Settings and Files

Documentation / Contents - System and Desktop Sounds

• Overview of System and Desktop Sounds
  • What It Is Not
  • The Window
  • The Help Button
  • Two Faces
• The Controls
  • Master Volume Control
  • Mute System
  • Enable Selected Sounds
  • Play Desktop Sounds Through
  • What Is Not Here
• Sound Schemes
  • Where Schemes Live
  • The Description File
  • Audio Formats
  • Writing Your Own
• What Makes a Sound
  • The Six Categories
  • Alerts and Status
  • Desktop Actions
  • Bell
  • Tunes
  • Accessibility
• Applying, Resetting, and Closing
  • Apply
  • Close
  • Reset ...
  • Help
  • Keyboard
  • Command Line
• Settings and Files
  • The Configuration File
  • The Accessibility Category
  • Environment Variables
  • How the Panel Reaches the Daemon
• Desktop Sounds and the Audio Panel
  • Which One Do I Want

Other cards

• Copyright Information

Settings and Files

The Configuration File

~/.cyanotype/cysoundd.conf

Set CYSOUNDD_CONF to use a different path. It is shared with the sound daemon; the panel writes it and the daemon reads it.

Keys the panel owns:

master_gain      0.0 to 1.0; the volume slider, 60 percent by default
mute             Mute System; off by default
scheme           the sound scheme name; Rivendell by default
enable_desktop   on
enable_alerts    on
enable_tunes     on
enable_bell      on
enable_keyclick  on
enable_access    on; NO control on the panel, see below

Keys the panel preserves but never edits. These belong to the daemon:

backend      which audio backend to use; empty means choose one
hold_device  always, idle or never; idle by default
idle_close   seconds before an idle device is released; 5 by default

Saving preserves every line the panel does not own, including your comments and any key added by a later version.

The Accessibility Category

enable_access is written by this panel and has no checkbox on it. That is deliberate: the daemon needs a value, and the panel would rather record the default than leave the daemon guessing. To turn the accessibility sounds off today, set it in the file by hand.

Sound Files

<share>/cysound/<Name>/            the shipped schemes
~/.cyanotype/share/cysound/<Name>/ your own

See Sound Schemes.

Environment Variables

CYSOUNDD_CONF   use this configuration file
CY_SOUND_ROOT   override where the shipped schemes are looked for
HOME            where your own schemes and the configuration live

How the Panel Reaches the Daemon

There is no message bus. Apply writes the file, then sets a property on the daemon's window naming the scheme. The daemon watches that property, so the same signal both switches the scheme and tells the daemon the configuration changed. A volume-only change therefore lands live too.

The daemon also answers signals: hang up to reload, and terminate to exit cleanly.

Next

• Desktop Sounds and the Audio Panel
• Overview of System and Desktop Sounds