KDE makes loud, startling noises

audioguikde

I have KDE as the window manager, and I cannot figure out how to stop it making ding-a-ling noises at extreme volume. Example:

  1. Open Konsole.
  2. Open a second tab.
  3. Close the whole window with its × button.
  4. A message box interrogates me, asking if I really want to close both tabs. The message box resets the system volume from where I need it for my headphones, ~10%, to 100%, and then emits a pointless ding-a-ling noise. It's horrifyingly loud. I jump every time.

I haven't done anything weird with the sound settings to cause this. Linux has behaved this way since I set it up a month ago.

Question: Where is the checkbox to turn off KDE's noises? It was easy to turn off the sound theme when I used Windows, but I feel like I've looked all over KDE and never found the setting. Currently I live in fear of clicking things that I know will make the noise.

System: Debian Stretch 9.5
KDE: Plasma 5.8.6

Best Answer

Open System Settings and click on Notifications: System settings

In the Notifications window, first select the event source for which you want to configure notification, in this example, I chose Plasma Workspace. In the table, the first column reflects the state of an event. When a sound has been configured, a little play button is displayed. If you want to disable the sound for a certain event, click on the event and deselect the Play a sound checkbox. You can quickly disable all sounds for a certain event source by clicking the button Disable sounds for all of these events.

Notifications

If you want to disable all notification sounds, you have to select each event source and click the "disable all" button. AFAIK, it's not possible to disable all sounds with one click.

However, it is possible to mute them. If you go again in System Settings -> Multimedia -> Audio Volume, you can simply mute all notification sounds: Mute notification volume

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