Knob - simple volume control applet for KDE

Introduction

Knob is a volume control for KDE designed according to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) rules. It has only one function - controls master volume of your sound card.
I have created Knob because I missed asmix applet I have used in WindowMaker (actually it was Afterstep applet, but worked fine in WM).

Quick links:

• News
• Credits
• Author
  
• Screenshots
• Planned features
• Downloads
• Bugs
  

News

• (April 27, 2003) Binary packages compiled by me contained dependency on Nvidia library which caused problems when installing this binary RPM on system which did not have Nvidia drivers. Thanks to Jonathan Hutchins for pointing out this bug. I have recompiled binary RPM without this library.
• (January 20, 2003) Version 1.2 released. New features added:
  • Volume state is updated (this was implemented in unreleased version 1.1).
  • Middle mouse button mutes/unmutes volume (thanks to G. Richard Raab for suggestion).
• (December 22, 2002) Version 1.0.1 released. Fixed broken header in sources. Thanks to Micha Rudolf for pointing me to this error.
  
• (October 14, 2002) Version 1.0 released.
  

Credits

I would like to thank creators of asmix, Albert "Tigr" Dorofeev, John "wizgrav" Gravezas and unknown original author, for inspiration :) and part of the code responsible for controlling sound card.

Further credits go to KDE developers, Linux developers and all other open source developers who created tools I use everyday :) Thank you!
Finally, I would like to thank those of you, who provide feedback, which makes Knob better :)

Author

Author of Knob (that's me :)) is Krzysztof Lichota. You can reach me at lichota@mimuw.edu.pl. 

Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of Knob in action:

• Small size

• Medium size

Disclaimer :)
I am not an artist. If you think it looks ugly, you are welcome to make it look the way you like. Use the source, Luke ;)

Planned features

Currently planned features (which will be hopefully implemented some day):

• Blocking knob when it is somewhere near minimum volume to not switch suddenly to maximum volume, making people deaf :) (suggested by Taymour A. El Erian).
• Configuration option - name of mixer device.
• Better notification about errors when using mixer device.

Downloads

Knob is released under GPL license. You are welcome to modify it to suit your needs :)
You can also contribute to Knob development if you implemented feature which you think is missing^* , changed appearance of Knob, etc. Just send me a patch.

^*Please keep in mind that, as Knob is following KISS rules, feature must be a real necessity to be accepted. For example: conformance to standards, making Knob work on different OS/hardware, etc. Other changes are not likely to be accepted, but you can try - maybe I find this feature useful also :)

Current release (1.2)
Source: knob-1.2.tar.gz
Source RPM (Mandrake 8.2): knob-1.2-1mdk.src.rpm
Binary RPM (i586, Mandrake 9.1): knob-1.2-3mdk.i586.rpm

Old binary RPM (requires Nvidia library) - do not use if you don't have it.
Binary RPM (i586, Mandrake 8.2): knob-1.2-1mdk.i586.rpm

Contributed packages (not tested):
Binary RPM (i386, RedHat 8.0): knob-1.2-1rh80.i386.rpm (thanks to Taymour A. El Erian)

Old releases:
Knob 1.1
not released to public

Knob 1.0.1
Source: knob-1.0.1.tar.gz
Source RPM (Mandrake 8.2): knob-1.0.1-1mdk.src.rpm
Binary RPM (i586, Mandrake 8.2): knob-1.0.1-1mdk.i586.rpm

Knob 1.0
Source: knob-1.0.tar.gz
Source RPM (Mandrake 8.2): knob-1.0-1mdk.src.rpm
Binary RPM (i586, Mandrake 8.2): knob-1.0-1mdk.i586.rpm

Bugs

Currently known bugs:

• Knob does not draw properly when kicker has tiled background (thanks to Mark Smitka for pointing this).
• Binary packages prior to knob-1.2-3mdk contained dependency on Nvidia library, so they would not install on system without Nvidia drivers (thanks to Jonathan Hutchins for pointing this bug). This does not affect anyone who compiled from sources.

If you spot any bugs (I am sure there are some), please drop me an e-mail.