[SOLVED] How does one turn down (or off) notification sounds

[Scorpa54]

I have gone through System settings > Sound and under notification sounds have move the bar to 30% and when I reopen the system settings > sound panel again the bar has reverted back to 100%. There is no apply button. I have tried to set the bar to 0% with the same results and I have clicked the speaker icon that when hovered over claims it is a mute and that doesn't work either. I really don't need something telling me that I have just clicked a button.

[Snowhog]

Are you using Plasma (Wayland) or Plasma (X11) when you log in?

[Schwarzer Kater]

Using -> System Settings -> Sound (section: Input & Output) does not work for me either (this seems to be a bug…), but you can disable (most) sounds in

-> System Settings -> Colours & Themes (section: Appearance & Style) -> System Sounds.
There one can disable notification sounds in the top right corner and -> click [Apply].

[Scorpa54]

Using -> System Settings -> Sound (section: Input & Output) does not work for me either (this seems to be a bug…), but you can disable (most) sounds in

-> System Settings -> Colours & Themes (section: Appearance & Style) -> System Sounds.
There one can disable notification sounds in the top right corner and -> click [Apply].

Thank you kindly

[Schwarzer Kater]

Addition

Just re-tested this for Wayland:

Altering/Disabling Notification Sounds in -> System Settings -> Sound (section: Input & Output) -> Playback Streams does not work both in X11 and Wayland (KDE Plasma 6.6.5).
It always reverts back to/stays at 100%.

[RazorShark]

The notification volume not saving is a bug, although I'm not sure if it can be attributed to KDE or Pipewire. I fixed it by running the following commands in a terminal:

systemctl --user stop wireplumber

rm ~/.local/state/wireplumber/*

systemctl --user start wireplumber

Feel free to check the contents of that wireplumer directory. I think the important file to remove is the stream-properties file since that contains the actual notification volume state, so you can only remove that if you want to play it safe. But once you restart wireplumber the notification volume will now stick when you close and reopen the Sound settings panel.

[Schwarzer Kater]

RazorShark : Thank you for sharing your findings!

Addition to the addition

Altering/Disabling Notification Sounds in -> System Settings -> Sound (section: Input & Output) -> Playback Streams does not work both in X11 and Wayland (KDE Plasma 6.6.5).
It always reverts back to/stays at 100%.

rm $HOME/.local/state/wireplumber/stream-properties
followed by
systemctl --user restart wireplumber.service
in the Konsole terminal emulator
did fix it for me in Plasma 6.6.5 (from the Kubuntu Backports).

Fun fact: by this it was also automatically fixed for all additional users on the systems…


--> The bug did not occur at all in my Kubuntu 26.04 LTS installations with the default Plasma 6.6.4 - can anybody confirm that it is a 6.6.5 bug only?

[RazorShark]

I'm still running Plasma 6.6.4 and that's where the bug cropped up. Once fixed though it's never become a problem again.

As a side note I'm pleased to learn the Kubuntu Backports PPA is still useful. I used it with Ubuntu 25.10 but only thought it was useful for non-LTS releases. Good to know!

I wish I had kept the old stream-properties file before deleting it so I could do a diff and compare with the recreated one to see what's wrong. It's probably a bad default setting that can't be overwritten for some reason.

[Snowhog]

In my Kubuntu 26.04 systems I have the backports enabled but have never been offered Plasma 6.6.5.

As to backports, did you follow the instructions for adding the backports ppa? See https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+...ilter=resolute

On my Kubuntu 26.04 installation, I have that ppa added and I am running KDE Plasma Version 6.6.5

[RazorShark]

As to backports, did you follow the instructions for adding the backports ppa? See https://launchpad.net/~kubuntu-ppa/+...ilter=resolute

On my Kubuntu 26.04 installation, I have that ppa added and I am running KDE Plasma Version 6.6.5

I've used that with 25.10 but only thought it was intended for non-LTS releases so when I updated to 26.04 I disabled it and checked it again after that.

That said, I notice every package has a "newer version" (presumably the same version just uploaded more recently) in the resolute-proposed repo. If I am to update to 6.6.5 should I use the backports PPA or add the proposed? I guess my only concern with proposed is it will add other updates I may not want yet. Plus if it's proposed, does that mean it'll eventually filter into the main repos anyway? If so I could just wait it out...

EDIT: OK I just realised you quoted an old version of that post before I edited it. In that context, the "backports" I was referring to was resolute-backports, not the Kubuntu backports PPA. When I realised the context, I edited my post to remove that line.

[Schwarzer Kater]

off topic:

I would recommend to use the Kubuntu Backports PPA only (unless acheron tells us otherwise) - if there are "newer" versions officially available from the main repos, they will replace the ones from the Kubuntu Backports anyway…

Also see KDE Plasma 6.6.5 available in Kubuntu Backports.

[Snowhog]

Also

Thank you for the reminder. That is in fact what I followed after I saw that post of yours.