How do you mute the sound system from the command line?
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Assuming you're using ALSA driver, run:
amixer set Master mute
amixer set Master unmute
Or, you can just use:
amixer set Master toggle
to toggle mute on and off.
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6for me / my system (precise), this only goes one way: off / mute. Neither toggle nor unmute bring the music back on. Any ideas as to why?? – nutty about natty May 8 '12 at 13:12
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1This solution is for pure Alsa. For Alsa with pulseaudio, use the command from Tim's answer. Or don't touch the command and instead configure Alsa as in this answer. Else, @nutty about natty's problem of not being able to unmute results. – tanius Feb 17 '16 at 1:32
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on Ubuntu Server 14.04 "Master" was not available as a simple control. I used "Speaker" in its place. I found the substitution by running
sudo amixerand finding the line in the output that matchedSimple mixer control 'Speaker',0– brycemcd Oct 2 '16 at 20:11
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This worked for me when others didn't:
amixer -q -D pulse sset Master toggle
This is from the link in nutty about natty's comment to the first answer:
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Note: The accepted answer by @goric doesn't work when headphones or earphones are plugged in, use this. – UniversallyUniqueID May 27 '16 at 12:34
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Or, less ambiguously than "toggle", you can use
amixer -q -D pulse sset Master muteandamixer -q -D pulse sset Master unmute. Works great on Ubuntu 16.04 – CPBL Jun 30 '16 at 13:00
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In my setup sometimes amixer unmute fails for some reason. Therefore I'm using pactl in my scripts:
to mute:
pactl set-sink-mute 0 1
and unmute:
pactl set-sink-mute 0 0
Tested on Ubuntu 12.10.
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LIkely, this is the proper way to perform the operation on modern Ubuntu versions. Works on 16.04 (amixer doesn't). – Marcus Feb 25 '17 at 19:42
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On the terminal type this to mute
amixer set Master mute
type
amixer set Master unmute
Tested on my Ubuntu 10.10.
PS: +1 for interesting question.
answered Feb 13 '11 at 3:26
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If you are using alsa follow goric answer.
PulseAudio is better, but not so simple: pactl set-sink-mute 0 1 Do the work for the first device, but not if you are using headphones of another sink output.
The better way is to check with pactl info and get the Default Sink to use.
DEFAULT_SINK=$(pactl info | grep "Default Sink" | cut -d " " -f3)
Then to mute:
pactl set-sink-mute "$DEFAULT_SINK" "1"
Or unmute:
pactl set-sink-mute "$DEFAULT_SINK" "0"
I wrote a script to manage pulseaudio in my note. If you want to use, save it as volume, provide execute permissions chmod +x volume and add it to your path ln -sv $PWD/volume /usr/local/bin/. Here my script:
#!/bin/bash
# script name: volume
# Author: glaudistong at gmail.com
# depends on: yad, coreutils, pulseaudio
ps -ef | grep "yad" | grep -E "Volume [^+\-]" | tr -s " " | cut -d " " -f2 | xargs -i kill "{}" 2>/dev/null
DEFAULT_SINK=$(pactl info | grep "Default Sink" | cut -d " " -f3)
DEFAULT_SOURCE=$(pactl info | grep "Default Source" | cut -d " " -f3)
case "$1" in
init)
{
ps -fe | grep yad | grep -q volume ||
{
yad --notification --command "volume up" --text "+ Volume +" --image ~/Pictures/volume-up-dark.png &
yad --notification --command "volume down" --text "- Volume -" --image ~/Pictures/volume-down-dark.png &
}
};;
up)
{
pactl set-sink-volume "$DEFAULT_SINK" +5%
P=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SINK$|Volume" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 | cut -d% -f1 | cut -d/ -f2 | tr -d " ")
iconl="$(echo -ne "\U1F50A")"
iconr="$(echo -ne "\U1F56A")"
timeout .6 yad --progress --percentage "$P" --timeout 1 --no-buttons --undecorated --text="$iconl Volume $P% $iconr" --no-focus --center --skip-taskbar --on-top &
};;
down)
{
pactl set-sink-volume "$DEFAULT_SINK" -5%
P=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SINK$|Volume" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 | cut -d% -f1 | cut -d/ -f2 | tr -d " ")
iconl="$(echo -ne "\U1F509")"
iconr="$(echo -ne "\U1F569")"
timeout .6 yad --progress --percentage "$P" --timeout 1 --no-buttons --undecorated --text="$iconl Volume $P% $iconr" --no-focus --center --skip-taskbar --on-top &
};;
mute)
{
ismute=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SINK$|Mute" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 |cut -d: -f2| tr -d " ")
if [ "$ismute" == no ]; then
s=1
P=0
icon="$(echo -ne "\U1F507")"
else
P=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SINK$|Volume" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 | cut -d% -f1 | cut -d/ -f2 | tr -d " ")
icon="🔊"
s=0
fi
pactl set-sink-mute "$DEFAULT_SINK" "$s"
echo $s > /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/leds/platform::mute/brightness
timeout .6 yad --progress --percentage "$P" --timeout 1 --no-buttons --undecorated --text="$icon Volume $P%" --no-focus --center --skip-taskbar --on-top &
};;
mic-up)
{
pactl set-source-volume "$DEFAULT_SOURCE" +5%
P=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SOURCE$|Volume" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 | cut -d% -f1 | cut -d/ -f2 | tr -d " ")
icon="$(echo -en "\U1F3A4")"
timeout .6 yad --progress --percentage "$P" --timeout 1 --no-buttons --undecorated --text="$icon Volume Mic $P%" --no-focus --center --skip-taskbar --on-top &
};;
mic-down)
{
pactl set-source-volume "$DEFAULT_SOURCE" -5%
icon="$(echo -en "\U1F3A4")"
P=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SOURCE$|Volume" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 | cut -d% -f1 | cut -d/ -f2 | tr -d " ")
timeout .6 yad --progress --percentage "$P" --timeout 1 --no-buttons --undecorated --text="$icon Volume Mic $P%" --no-focus --center --skip-taskbar --on-top &
};;
mic-mute)
{
ismute=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SOURCE$|Mute" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 |cut -d: -f2| tr -d " ")
if [ "$ismute" == no ]; then
s=1
P=0
icon="$(echo -en "\U1F507\U1F3A4")"
else
P=$(pactl list | grep -E "Name: $DEFAULT_SOURCE$|Volume" | grep "Name:" -A1 | tail -1 | cut -d% -f1 | cut -d/ -f2 | tr -d " ")
s=0
icon="$(echo -en "\U1F3A4")"
fi
pactl set-source-mute "$DEFAULT_SOURCE" "$s"
echo $s > /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/leds/platform::micmute/brightness
timeout .6 yad --progress --percentage "$P" --timeout 1 --no-buttons --undecorated --text="$icon Volume Mic $P%" --no-focus --center --skip-taskbar --on-top &
};;
*)
echo invalid option;;
esac;
