How can I reach over 100% volume with a keyboard shortcut?

Question

sometimes the sound of videos isn't enough for me. so i reach the sound indicator , over sound preferences and change it to a level higher than 100%. the question is how can i do it from the keyboard? now i can control the volume from the keyboard but it's maximum is 100%. is there a way to do that?

EDIT 1: how to use amixer and scripts to do it? (as Lyrositor suggested)

EDIT2: the closest answer , as Jo-erland, suggested is to set a hotkey to bring up the gnome-volume-control, and then to use left and right arrows to change volume also beyond the 100% mark.

any other suggestions, to make this 1 step only? is it possible to set a hotkey to do a sequence of commands ?

Solution 1

try running these commands (via alt+f2 or terminal):

volume to 150%:

pactl set-sink-volume 0 150%

to return the volume to 100% simply:

pactl set-sink-volume 0 100%

(video demonstration of those commands here)

---

Note that the argument after set-sink-volume specifies your sound device. If you have hdmi you will likely have 2 devices and you need to check for your device id using alsamixer or pacmd list-sinks or even pactl list sinks.

If it doesn't work, try this script.

If it works, manually set a keyboard shortcut for these commands through the application 'keyboard shortcuts' (on ubuntu 11.04: key 'super' -> type 'keyboard shortcuts' -> button 'add').

The command pactl belongs to the package "pulseaudio-utils' to install it use the command:

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-utils

Solution 2

IMO pactl set-sink-volume 0 +10% is a good choice too if you want key that slowly adds volume beyond 100% limit (I use Ctrl + VolumeUp for that).

Solution 3

I figured that answers (currently all other answers) that suggest pactl set-sink-volume 0 ... don't work (or stop working) on systems with more than one audio devices, e.g. as soon as you connect to a hdmi monitor. we should use @DEFAULT_SINK@ instead of 0 to refer to active audio device.

so here is my setup on ubuntu 14.04 with gnome 3.10 and should work on unity too:

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-utils

go to keyboard shortcuts which is under System → Preferences → Shortcuts → Custom Shortcuts → +

Name: VolPlus10P Command: pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +10%

Assign Ctrl + Volume Up (if you have dedicated volume key on your keyboard or use your own combination ) this will increase your volume 10% to unlimited

Name: VolSet150P Command: pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ 150%

Assign Super + Volume Up (if you have dedicated volume key on your keyboard or use your own combination ) this will set your volume to 150%

Solution 4

I simply add the following piece of code in my start up script & add that script in my start up application by Menu >> Applications >> Other >> Startup Applications.

For this first you need to install pulseaudio-utils by sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-utils

#!/bin/bash
# start.sh - commands to run when OS starts

#Increase Audio 
pacmd set-sink-volume 0 102400

Let me know , if this solves your question.

Solution 5

Warning: I'm using Linux Mint, which is similar to but different from Ubuntu. I believe Ubuntu has an equivalent keyboard shortcuts dialog, but it might look or work slightly differently from how I describe below.

Wow, lots of answers here, but not the simplest one! You can solve everything with just the built-in (GUI) Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.

For the full explanation see https://superuser.com/questions/1277724/how-to-change-the-binding-of-keyboard-volume-dial-linux-mint-mate, but here's the quick version:

1. Go to Keyboard Shortcuts through the menu
2. Add a new shortcut
3. Name it and set the action to pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +10% (or - for the "turn down the volume" action)
4. Click apply to save it, then click on the "Shortcut Column" for its row. Type whatever key you want to bind the action to (I have a volume knob on my keyboard so I bound the actions to that, but you could use any key combo you want)
5. Repeat the above for turning the volume down

Congratulations: with a few seconds at a friendly system dialog you just configured volume "up to 150%" for any key combination you want!

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Comments

[Knowledge Cube]

From this Ubuntu Forums post, you can use amixer in a script to control volume. I would try reading through its man page to see exactly what you can do with it.

[jsantander]

thanks for the useful information. this is pretty close actually. i can set the hotkey Fn+ up/down (which is my default volume control) to bring the volume control, and then with left/right arrows to adjust it also beyond 100%. now i get it. it is a 2 step thing, we are getting closer. anyway it could be just one step? say to set a hotkey to a sequence of commands?

[Knowledge Cube]

Actually, after a bit of AskUbuntu browsing, I saw an answer to another question with a link to a PulseAudio volume control script. That might be worth taking a look at.

[jsantander]

thanks again! but i'm not sure what the script does and how to use it in my advantage... i'm totally not a programmer...

[jsantander]

i did create the file, gave it permission, add it to startup applications. but nothing changed. with keyboard i cannot reach above 100%. pulseaudio-utils is installed.

[Kesavan Muthuvel]

1) goto bash terminal 2) enter the following command pacmd set-sink-volume 0 102400 3) check that your volume increases or not

[anukul]

Is there any limit to how high the volume can be set through pactl?

[Michael Mantion]

Thank you, yah my device was 1 but your solution is optimal. I just wish the standard volume keys could be changed to this command. LOL I had a really low youtube video set it to 500% and could actually hear it. Thanks

[Aryeh Beitz]

thanks, this really helped. I reassigned the volume up and down buttons on the keyboard to this and it works great

[Mina Michael]

@anukul nope! 400% works, but you start hearing very clear distortion in the sound

[detly]

Joel Ostblom's answer should probably supercede this one.

[Dmitry Senkovich]

@Wagner Pinheiro works, fantastic! you made by day, thank you very much!

[Fabian Röling]

"@DEFAULT_SINK@" can be used to select the current default audio output device (so I now bind the volume up key to "pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +20%"). That way you don't need to consider anything like HDMI, headphones, etc. and can always use the same command. That information should probably be integrated into the answer. I don't do it myself, because I don't know if removing the entire paragraph about audio devices is a good idea or if it's maybe still used for something else.

[Winampah]

Thank you! Confirmed to work on MX Linux (Debian) Oct-2020 release with Xfce. The nice thing about your solution is that it allows the volume to keep rising even past the 100% maximum. With Xfce it's possible to assign hotkeys directly pointing to these commands, currently I'm using <Shift>+Keypad8 for volume up, this allows me to press the hotkey with only one hand, very practical. Thanks again!

[AshotN]

This is great. Thank you