Pulseaudio plugin fine adjustments

[donald]

Hello everybody

If you use your PC like me, mostly at night or in a quiet environment, and do not want
to disturb your neighbors, you're probably using headphones.

My PC has two audio outputs, one on the back and one on the front of the case.
Pulseaudio called them "LIne out" and "Headphones".

Unfortunately, the setting is preset to "LIne out" every time you start up, so I have
to repeat the change over and over again on "headphones".
How to set the "Headphone" socket at startup ?:

Open /etc/pulse/default.pa in a text editor and add
set-sink-port 0 analog-output-headphones
at the end > save > reboot > -- ...

2nd unpleasant default setting -- Volume steps --

Normally I move the mouse pointer to the volume icon in the taskbar and adjust
the volume by turning the mouse wheel.
However, the steps to increase / decrease the volume are too large.
especially if you wear a headphone.

Fortunately, there is a "hidden" setting to adjust the volume jumps.

1. get the actual pulseaudio plugin number via:

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xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -lv | grep pulseaudio

2. Check for an existing setting:

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xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /plugins/plugin-1/volume-step

3. If this command doesn't print a current value you can create it with

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xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /plugins/plugin-1/volume-step --create -t int -s 3

where:
"plugin-1" is the actual plugin number for the pulseaudio plugin and
"-s 3" is the step size - change the 3 to whatever step size you want.

....much better now....

To view the actual setting (you've made)

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xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /plugins/plugin-1/volume-step

To adjust only the value. (simply omit the --create and --type parameters)

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xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /plugins/plugin-1/volume-step -s 3

To remove the whole entry (just in case).

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xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /plugins/plugin-1/volume-step -r