10mo ago

Select Audio Output Via Command Line

Does anyone know how I can select my audio output via the command line? I'm frequently switching between using my monitors inbuilt speakers and a USB audio interface and I'm finding it laborious to navigiggerate graphically through the settings in GNOME to do so.

What I'd like to do is set up a couple of bash aliases and do it in my terminal.

What's the best way for me to do that?

Many thanks

22 comments

Wtf is that screenshot
- I've been ricing my GNOME DE.
  Only joking. I had a bit of fun in GIMP for to illustrate this post. You're welcome to use it if you want :)
  
  If the UI always looks like that you'd huffed too much Compiz.
  
  Pretty cool I just found it crazy that
  A: nobody commented
  B: you didnt mention the image at all
  
  Uh oh, you said the forbidden word. Won't be long until everyone in this thread is "informed".
- It's art is what it is
Doesn't alsamixer work?
Anyway, you may wanna try pactl set-default-sink [sink-name]> as well
does gnome not have audio output switcher in the tray audio popup menu thingy?
- It does for a few versions now, and even before there was at least one extension adding this feature.
- Found it! I'd missed that - thanks!

I've written a bash script i'm using daily, maybe you can adapt it to your needs. I'm using pipewire-pulse. It's probably not perfect but it does the job:

    
#!/usr/bin/env bash
DEVICE=$1

# read input, parse list of available sinks (outputs)
if [ "$DEVICE" = "pc" ]
then
    OUTPUT=($(pactl list short sinks | awk '{print $2}' | grep -i -E 'hdmi|samson|Targus' -v))
elif [ "$DEVICE" = "tv" ]
then	
    OUTPUT=($(pactl list short sinks | awk '{print $2}' | grep -i -E 'hdmi'))
else
    echo "No valid input (must be either 'pc' or 'tv')"
    exit -1
fi

# get all currently connected streams
INPUTS=($(pactl list short sink-inputs | awk '{print $1}'))

# change default sink (for new audio outputs)
pactl set-default-sink $OUTPUT

# switch sink for existing audio outputs
for i in "${INPUTS[@]}"
do
    pactl move-sink-input $i $OUTPUT
done

# use notify-send to send a visual notification to the user that the sink changed
notify-send -c info "Default sink changed" "Changed default sink and sink-inputs to $OUTPUT"

Amazing, thank you so much :)

pactl get short sinks
gets you a list of devices with a numerical identifier. And
pactl set-default-sink ID
Sets the default sink to the desired ID. I only ever want to swap between two so I wrots a bash script to do that. I just type 'aud' and it does it for me.
Pactl commands will do what I think you want, I keep forgetting the exact syntax. Once you find something that works, you can bind those commands to some key combos to easily switch
- The hard part is finding a stable identifier, instead of "this interface is know as sink 48 at this exact instant. It will be a completely different number tomorrow. It might even be a potato emoji, who knows?"
That depends on which audio system you're running.
Since this can vary depending on your distro, the easiest place to look for that info is going to be your distro's documentation. That documentation may also include instructions for how to accomplish exactly what you want.
Maybe try using pulsemixer. (if you have pulseaudio installed ofc)

22 comments