Bug#774810: pulseaudio-utils: pactl can no longer change volume: Assertion 'vol_spec' failed at utils/pactl.c:1462

[Felipe Sateler]

Control: retitle -1 pactl set-*-volume cannot handle options or --
Control: tags -1 upstream confirmed
Control: forwarded -1 http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.audio.pulseaudio.general/22613

On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 6:20 PM, Jameson Graef Rollins
<jrollins at finestructure.net> wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 07 2015, Felipe Sateler <fsateler at debian.org> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 4:48 PM, Jameson Graef Rollins
>> <jrollins at finestructure.net> wrote:
>>> Package: pulseaudio-utils
>>> Version: 5.99.2-2
>>> Severity: normal
>>>
>>> pactl is no longer able to change/set volumes:
>>>
>>> servo:~ 0$ pactl list short sinks
>>> 0       alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo      module-alsa-card.c      s16le 2ch 48000Hz       RUNNING
>>> servo:~ 0$ pactl -- set-sink-volume 0 +2dB
>>> Assertion 'vol_spec' failed at utils/pactl.c:1462, function parse_volume(). Aborting.
>>> Aborted
>>> servo:~ 134$
>>
>> Can you set the volume using other units? That is, using percentages
>> or linear values?
>
> Ah, crap.  I just figured out what the problem is: it's the '--'
> argument.  If I remove it everything works:
>
> servo:~ 0$ pactl list sinks | grep 'Volume: front'
>         Volume: front-left: 32768 /  50% / -18.06 dB,   front-right: 32768 /  50% / -18.06 dB
> servo:~ 0$ pactl set-sink-volume 0 100%
> servo:~ 0$ pactl list sinks | grep 'Volume: front'
>         Volume: front-left: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB,   front-right: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
> servo:~ 0$ pactl set-sink-volume 0 -2db
> servo:~ 0$ pactl list sinks | grep 'Volume: front'
>         Volume: front-left: 60694 /  93% / -2.00 dB,   front-right: 60694 /  93% / -2.00 dB
> servo:~ 0$
>
> Now that I look at the man page again, I see there is no mention of the
> '--' argument anymore.  It must have been deprecated without notice?
> Annoying, but maybe a separate issue?

The problem is not with the -- argument. That works fine. The problem
is that the option parsing for the volumes became buggy somewhere
after the 5.0 release. I have posted a patch to the upstream list,
hopefully it will be accepted before the final 6.0 release.

In the meantime, just drop the -- specifier. For most cases (including
setting negative values) it should be unnecessaryi.

Thanks for your report!

-- 

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler