Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Pizzasgood]

retrovol-0.8.pet
source code
svn repo

When you run it, it adds an icon to the tray. If you left click on it, it will pop up a slider which should be bound to the "Master" volume control, like the one currently in Puppy.

You can also scroll on the icon to manipulate the volume without having to click on anything.

If you middle-click, it will toggle the mute status.

If you right-click, it will show a menu with options to exit, configure, or open the main window. You can also re-run retrovol while it's already running to open the main window. In the main window you can see all the active controls (which is everything it can find by default). You can also go to File->Configure and adjust things like colors, dimensions, etc., along with choosing precisely which sliders to have it show and which order to display them.

Those settings will be stored in the ~/.retrovolrc file, in case you want to go in and change them manually.

Like Alsamixer, Retrovol doesn't so much let you modify the balance as adjust the left and right volumes independently. This is done by holding either the Shift key or the Ctrl key and then doing normal actions like scrolling or clicking a slider. Ctrl will allow you to only modify the left channel, and Shift will allow you to only modify the right channel. The slider will update on the side corresponding the the channel being modified.


There are still some things left to do. In particular, it is currently hardcoded to use the first soundcard, so if you have more than one that you want to use, you're out of luck for now. I also want to make it have multiple profiles of sliders shown, like alsamixer does. And I want to add the option to use gradient colorschemes in the sliders. Another thing is that it's not quite as easy as I'd like to use it without a mouse, so I plan to improve that a bit too.

But it otherwise works great.


If you want to replace absvolume with this, all you have to do (at least in Puppy 4.2) is edit /root/.xinitrc and replace the code that looks like this:

[jemimah]

This is awesome! It actually detects which mixer interfaces you have. I will put it it Puppeee straight away!

One minor quip, the mixer window doesn't resize if you have too many interfaces to fit.

[magerlab]

there is Configure option in File dropdown menu and it's possible to set window size and active channels

very nice app

[trapster]

Sweeeet. Awesome

[BarryK]

Pizzasgood,
Really nice!

I posted about Retrovol on my blog:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01325

I also made a request, quoted here:

[Pizzasgood]

Alright, will-do. I've been intending to do something like that anyway. Actually, I was thinking of setting it up so that instead of running another instance it would just activate the main window's visibility (which is all that happens when you right-click the icon). Then there wouldn't be an issue with names.

I'm on the final stretch of my vacation ATM and will be spending tomorrow on a bus, so I might not get to it until sometime next week. Probably Tuesday.

Glad to see people like it.

[disciple]

Almost what I always wanted
Thanks so much.

There seems to be a bug in the window size configuration. e.g. I have specified a size of 459x179, but the resulting window is 411x85.

You might like to consider adding the ability to toggle between showing all the controls and just showing the ones selected in the Hardware tab... although maybe a better approach would be to have the ability to switch between multiple profiles.

[Pizzasgood]

Yeah, that's on my todo list too. I want to add something like alsamixer has, to show all input, all output, or both, plus a fourth choice that uses the user's custom settings.

I'll have to take a look at the window size code. It's been a while since I wrote it, so maybe something broke.

[HairyWill]

It works for me, very nice. I see that you allow the user complete control over the colours. As you are using gtk anyway, how about an option to just use the gtk theme colours?

[Pizzasgood]

Aye aye cap'n!

[Sylvander]

Downloaded the pet file and checked it was OK using verifypet.
Installed retrovol-0.1 in BoxPup-413-k2.6.25.16

Installation seemed to go well.
Used "Ctrl+Alt+backspace->xwin" to restart window manager.
Saw no sign of retrovol.
Opened a terminal, entered the command retrovol and got the result shown in the screenshot below.

[Pizzasgood]

It doesn't automatically set itself up to autostart (nor disable absvolume, the one that Puppy ships with). If you go back to my first post, I gave instructions on how to adjust the /root/.xinitrc script. It's an easy cut and paste job.

The output you paste is fine: it looked to see if you had a configuration file, couldn't find it, and told you that it would use the defaults instead. Then it merrily ran. If you look in the system tray at that point, you should see it there.

Normally it would be run from the .xinitrc script as X starts, with an ampersand after it so that it runs in the background. That's what my instructions help you set up.

Alternately, you could probably symlink the binary into /root/Startup/, and then just edit .xinitrc to not run absvolume (since that would be redundant).



I'm going to have to delay working on Retrovol for a couple days. I severely underestimated how much work it's going to take to get back up to speed in Japanese. After I got out of my first Japanese class in a year and a half, I felt the need to reallocate the time I was going to spend coding to instead spend it studying frantically and kicking myself in the rear for not studying harder over break.

I'll work on Retrovol some more this weekend.

[Sylvander]

1. "I gave instructions on how to adjust the /root/.xinitrc script. It's an easy cut and paste job"
Too hurried, failed to notice that.
I'm running BoxPup-413, and the /root/.xinitrc file doesn't have that code to replace.
Here's all it has on absvolume [beginning on line 106]:

[Pizzasgood]

Yeah, but only the first line. The other two are something else, so leave them in.

[Sylvander]

Did as instructed; the program appears to be now working well.