
Not supported on Gnome, KDE (only through extensions/plugins). No Wayland support.

Your Desktop Environment might support both, one or none of these standards. Personally I use XEmbed as it allows for all important user interactions (mouse wheel, double-click, etc.) on my current system. The default is to prefer SNI which can be changed under the Preferences ➝ Prefer XEmbed.

Please try for yourself which type of tray icon works best for you.

Note: If you need support for SNI you have to compile and install statusnotifier. Use the configure flags --enable-introspection and --enable-dbusmenu. If you're on Arch Linux you can use the AUR package statusnotifier-introspection-dbus-menu.

No Wayland support (#39)

Through SNI volctl now supports tray icons under Wayland. Unfortunately it's not possible to display the volume slider window on Wayland at the mouse pointer position. The Wayland protocol does not allow this unless non-standard Wayland extensions are used. The only entity that is capable of doing so is the Wayland compositor (generally your Desktop Environment).

Development

Deploy dev version in Virtualenv

You can start volctl from the source tree.

$ python -m venv --system-site-packages venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
$ pip install --editable .
$ venv/bin/volctl

Linting

Use pylint and flake8 for linting the sources.

$ make lint

Use black to auto-format the code.

$ make black

License

GNU General Public License v2.0

ebiscaia/volctl