Ever had a question about Linux but felt too afraid to ask? Well now’s your chance, ask any question about Linux, no matter how noob or repeated it is, and I and others will help answer them.

Previous noob question thread: https://lemmy.ml/post/14261893

  • @WeebLife
    7•3 months ago

    I’m on Linux mint 22 and my audio outputs don’t change automatically. When I plug in USB headphones, audio won’t output to them unless I manually change it in settings.

    Also, why can’t I interact with the panel applets (on the right side) while I’m in game? For example: I’m playing a game, I plug in my headphones, I have to manually change the audio output so I hit the “windows” key to bring up the panel, but I can’t interact with any of the applets on the right side of the panel (I can’t select the audio icon and change settings from there). I have to search audio settings in the panel then alt tab to it. It’s really cumbersome

    • @[email protected]English
      9•3 months ago

      Fun fact: The “Windows key” (or “Command key” for Mac users) has its own generic name: the Super key!

      Not trying to be a smartass here; I genuinely find it fascinating! :D

          • Captain AggravatedEnglish
            2•3 months ago

            Fedora KDE does. I think it’s going to go with the DE rather than the distro, I bet Kubuntu also does.

            I think dating back to the Space Cadet keyboard, Unix systems recognize 6 modifier keys: Shift, Control, Alt, Super, Meta and Hyper. It is my understanding that they choose to bind either Super or Meta to the “Windows” key (or the octothorpe whatever that thing is called key on Macs) and in practice it’s used as another modifier key, often with Windows-like functionality such as opening the Menu if tapped tacked on.

      • @WeebLife
        2•3 months ago

        Oh that is interesting. I had seen that used before but didn’t know what it was lol.

      • @jhdeval
        2•3 months ago

        maybe a silly question bit is mint using pulse audio?

      • @WeebLife
        1•3 months ago

        It says “no valid command specified”

          • @WeebLife
            1•3 months ago

            “Pactl load-module” outputs “you have to specify a module name and arguments.”

            I duck go’d that command and it seems like it’s for pulseaudio. The latest mint release uses pipewire for the audio server. Is the command different for that?

            • @[email protected]
              2•3 months ago

              “Pactl load-module” outputs “you have to specify a module name and arguments.”

              As I said in earlier comment, please run "pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect" exactly. Note that Pactl and pactl are different commands and the former is invalid.

              Is the command different for that?

              As the name suggests, pactl is a command for PulseAudio. PipeWire supports application written for PulseAudio, including pactl. Try "man pipewire-pulse" to get further info.

              • @WeebLife
                1•3 months ago

                That seems to have worked. Tbf, your original comment displayed as “pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect” Which indicates 2 seperate commands.