Control Your Volume in the Commandline with alsamixer
Monday, March 24th, 2008
You more than likely already have alsamixer installed on your computer, even if you just don’t know it’s there. Simply type “alsamixer” on the command line and you will be presented with:
It does everything most graphical volume controls do and does it just as good. It handles setting the volume, controlling 3D switches, CD audio volume and line-in ports just like the graphical versions you are normally accustomed to. Key controls are a simple combination of left and right arrow keys, up and down keys and the M button to mute a channel. Simple, right?
The great part of alsamixer is that you don’t have to mess with the amixer terminal commands to set the volume on your rig. And it runs on a fraction of the space, with no need for a particular desktop environment to work. It’s a natural born utility