If audio volume is adjusted in vlc to lower level than current level in sound applet it doesn't change the volume in applet, but as soon as it is set in vlc to higher volume than currently set in the applet then the volume setting in applet jumps up (not necessary matching the setting in vlc), moreover, both changes add up making the sound volume to skyrocket. I think a while ago totem had similar inconsistent behavior, but now it is fixed and applet volume settings follow those of the totem media player. Whatever they did apparently it also has to be done for vlc. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. set volume in the applet to e.g. 50% 2. set volume in vlc to e.g. 30% 3. change volume in vlc in range below 50% 4. change it to above 50% Actual Results: Volume in applet doesn't change as long as in vlc it is changed in range below current applet setting (actual sound volume does change), but jumps up if setting in vlc is turned up above the setting in applet. Expected Results: Do one of the two: - Don't change applet audio volume from vlc at all - Consistently follow vlc volume in the applet Portage 2.1.10.49 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop/gnome, gcc-4.6.2, glibc-2.14.1-r2, 3.2.9-gentoo x86_64) ================================================================= System Settings ================================================================= System uname: Linux-3.2.9-gentoo-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-_i7-2630QM_CPU_@_2.00GHz-with-gentoo-2.1 Timestamp of tree: Fri, 02 Mar 2012 23:45:01 +0000 app-shells/bash: 4.2_p20 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3 dev-lang/python: 2.6.7-r2, 2.7.2-r3, 3.1.4-r3, 3.2.2 dev-util/cmake: 2.8.7-r3 dev-util/pkgconfig: 0.26 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.1 sys-apps/openrc: 0.9.9.2 sys-apps/sandbox: 2.5 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.68 sys-devel/automake: 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.3 sys-devel/binutils: 2.22-r1 sys-devel/gcc: 4.4.6-r1, 4.5.3-r2, 4.6.2 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.5.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.4.2 sys-devel/make: 3.82-r3 sys-kernel/linux-headers: 3.2-r1 (virtual/os-headers) sys-libs/glibc: 2.14.1-r2 Repositories: gentoo x11 science local ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=native -O3 -pipe -ggdb" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/gnupg/qualified.txt /var/lib/hsqldb" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/dconf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c" CXXFLAGS="-march=native -O3 -pipe -ggdb" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="" FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs compress-build-logs distlocks ebuild-locks fixlafiles news parallel-fetch parallel-install protect-owned sandbox sfperms splitdebug strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch userpriv usersandbox usersync" FFLAGS="-march=native -O3 -pipe -ggdb" GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/ http://trumpetti.atm.tut.fi/gentoo/ http://gentoo.tups.lv/source/ " LANG="lv_LV.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed" LINGUAS="lv en" MAKEOPTS="-j9" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --human-readable --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/var/lib/layman/x11 /var/lib/layman/science /usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 avx bash-completion berkdb bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdda cdio cdr cjk cleartype cli colord consolekit cracklib crypt cups cxx dbus dirac djvu dri dts dvd dvdr eds emboss encode evo exif fam ffmpeg fftw firefox flac fontconfig fortran gdbm gdu gif gnome gnome-keyring gnome-online-accounts gphoto2 gpm gsm gstreamer gtk gtk3 iconv idn ipv6 jpeg kate lcms ldap libcaca libnotify live mad matroska mmx mng modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mtp mudflap multilib musepack nautilus ncurses networkmanager nls nptl nptlonly ogg openexr opengl openmp pam pango pcre pdf png policykit ppds pppd pulseaudio qt3support qt4 raw readline schroedinger sdl session smp socialweb speex spell sse sse2 sse4_1 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg sysfs system-sqlite tcpd theora tiff truetype udev unicode usb v4l v4l2 vaapi vorbis vpx wmf x264 xcb xetex xml xmp xorg xpm xulrunner xv xvid xvmc zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="kexi words flow plan stage tables krita karbon braindump" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" FOO2ZJS_DEVICES="hp1018" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="lv en" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fbdev nvidia i965 intel vesa" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS ================================================================= Package Settings ================================================================= media-video/vlc-2.0.0 was built with the following: USE="X a52 aac aalib alsa avcodec avformat cdda dbus dirac dts dvbpsi dvd encode ffmpeg flac fontconfig gcrypt gnome kate libass libcaca libnotify libtiger live matroska mmx mp3 mpeg mtp (multilib) musepack ncurses ogg opengl png postproc pulseaudio qt4 rtsp schroedinger sdl speex sse svg swscale theora truetype udev v4l vaapi vcdx vorbis wma-fixed x264 xcb xml xv zvbi (-altivec) -atmo (-audioqueue) -avahi -bidi -bluray -cddb -dc1394 -debug (-direct2d) -directfb (-directx) (-dshow) -dvb (-dxva2) -egl -fbosd -fluidsynth -gme -gnutls -growl -httpd -ieee1394 (-ios-vout) -jack -kde -libproxy -libsamplerate -libtar -linsys -lirc -lua (-macosx) (-macosx-audio) (-macosx-dialog-provider) (-macosx-eyetv) (-macosx-qtkit) (-macosx-quartztext) (-macosx-vout) (-media-library) -modplug (-neon) -omxil -optimisememory -oss -portaudio -projectm -pvr -run-as-root -samba -sdl-image -shine -shout -sid -skins -sqlite -switcher -taglib -twolame -upnp -vlm (-waveout) (-win32codecs) (-wingdi) -xosd"
confirmed here, could you please report it upstream ? ( https://trac.videolan.org/vlc/ ) there's not much we can do at gentoo side :(
You can adjust /etc/pulse/daemon.conf to disable flat-volumes if you want them to be separated from each other; as this solution exists and this bug is rather old, as well as I don't know if this has been reported, I'm closing this for now.