Is there a way to limit the maximum audio volume level?

[bowmandm21]

I maintain a computer repair classroom lab of Dell Optiplex GX620's. Currently we have XP Pro installed. I am experimenting with installing PCL2010 (and running various Windows versions in VirtualBox).

One Windows utility that has worked wonders is NoiseNak. I can limit the maximum audio level on each machine. Students are allowed to listen to internet radio on headphones while they work. NoiseNak prevents them from disturbing others with running the volume level at 100%.

Is there a way to achieve the same result in PCL2010?

Mark

[TBABill]

Mark, have you tried opening alsamixer in a terminal (just type alsamixer) and set the volume for headphones at whatever you want. Then just control the volume via "master" and even at max master volume the headphones should go to whatever you set as max. I haven't tried it but seems like it would work for what you want as long as the kids don't know how to open alsamixer and change it.

[bowmandm21]

Great reply. Thanks.

Does anyone know if there a way to block access to alsamixer (and other programs and OS utilities) on student machines?

Thanks.

[T6]

to be honest, what you are trying to do, it is a nonsense, people abuse of this kind of resources, specially students

if they are there to study, they shouldn't be listening to the music

i say this as a student and as a teacher

if you have less distractions you have, you will advance more on your tasks

[kjpetrie]

There are lots of mixer programs available in Linux, and though a simple "chmod 700 <filepath>" as root should, in theory, block ordinary users from accessing them, this doesn't seem to work with Kmix, which still opens from a user's desktop even when only root is permitted to open it.

I find this disconcerting, as it implies KDE circumvents Linux security and will allow users to open root-only programs.