Thunderbird sound volume is too low. How to increase it?

[Balaco]

Thunderbird sounds for its events is too low. How do I increase it?

I usually use a moderate to low volume in the system, so the relatively
low volume sounds of Thunderbird are not hearable.

I can increase the system volume, but this implies that every other
sound is too high... I think I need to increase the volume that TB
choose to its sounds (the maximum, like all other programs seems to do).

[David E. Ross]

With Windows 7, the volume control (SndVol.exe) allows me to set both
global volume and the volume for individual applications. I can even
mute an application. Does not Linux have a similar capability?

--
Donald Trump claims everyone likes him. Does that
include his ex-wives? How about the students who
discovered that their education at Trump University
was worthless? And how about the contractors,
suppliers, and employees he stiffed in his several
bankruptcies?

[Mike Easter]

Balaco wrote:
> Thunderbird sounds for its events is too low.

What is your linux DE/ desktop environment (and distro version)?

Tb's default configuration is to use the system sound for new mail, but
you can configure your own.

Tb/ Edit/ Preferences/ General - When new messages arrive:

--
Mike Easter

[WaltS48]

On 09/06/2016 11:52 AM, David E. Ross wrote:
> On 9/6/2016 8:46 AM, Balaco wrote:
>> Thunderbird sounds for its events is too low. How do I increase it?
>>
>> I usually use a moderate to low volume in the system, so the relatively
>> low volume sounds of Thunderbird are not hearable.
>>
>> I can increase the system volume, but this implies that every other
>> sound is too high... I think I need to increase the volume that TB
>> choose to its sounds (the maximum, like all other programs seems to do).
>>
> With Windows 7, the volume control (SndVol.exe) allows me to set both
> global volume and the volume for individual applications. I can even
> mute an application. Does not Linux have a similar capability?
>

Not that I have been able to find. 😢

It's really jolting when I am watching a TV show in SMPlayer, and my
calendar reminder to take my BP reading kicks in.


--
Visit Pittsburgh <http://www.visitpittsburgh.com/>
Extreme vetting - What Native Americans should have started using in 1492
Ubuntu 16.04LTS

[Balaco]

I am linux here, and old and good Ubuntu.

The situation I described is that:

1) system volume is high + Thunderbird volume is low.

or

2) system volume is moderate or low + Thunderbird sounds are not hearable

I think there is no system preference for each program, they choose it
for themselves, as I could find.

Isn't there one of those "advanced config editor" options to change
this? I imagined that someone would know which...

[WaltS48]

On 09/06/2016 12:13 PM, Balaco wrote:
> I am linux here, and old and good Ubuntu.
>
> The situation I described is that:
>
> 1) system volume is high + Thunderbird volume is low.
>
> or
>
> 2) system volume is moderate or low + Thunderbird sounds are not hearable
>
> I think there is no system preference for each program, they choose it
> for themselves, as I could find.
>
> Isn't there one of those "advanced config editor" options to change
> this? I imagined that someone would know which...
>
>

Do you have the sound mixer set at 100% ?

>
> Em 06-09-2016 13:03, Mike Easter escreveu:> Balaco wrote:
> >> Thunderbird sounds for its events is too low.
> >
> > What is your linux DE/ desktop environment (and distro version)?
> >
> > Tb's default configuration is to use the system sound for new mail, but
> > you can configure your own.
> >
> > Tb/ Edit/ Preferences/ General - When new messages arrive:
> >
>
>

[Mike Easter]

Balaco wrote:
> Mike Easter escreveu:

>> What is your linux DE/ desktop environment (and distro version)?

> I am linux here, and old and good Ubuntu.

I asked what is your distro version and DE, but I didn't get a precise
answer.

The current Ubuntu is 16.04, which isn't 'old'; and its default DE is
Unity. In Unity's System Settings is a Sound settings in Hardware and
there is a 'Sound effects' which has a (separate) volume control for
Alert sounds which can also be put into the notification area.


--
Mike Easter

[WaltS48]

Learn something new all the time! Never noticed that tab, or the others. :-[

Now my alerts will be really loud when I have the volume turned up to
hear the soft voices in the TV shows. Everything else is set to 100%.

[Mike Easter]

WaltS48 wrote:

> Mike Easter wrote:

>> The current Ubuntu is 16.04, which isn't 'old'; and its default DE is
>> Unity. In Unity's System Settings is a Sound settings in Hardware and
>> there is a 'Sound effects' which has a (separate) volume control for
>> Alert sounds which can also be put into the notification area.
>
> Learn something new all the time! Never noticed that tab, or the others.
>

I don't normally run that DE/distro, but I had a AIO allinone USB with
all of the current Ubs on it, so I booted it up but then I had to
'struggle' with it. The software manager didn't run/open properly for
some reason, there is no synaptic installed in the default, synaptic
wouldn't install (at first) from the commandline because universe repo
isn't enabled by default, etc. So I fixed all that in the live.

I finally got the info I wanted by also installing inxi which showed me
that the unity was 7.4.0 (as if that part really mattered).

I'm pretty sure there aren't a lot of DEs which enable separate volume
controls for the alerts, but I've never checked for that until now. My
current system, an older Mint 17 XFCE doesn't.


--
Mike Easter

[Balaco]

>>> What is your linux DE/ desktop environment (and distro version)?
>
>> I am linux here, and old and good Ubuntu.
>
> I asked what is your distro version and DE, but I didn't get a precise
> answer.
>
> The current Ubuntu is 16.04, which isn't 'old'; and its default DE is
> Unity. In Unity's System Settings is a Sound settings in Hardware and
> there is a 'Sound effects' which has a (separate) volume control for
> Alert sounds which can also be put into the notification area.
>
>

Sorry, I thought it was enough to say that. I use Ubuntu 10.04, with the
DE Gnome 2.?? that comes with it.

The newer Ubuntus (after 11.??) are not good, I do like a bit about
Unity. I would have installed a Linux Mint with MateDesktop, but it did
not work in my computer.

The problem is that: with the system volume controls (all) in 100%, the
sounds Thunderbird makes are not 100% louder. If I set the main volume
to around 30%, Thunderbird sounds are barely hearable. In other words,
Thunderbird sounds are being lower than I expected.

If I play, in Totem (the media player), the same sound file that I
configure Thunderbird to use for one event (message arrived, for
example), it will be played with a lower volume by Thunderbird. I did
this comparison before I started this discussion: open a sounds file
with the media player: its volume at 100%; sound controls all in 100%.
Play it, it is loud. Then I open Thunderbird's
Edit->Preferences->General sound; choose the same file, click to test
it: the volume is lower.

Now I played both sounds (at MP and at TB) at the same time, pausing the
repeating media player a few times to compare more clearly. TB is lower
for some reason.

As the media player has one sound control for itself (for the media it
is playing), separated from the system wide control, Thunderbird should
have one too. I want to set it to 100%, so I do not miss the sound
events for being too relatively low.

[Big Al]

On 09/06/2016 12:04 PM, WaltS48 wrote:
> On 09/06/2016 11:52 AM, David E. Ross wrote:
>> On 9/6/2016 8:46 AM, Balaco wrote:
>>> Thunderbird sounds for its events is too low. How do I increase it?
>>>
>>> I usually use a moderate to low volume in the system, so the relatively
>>> low volume sounds of Thunderbird are not hearable.
>>>
>>> I can increase the system volume, but this implies that every other
>>> sound is too high... I think I need to increase the volume that TB
>>> choose to its sounds (the maximum, like all other programs seems to do).
>>>
>> With Windows 7, the volume control (SndVol.exe) allows me to set both
>> global volume and the volume for individual applications. I can even
>> mute an application. Does not Linux have a similar capability?
>>
> Not that I have been able to find. 😢
>
> It's really jolting when I am watching a TV show in SMPlayer, and my
> calendar reminder to take my BP reading kicks in.
>
>

When you open the sound settings (at least in mint) you have an
applications tab. And if an application were running like SMPlayer, I
guess you could change it's volume there. Now would it stick the next
reboot? or after SMPlayer was restarted? And how do you change
Thunderbird, mine is running but not playing, so I have to sit and wait
for mail to come it to catch that .5 second beep to adjust it?? Hmm.
Not like windows for sure.

[Mike Easter]

Balaco wrote:
> I use Ubuntu 10.04, with the DE Gnome 2.?? that comes with it.

I don't know (and I doubt) that Gnome 2 has a separate volume control
for the alert sound. I also don't have that distro version DE around to
look at.

If someone knew how to configure that system by manually structuring its
configuration files, that might work. Another strategy is to have a
visual alert system for the alert.

> I would have installed a Linux Mint with MateDesktop, but it did not
> work in my computer.

The easiest way for me to understand how restrictive someone's hardware
might be for linux distro choices is with a 'utility' (which is actually
only a script) called inxi. It is often installed by default. If you
use the command for the script, it has the ability to report many
different things about your system which enables others to advise which
linux distros you would have good luck with. Usually the commands:

inxi

and

inxi -G

are enough to get the basics about the cpu, ram, and your graphics
situation. If/When inxi isn't already installed, the system will give
you the command you need to install it.

There is a problem with your continuing use of a Ub which is no longer
supported and maintained. Its advantage is that it is light weight
compared to some others, and is non-demanding of your graphics. But
there are modern currently supported distros which would also work.


--
Mike Easter

[WaltS48]

There is an applications tab in Ubuntu, but I don't see anyway to add
Thunderbird to it.

I have "We've received the information we've been waiting for" as my
email alert, and "Cancel that alert" for my event reminder and chat
message alert. Both from <http://greghartwig.com/sounds/babylon5.html>

[Balaco]

Thank you for your insights!

I will try inxi to possibly find a new distro compatible with this
hardware. But I am satisfied with Ub10.04. Some applications that I
needed newer version I downloaded and it installed without any demands.
Some I needed to compile. And some programs do not need to be in the
newest version.

There are a few that I cannot install because they were compiled with
newer versions of system libraries (like libc[?]*). I would like to use
the Vivaldi browser, although Opera 11/12 satisfies my needs 99% of the
time.

Is there a Thunderbird add-on that would execute a command when a
message arrives? This way I would call my media players with the sound I
configured it for this event (then it would play with the correct
volume). Is this feasible?

[WaltS48]

Maybe
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/enhanced-desktop-notifications/?src=ss>
or
<https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/new-mail-attention/?src=ss>
or continue searching there for something that works for you.

[Mike Easter]

Balaco wrote:
> I will try inxi to possibly find a new distro compatible with this
> hardware.

Here's an example of some old hardware with a 'weak' cpu but adequate
ram and weak graphics because of both the cpu and the graphics card.

$ inxi
CPU~Single core AMD Geode NX (-UP-) clocked at 1397.588 Mhz
Kernel~3.13.0-24-generic i686 Up~50 days Mem~1175.1/2015.9MB
HDD~120.0GB(12.9% used) Procs~155 Client~Shell inxi~1.8.4

$ inxi -G
Graphics: Card: NVIDIA NV34GL [Quadro NVS 280 PCI]
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
Resolution: 1280...@50.0hz
GLX Renderer: Quadro NVS 55/280 PCI/AGP/SSE/3DNOW! GLX
Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 173.14.39

So, for that hardware, I run Mint 17 XFCE. Because the cpu can't do
SSE2, I am VERY limited about my choice of browsers, because
chrome/chromium refuse to run on non-sse2 cpu. Firefox does OK and I
have a 'tweaked' adobe-flashplugin which is actually a renamed pepperflash.

I have similar old hardware that has a sse2-capable CPU Pentium-M and 1G
ram that also does fine with that same Mint XFCE and no flash tweaking
is necessary as it runs Chrome.


--
Mike Easter

[Balaco]

>>>>> Thunderbird sounds for its events is too low. How do I increase it?
>>>>>
>>>>> I usually use a moderate to low volume in the system, so the
>>>>> relatively
>>>>> low volume sounds of Thunderbird are not hearable.
>>>>>
>>>>> I can increase the system volume, but this implies that every other
>>>>> sound is too high... I think I need to increase the volume that TB
>>>>> choose to its sounds (the maximum, like all other programs seems to
>>>>> do).
>>>>>
>>>> With Windows 7, the volume control (SndVol.exe) allows me to set both
>>>> global volume and the volume for individual applications. I can even
>>>> mute an application. Does not Linux have a similar capability?
>>>>
>>> Not that I have been able to find. 😢
>>>
>>> It's really jolting when I am watching a TV show in SMPlayer, and my
>>> calendar reminder to take my BP reading kicks in.
>>>
>>>
>> When you open the sound settings (at least in mint) you have an
>> applications tab. And if an application were running like SMPlayer,
>> I guess you could change it's volume there. Now would it stick the
>> next reboot? or after SMPlayer was restarted? And how do you change
>> Thunderbird, mine is running but not playing, so I have to sit and
>> wait for mail to come it to catch that .5 second beep to adjust it??
>> Hmm. Not like windows for sure.
>>
>
> There is an applications tab in Ubuntu, but I don't see anyway to add
> Thunderbird to it.
>

The mentioned tab is not the left main tab with the (default) most used
programs. To add Thunderbird there is not hard (search around, for
example in DuckDuckGo, easy to find; if not, please say so together with
the Ubuntu version you have).

Maybe you would like to install the interface MateDesktop, to use it
instead of the ugly Unity that comes with Ubuntu today. Mate is based on
Gnome 2, and has the aim to keep our graphical interfaces as they have
been for years. With it you can easily add Thunderbird shortcut anywhere
you want - easy to try out finding how.