Controlling Sound

YaST automatically identifies and configures the sound cards in your computer. You can also use the YaST Hardware module to configure your sound card manually. When your sound card has been configured, you can control the volume and balance of the sound with the GNOME Volume Control mixer.

GNOME uses the PulseAudio sound server by default. PulseAudio allows to control audio streams of different programs with one GUI. It is then, for example, possible to use two different programs generating audio output at the same time by sending their output to different devices such as headphones and speakers.

If the mixer icon (a loudspeaker symbol) is not visible in the panel on your desktop, press Alt+F2 and enter gnome-volume-control, or click Computer+More Applications+Multimedia+Sound.

Left-click on the mixer icon and move the slider up or down to change the overall volume. Right-click and choose Sound Preferences for a detailed configuration dialog.

Figure 2.12. GNOME Sound Preferences Dialog Box

GNOME Sound Preferences Dialog Box

The GNOME Volume Control dialog box contains the following tabs:

Sound Effects

Shows a list of all the sound themes available, along with several alert sounds to choose. By Alert Volume slider, you can adjust the volume level of alert sounds.

Hardware

Lists hardware sound devices present and configured on your system. Here you can set the mode in which you want the device to operate.

Input

Lists sound devices from which you choose the input sound device, and the preferred audio input, such as microphone. Contains a slider to change the input device volume, and an option to mute the input entirely.

Output

Lists sound devices from which you choose the output sound device. You can adjust detailed settings for the device, such as sound balance.

Applications

Lists all application currently playing a sound file, or recording audio.