# alsamixer



## nedry (Nov 16, 2016)

Hello Is there any chance of a port of alsamixer? 
thanks 
nedry


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## SirDice (Nov 16, 2016)

Erm, ALSA is the Advanced _Linux_ Sound Architecture. Why would we need a mixer for something FreeBSD doesn't have?


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## tobik@ (Nov 16, 2016)

There already is a working port of alsamixer: audio/alsa-utils

The port of ALSA uses a PCM/CTL plugin for OSS which does not provide all of the features of Linux's ALSA. You cannot expect all software that works with ALSA to just work on FreeBSD for instance. Alsamixer however works fine 

As far as curses-based mixer interfaces go alsamixer is pretty great. FreeBSD also has a builtin non-interactive tool for this: mixer(8).


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## nedry (Nov 16, 2016)

OK in that case, sorry, I was looking for a console mixer program. As I have mentioned before I am very new to FreeBSD and have lots to learn, I am coming from a Linux background and Solaris 9 background so I may ask questions that a advanced FreeBSD user might not ask !!! 
nedry


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## tobik@ (Nov 16, 2016)

Another console based mixer is audio/aumix. It has a worse interface than alsamixer IMHO, but YMMV.


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## marcelbonnet (Nov 16, 2016)

Hi. Perhaps audio/virtual_oss_ctl (GUI) or audio/virtual_oss (CLI).


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## ANOKNUSA (Nov 16, 2016)

alsamixer and tools like it are just visualizations of information already available elsewhere. The built-in mixer(8) command handles volume on FreeBSD. The volume keys on my keyboard control the primary output volume; I used mixer to set all the secondary output levels on my system to 100%, and haven't touched them in over two years. If you're adjusting the volume of different outputs and inputs frequently then a front-end like alsamixer makes sense; otherwise it's just superfluous.

I know all this may go without saying, but I've seen a fair number of screenshots with alsamixer in them just for style, when it didn't seem to serve any purpose. That's just weird to me.


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## Deleted member 48958 (Nov 16, 2016)

Yes, no need for alsamixer, you can use mixer(8)!
For example
`% mixer vol +7`
`% mixer vol -7`
or
`% mixer vol mute`






I use this commands with hotkeys, to adjust volume (ctrl+num+ : vol+ ,  ctrl+num- : vol - ,  ctrl+num* : mute).


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## scottro (Nov 16, 2016)

Yes, mixer is more intuitive, IMHO, than the Linux variant. (I've forgotten the name, on Linux, I use alsamixer.)  
You can type `mixer` to see the settings--I think volume is is 82 by default.   You can save typing the plus and minus signs by just putting in the value, like mixer vol 0 or mixer vol 95.  

A nice little article on it can be found here. 
http://commandliners.com/2011/09/audio-settings-on-freebsd/


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## aragats (Mar 4, 2017)

ANOKNUSA said:


> alsamixer and tools like it are just visualizations of information already available elsewhere.


Alsamixer has a feature which I don't see in mixer(8) and aumix(1): real mute.
I might be wrong, but I believe there exist a hardware mute which can be handled. Both mixer(8) and aumix(1) mute by dropping a level to zero, it's not recoverable in another session.


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## ANOKNUSA (Mar 5, 2017)

aragats said:


> I might be wrong, but I believe there exist a hardware mute which can be handled.



I don't know about any other motherboards, but this is handled at the hardware level on my 6-year-old laptop.


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## aragats (Mar 5, 2017)

Do you mean mixer(8) can handle it?
"Mute/umute" are not even documented, mute works by dropping volume to zero, unmute doesn't do anything at all...

Am I missing something?


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## ANOKNUSA (Mar 5, 2017)

No, I mean on at least one of my machines mixer(8) doesn't handle mute at all. I hit the "mute" button on my keyboard and the sound card stops putting out sound. It even mutes BIOS beep codes. The mixer settings don't change at all. I'm sure not all motherboards with integrated audio chips work that way, though.


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## Moshiur Rahman (Mar 5, 2017)

Alsamixer has a feature which I don't see in mixer(8) and aumix(1): real mute.


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## ANOKNUSA (Mar 5, 2017)

Moshiur Rahman, did you seriously create an account just to copy and paste another member's post?


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## alfonsosiciliano (Apr 3, 2020)

nedry said:


> Hello Is there any chance of a port of alsamixer?
> thanks
> nedry



MixerTUI, audio/mixertui, provides alsamixer (similar) interface on the FreeBSD sound system.


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## Sevendogsbsd (Apr 3, 2020)

FYI: this thread was last replied to 3 years ago. No worries, I am just as guilty of not checking the dates


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## alfonsosiciliano (Apr 3, 2020)

I have read the date, this thread is the first result of the search "alsamixer FreeBSD" so some user might think that there is no alsamixer-like for freebsd (right until 4 days ago but not now  )  🎚🎙


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## Sevendogsbsd (Apr 3, 2020)

Understood. I try to not mix "Linuxisms" with FreeBSD so tend to never search for things like this. I only ever use native FreeBSD tools as far as system level things go. Just my preference.


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## twllnbrck (Apr 4, 2020)

alfonsosiciliano - thanks. Just tested it, execellent work!


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## matias (Oct 29, 2020)

alfonsosiciliano said:


> I have read the date, this thread is the first result of the search "alsamixer FreeBSD" so some user might think that there is no alsamixer-like for freebsd (right up to 4 days ago but not now  ) 🎚🎙
> 
> 
> View attachment 7702


Beautiful, thanks for that


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