Volume controls not working on laptop model Thinkpad T480

[brunofunnie]

Hi everyone,

long story short, I've installed Kubuntu 19.04 and almost everything worked out of the box except for the volume controls. Even the sound is working pretty fine both headphone (p2 jack) and speakers but when I try to turn the volume up/down or even mute nothing happens, no OSD, no volume changing. I will list some info below so if you guys can help me fix that I would appreciate.

Some "facts" below:

- plasma-pa is installed

bruno@funnie:~/.local/share/applications$ dpkg -s plasma-paPackage: plasma-pa
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: kde
Installed-Size: 1092
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 4:5.15.4-0ubuntu1

- Shortcuts are configured

https://imgur.com/a/5rVTDPv


- Xev output

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6600001, root 0x179, subw 0x0, time 33191098, (-448,444), root688,473),
state 0x0, keycode 121 (keysym 0x1008ff12, XF86AudioMute), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyRelease event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6600001,
root 0x179, subw 0x0, time 33191689, (-448,444), root688,473),
state 0x0, keycode 122 (keysym 0x1008ff11, XF86AudioLowerVolume), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

KeyPress event, serial 40, synthetic NO, window 0x6600001,
root 0x179, subw 0x0, time 33192215, (-448,444), root688,473),
state 0x0, keycode 123 (keysym 0x1008ff13, XF86AudioRaiseVolume), same_screen YES,
XLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes:
XFilterEvent returns: False

- Hard info

https://imgur.com/a/69ggj0J

[jlittle]

Is it just the volume up/down keys that don't work? In other words, does changing the volume using the system tray applet work? Say, by mouse wheeling on it?

Assuming that it does, in system settings global shortcuts, audio volume, try to set a custom key and press the appropriate key. For one keyboard I had, when I did that it said the volume keys were "Launch(0)" and "Launch(1)", but they worked.

Another approach is to make K menu items that use pulse audio commands to change the volume, then give them shortcuts. But if the keys aren't being seen there, I'd expect them not to be seen by a menu item.

(In case someone is interested and finds this thread, a command is "pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +5%%", and "pactl" is in the package pulseaudio-utils.)

[brunofunnie]

Exactly, doing it manually with the mouse works.

I've followed your instructions and worked, but is not showing the OSD (see image https://imgur.com/a/eEFp3JR)

Also the Thinkpad has a led indicating the MUTE status which is not working either. This workaround works for the volume functionality but don't actually fix the issue. On Gnome it works fine everything.

I still think that some hardware thing should be configured/fixed for the OSD/Volume stuff to work properly, but don't know what.

Is it just the volume up/down keys that don't work? In other words, does changing the volume using the system tray applet work? Say, by mouse wheeling on it?

Assuming that it does, in system settings global shortcuts, audio volume, try to set a custom key and press the appropriate key. For one keyboard I had, when I did that it said the volume keys were "Launch(0)" and "Launch(1)", but they worked.

Another approach is to make K menu items that use pulse audio commands to change the volume, then give them shortcuts. But if the keys aren't being seen there, I'd expect them not to be seen by a menu item.

(In case someone is interested and finds this thread, a command is "pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +5%%", and "pactl" is in the package pulseaudio-utils.)