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pizza_rat

Member

Registered: 2022-03-14

Posts: 9

System sounds shenanigans

Been trying to set up system sounds this morning, here's what I've done from other threads I've read on here:

- Enabled event sounds and input feedback sounds in appearance settings
- Set freedesktop as the sound theme in xsettings
- Installed libcanberra (on Arch)
- Checked that system sounds volume in pavucontrol is set to 100%

The result is that system sounds still aren't playing. For example, I can play the trash-empty sound through canberra-gtk-play just fine, but it doesn't play when I actually empty the trashbin on my desktop. The only sound I've noticed is actually working through normal usage so far is the little error boop that plays when I try to open "Terminal" through the applications menu because I haven't bothered to point it to urxvt yet and it's still pointing to another terminal I've removed at some point.

Here's the output of some commands, I'm not sure how to do formatting on here so it'll be messy:

xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/SoundThemeName
gives
freedesktop

env | grep GTK_MODULE
gives
GTK_MODULES=canberra-gtk-module:canberra-gtk-module

ls /usr/share/sounds/$(xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/SoundThemeName)/stereo
gives
alarm-clock-elapsed.oga        dialog-warning.oga
audio-channel-front-center.oga    message-new-instant.oga
audio-channel-front-left.oga            message.oga
audio-channel-front-right.oga            network-connectivity-established.oga
audio-channel-rear-center.oga    network-connectivity-lost.oga
audio-channel-rear-left.oga            phone-incoming-call.oga
audio-channel-rear-right.oga            phone-outgoing-busy.oga
audio-channel-side-left.oga            phone-outgoing-calling.oga
audio-channel-side-right.oga            power-plug.oga
audio-test-signal.oga                power-unplug.oga
audio-volume-change.oga        screen-capture.oga
bell.oga                                    service-login.oga
camera-shutter.oga                service-logout.oga
complete.oga                            suspend-error.oga
device-added.oga                        trash-empty.oga
device-removed.oga                window-attention.oga
dialog-error.oga                        window-question.oga
dialog-information.oga

which canberra-gtk-play
gives
/usr/sbin/canberra-gtk-play

Any help would be appreciated! I kind of wanted to make my own theme if I could get this working.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: System sounds shenanigans

What does the following return:

xfconf-query -c xsettings -lv | grep -i sound

.

which canberra-gtk-play

gives
/usr/sbin/canberra-gtk-play

Thats odd. If this is in Arch, it should be in /usr/bin/. What's in your PATH variable:

echo $PATH

.
Also, install "sound-theme-smooth" from the AUR - it has many more GTK-supported sound files.

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agashamu

Member

From: California

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 136

Re: System sounds shenanigans

Pizza_rat, freedesktop never worked for me. Try this one instead:
https://www.linux-apps.com/p/1332121
Or this, ToZ's favorit:
https://www.pling.com/p/1187979/
(You might have to convert files to .wav)

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Linux Mint Xfce 21.1

pizza_rat

Member

Registered: 2022-03-14

Posts: 9

Re: System sounds shenanigans

xfconf-query -c xsettings -lv | grep -i sound
gives
/Net/EnableEventSounds          true
/Net/EnableInputFeedbackSounds  true
/Net/SoundThemeName             freedesktop

echo $PATH
gives
/usr/sbin:/sbin:/home/maou/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/opt/cuda/bin:/opt/cuda/nsight_compute:/opt/cuda/nsight_systems/bin:/usr/lib/jvm/default/bin:/usr/bin/site_perl:/usr/bin/vendor_perl:/usr/bin/core_perl

I think there was something Arch or Manjaro did a while back regarding sbin and bin, and I think I was late to the party and didn't change or move something I was supposed to as I wasn't using linux much at the time. Wouldn't be the first time it's caused issues for me, and I'm due to reinstall soonish.

And thanks Aga, I'll check that out too.

Last edited by pizza_rat (2022-03-25 22:44:34)

agashamu

Member

From: California

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 136

Re: System sounds shenanigans

Also, for trash-empty sound, check this out:
https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=15505

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Linux Mint Xfce 21.1

pizza_rat

Member

Registered: 2022-03-14

Posts: 9

Re: System sounds shenanigans

OK, both Smooth and Enchanted work quite a bit better. Not perfect, but better.

There isn't a way to stop the sound effects being stereo, is there? Getting clicks in only one ear based on what side of the screen I'm on doesn't feel great.

Last edited by pizza_rat (2022-03-25 22:59:03)

agashamu

Member

From: California

Registered: 2021-03-01

Posts: 136

Re: System sounds shenanigans

System sounds will never be perfect with Xfce...but better then nothing. Also, sound themes should be edited, there is always some annoying sounds in them that should be killed...or they kill you...
I know nothing about stopping stereo sound effects, sorry.

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Linux Mint Xfce 21.1