External monitor audio volume issues after fedora update

Ask Fedora
, ,
1

As of late, I have noticed that the sound output volume of my external monitor is set to 100% by default after updating to Fedora 41/42 (happens for both versions).

I can confirm that some people seem to have encountered the same or at least similar issues with the sound volume of their external monitors (Reddit Post).

As somewhat of a workaround, you can mute the audio output of the external monitor in the ‘pavucontrol’ tool. This requires you to download ‘pavucontrol’ and always plug in the monitor on the same port (Might be an issue if you have multiple displayport ports).

Have you encountered this issue as well? What was your fix? Is there a possibility to fix this issue without having to install additional software like ‘pavucontrol’?

1 Like
2

Indeed I almost got a hart attack several times :slight_smile: I remember reading that there is a setting in pipewire which is missing since an update. And the issue came back several times. Unfortunately no solution so far.

3

So the issue might be related to pulsewire? Maybe switching to pulseaudio like this might solve it?

sudo dnf swap --allowerasing pipewire-pulseaudio pulseaudio
4

It would be helpful if you could share your system environment to diagnose the global volume control when connected to HDMI.

To display audio devices and hardware info (like graphics card and more),
aplay -l
sudo lshw -C display

Making sure pipewire-pulse compatibility layer is loaded okay;
systemctl --user status pipewire-pulse.service

5

I downgraded on purpose yesterday when I commented here. I am hoping I can reproduce the issue and help to find a solution alias finding out the cause, to help others afterwards. I could not reproduce again so far. Just would like to be sure that my settings look ok.

pipewire-pulseaudio x86_64 1.4.6-1.fc42 updates 436.1 KiB
replacing pipewire-pulseaudio x86_64 1.4.1-1.fc42 fedora 436.1 KiB

I guess I installed last time new with F40.
My monitor is a LG Ultrawide with two HDMI connections and a 3.5jack audio which I use to connect my speakers.

If the OP thinks my case is much different than his setup, I will open a own topic.

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC888 Digital [ALC888 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [LG ULTRAWIDE]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

sudo lshw -C display

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:37 memory:e0000000-e03fffff memory:c0000000-dfffffff ioport:4000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

systemctl --user status pipewire-pulse.service
● pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2025-07-02 09:48:17 -03; 6h ago
 Invocation: f597902a3288424ba0f27c04930767ab
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire-pulse.socket
   Main PID: 2771 (pipewire-pulse)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 18196)
     Memory: 7.4M (peak: 8.5M)
        CPU: 2.829s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire-pulse.service
             └─2771 /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse

jul 02 09:48:17 fedy42 systemd[1877]: Started pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio.
6

My setup looks similar to yours:

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 0: HDA Analog (*) []
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 3: HDMI1 (*) []
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 4: HDMI2 (*) []
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 5: HDMI3 (*) []
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 31: Deepbuffer HDA Analog (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lshw -C display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Meteor Lake-P [Intel Arc Graphics]
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 08
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: iomemory:400-3ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:169 memory:4058000000-4058ffffff memory:4000000000-400fffffff memory:c0000-dffff memory:860000000-866ffffff

I think I might have found a workaround that works for the moment. I had the issue that even if I muted the volume of the external display, it resetted the volume from time to time.

After switching to pulseaudio like so:

sudo dnf swap --allowerasing pipewire-pulseaudio pulseaudio

I tried muting the external monitor in pavucontrol again, and so far I haven’t had any more loud sounds coming from the external monitor.

For reference:

2025-07-03_13-14
2025-07-03_13-141711×586 41.7 KB

7

I’m having the same issue and I haven’t downgraded or switched to pulseaudio.

Laptop: Dell XPS 13 9310
Monitor: Dell 49" ultrawide connected via USB-C

aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 0: HDA Analog (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 3: HDMI1 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 4: HDMI2 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 5: HDMI3 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: sofhdadsp [sof-hda-dsp], device 31: HDA Analog Deep Buffer (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

sudo lshw -C display

  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics]
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 01
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: iomemory:600-5ff iomemory:400-3ff irq:155 memory:6052000000-6052ffffff memory:4000000000-400fffffff ioport:3000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff memory:4010000000-4016ffffff memory:4020000000-40ffffffff

systemctl --user status pipewire-pulse.service

● pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/user/pipewire-pulse.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
    Drop-In: /usr/lib/systemd/user/service.d
             └─10-timeout-abort.conf
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2025-07-01 11:22:16 CEST; 6 days ago
 Invocation: c401b782737b4232be6137b5ee615940
TriggeredBy: ● pipewire-pulse.socket
   Main PID: 3399 (pipewire-pulse)
      Tasks: 3 (limit: 18585)
     Memory: 17.4M (peak: 66.2M, swap: 16M, swap peak: 28.5M)
        CPU: 24min 20.063s
     CGroup: /user.slice/user-1000.slice/user@1000.service/session.slice/pipewire-pulse.service
             └─3399 /usr/bin/pipewire-pulse

Jul 01 11:22:16 laptop systemd[2500]: Started pipewire-pulse.service - PipeWire PulseAudio.