alsamixer: lock levels

[Nils Kassube]

Phil Dobbin wrote:
> My three kids all have Ubuntu machines (2 off 12.04 & 1 off 12.10) &
> boy, do they love You Tube. Which, in itself, is no big thing but,
> kids being kids, the volume levels can get ear shattering when all
> three are at it together.
> 
> Is there anyway I can ssh into each machine (ssh & ssh keys are
> already set up) & lock alsamixer's output levels to say, 25%? Or,
> indeed, any other way to tame the output levels. They're using You
> Tube in Firefox if that's any help.

I don't think there is a way to actually limit the mixer level. But you 
could run a script in the background to check the mixer level. If the 
level is higher than a specified value, it would reduce it to the max. 
allowed level. The script would use amixer which is useful for scripts 
while alsamixer is made for interactive operation. If you need help 
writing the script, please provide the output of the command

amixer controls

(only from one machine for a start).

Anyway, I'm not so sure it is useful to try to solve social problems 
with technical means.


Nils