WlPaVUOverlay

WlPaVUOverlay is a simple utility for quickly changing PulseAudio (and PipeWire) volume levels. Made exclusively for Wayland compositors. Preferably those that support wlr-layer-shell.

Warning!

I'm doing this to learn, so the code is horrible in many ways. You probably shouldn't use this as a learning resource, unless it's to learn how not to do things.

Usage

Just run wlpavuoverlay and it'll use layer-shell to show itself over everything. If layer-shell isn't available it falls back to xdg-shell. You can add arguments to change the behaviour.

• xdg or -x - Use xdg-shell even if layer-shell is available.
• dim or -d - "Fullscreen" mode. This makes mouse usage easier if another surface has locked or hidden the pointer. Only with layer-shell.
• pw or -p - Use PipeWire instead of PulseAudio.
• -w _width_ - Set surface width.
• -h _height_ - Set surface height.
• -S - Makes the surface not receive any Wayland seat input. Intended for use with -I.
• -B, -T, -L, -R - If not in "fullscreen" mode, anchor to the bottom, top, left and/or right.
• -H - Dynamically increase the surface height as needed up to the limit specified by -h.
• -I - Control with input from stdin. Write u or d to move up and down or adjust volume, s to toggle whether u and d adjust volume or selection, j and k always moves up and down, m to toggle mute and q to quit.

There are currently hardcoded keyboard commands..

• j🠯 k🠭 - move down / up
• h🠬 l🠮 - adjust selected volume lower / higher, hold shift for a larger adjustment
• m - toggle mute on selected

Compiling

This is a simple Meson project, so the good old meson build ninja -C build is a good start.

This uses my own little nwl library. If you're just using Meson defaults it should automatically fetch it for you. If you prefer you can grab and install nwl separately. But that's not recommended.

Dependencies

Many, but you probably already have most of these...

• A working C compiler
• Epoxy
• Wayland (obviously)
• Cairo (RIP)
• EGL & GL
• Xkbcommon
• PulseAudio
• PipeWire (optional)

TODO (in no particular order and will probably not be done)

• Handle recording devices & streams
• Clean up the code
• Touch input support
• Better interface toolkit
• Support volumes over 100%
• Adjust individual channels
• Rewrite in whatever language is hot this month
• Changing stream sinks & sources and defaults
• Keyboard input - Partially done
• Proper multiseat support
• Fractional scaling (how? Wayland only allows integer scales for buffers)
• Generate the protocol headers & code during build
• Audio level meters, like pavucontrol
• PipeWire support
• Advanced PipeWire features (graph view, video streams, etc..)