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    FAQnoctalia.dev

    Audio

    [audio]
    enable_overdrive           = false  # allow volume sliders above 100% (up to 150%)
    enable_sounds              = true   # master toggle for shell sounds (plugins unaffected)
    enable_volume_sounds       = true   # sound on volume changes
    enable_notification_sounds = true   # sound on notifications
    enable_power_sounds        = true   # sound on charger connect/disconnect
    enable_screenshot_sounds   = true   # sound on screenshots
    sound_volume               = 0.5    # global sound volume (0.0 - 1.0)
    sound_theme                = "freedesktop"
    • enable_overdrive = false clamps Control Center output/microphone sliders to 100%; true allows up to 150%.
    • enable_sounds = false disables all shell sound playback and skips loading the sound theme files (nothing is decoded until sounds are enabled again). Plugin sounds via noctalia.sound.play are not affected by enable_sounds or the per-event toggles.
    • While enable_sounds is true, each per-event toggle gates one shell sound: enable_volume_sounds (volume changes), enable_notification_sounds (notifications), enable_power_sounds (charger connect or remove), and enable_screenshot_sounds (screenshots). The per-event toggles, the sound volume and the sound theme are hidden in Settings while enable_sounds is false.
    • sound_volume controls all UI sounds. A value of 1.0 plays the source at unity gain; lower values follow a perceptual volume curve. Files are decoded through libsndfile; common supported formats include WAV, FLAC, Ogg/Vorbis, Opus, MP3, and AIFF. Exact format support depends on the distribution’s libsndfile build.
    • sound_theme selects an installed sound theme. Themes inherit from their declared parents and fall back to freedesktop; shell sounds are loaded from each theme’s stereo directory. Premade themes are available on Pling; install them under ~/.local/share/sounds/<theme-name>/. To create your own, follow the freedesktop Sound Theme Specification.
    • Shell sounds use these theme events: message-new-instant (notifications), audio-volume-change (volume changes), power-plug / power-unplug (laptop charger connected or removed), and screen-capture (screenshots). If a theme lacks the exact event, its trailing dash components are stripped (e.g. message-new-instant, then message-new, then message) before trying parent themes.
    • Sounds play as a PipeWire stream with media.role=Notification. WirePlumber shares one saved volume, mute state, and output device across all Notification-role streams, shown as “System Sounds” in pavucontrol, GNOME, and KDE. If shell sounds are silent while other audio works, see the FAQ entry.

    Noctalia reconnects automatically if the PipeWire daemon restarts or is temporarily unavailable. Audio devices and controls disappear while the daemon is offline and repopulate after PipeWire and its session manager are ready again.

    Section titled “Related IPC”

    For output and microphone commands, default steps, mute behavior, and overdrive limits, see: