Volume sound and screen brightness controls not working

Multimedia Keys

First install these packages for brightness and volume:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install xbacklight alsa-utils pulseaudio

Then from I3 FAQ:

Add these lines to ~/.config/i3/config

# Pulse Audio controls
bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl -- set-sink-volume 0 +5% #increase sound volume
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl -- set-sink-volume 0 -5% #decrease sound volume
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-mute 0 toggle # mute sound

# Sreen brightness controls
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec xbacklight -inc 20 # increase screen brightness
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec xbacklight -dec 20 # decrease screen brightness

Mod key

To change the $mod key:

  • Open ~/.config/i3/config.
  • Look for the line:

    set $mod
    
  • Change that to:

    set $mod Mod4
    
  • Finally, run i3-msg reload to reload the configuration file.


For volume, i used the command "amixer",

First, make sure you hava all the devices enabled, to see that first type

amixer

That should give tou the 'Master' state [on] or [off]

If it is [off], Set it to [on] by typing

amixer sset Master on

.

Now changing the default code of:

# Pulse Audio controls
bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume 2 +5% #increase sound volume
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume 2 -5% #decrease sound volume
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-mute 0 toggle

to this one:

bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec amixer sset Master 5%+
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec amixer sset Master 5%-
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec amixer sset Master toggle

This command increase that percentage to all the output devices

Works perfect for me