MX Linux Forum

Hi All,

After recent health issues I've migrated to Mx Linux from Manjaro as looking for a more stable and less time intensive system.

Been using the default Xfce install and very impressed with stability but was missing the flexibility of the tiling features of i3. After installing i3 and paying around with configs I've not managed to resolve an issue with the sound. On booting directly into i3 the volume icon appears but with sound disabled, if I log out and into XFCE the sound is enabled and then able to log back into i3 with sound enabled. This suggests to me that maybe alsa/pulse, pulse is installed, is not loading when booting directly into i3. Currently on a run of night shifts due to sickness at work, was hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction to resolve this ? time a little short for a week or two.

Kind Regards,

Tony.

It's kind of a workaround:

Login to your XFCE session, issue

<alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state store'>

Logout, login to i3 and add

<exec /usr/sbin/alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state restore &>

to your i3 config.

Thanks for the quick reply,

Ran <alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state store'> as user and as sudo in Xfce session

logged into I3 with <exec --no-startup-id /usr/sbin/alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state restore> and also tried <exec --no-startup-id alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state restore> in i3 config but no joy.

After a search i have also tried

<sudo alsactl store -f ~/.config/alsa.conf> in Xfce

<exec --no-startup-id alsactl restore ~/.config/alsa.conf> in i3 config

No luck with any of these.

Out of time for now but thanks for the suffestions.

Kind Regards,

Tony

does i3 utilize standard ~/.config/autostart entries or does it have a startup file?

I think going into and removing the line will solve the issue.

also remove the same from log out and login.

Will try tomorrow now as just leaving for work.

dolphin_oracle wrote: Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:43 pm does i3 utilize standard ~/.config/autostart entries or does it have a startup file?

i3 utilizes its config file in ~/.config/i3 'checking' for exec commands.

On a second thought, there may be a conflict between pulseaudio and alsa. Could you try

<exec sleep 5 && /usr/sbin/alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state restore &>

in your config file in order to let alsa set up the sound after pulseaudio?

Once again thanks for the help and suggestions.

Managed to sort out a workaround of sorts that requires me to log out and back in again to enable sound without going through Xfce so although not ideal it will do until i have more time.

I3 doesn't auto load from autostart folder so added following lines to i3 config.

<## sound section>

<exec --no-startup-id sleep 5 && volumeicon>
<exec --no-startup-id sleep 5 && pulseaudio>
<bindsym $mod+Ctrl+m exec sleep 5 && i3-sensible-terminal -e pavucontrol>

The 'sleep 5 &&' was an attempt to delay start of apps to see if resolved issue but alas it didn't, i have also tried 'exec-always' for all three and restarting i3 in place and that doesn't work either. Any ideas why logging out and back in resolves it ?

Time to enjoy some Rush tracks !!

Kind Regards,

Tony.

you want to start pulseaudio before volumeicon. this is what our pulse-start script does on Xfce.