[kde] [Bug 468684] New: KDE Plasma Sound Settings and Widgets don't show all devices in ALSA Mixer

[Tarun Aditya Thurlapati]

https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=468684

            Bug ID: 468684
           Summary: KDE Plasma Sound Settings and Widgets don't show all
                    devices in ALSA Mixer
    Classification: I don't know
           Product: kde
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Ubuntu
                OS: Linux
            Status: REPORTED
          Severity: normal
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
          Assignee: unassigned-bugs at kde.org
          Reporter: tarun.aditya at hotmail.com
  Target Milestone: ---

SUMMARY

- The System Settings in KDE plasma (and in extension, the Sound widget) don't
show all the active sound devices and don't show all possible configurations.
- I thought I had a problem with my devices, but when I opened ALSAMIXER, I saw
all the connected sound devices that were "missing" from the KDE Plasma sound
settings page.
- While I totally understand that the page doesn't show the many unconnected
sound ports on my tower (like S/PDIF, Rear Mic, Surround, Center) which are not
in use (but still shown in alsamixer), the setting page also refuses to show
the speakers while my headphones are connected in.
- This behaviour may be obvious on things like a laptop/phone where connecting
headphones mutes the speakers and only provides option for controlling
headphones, but on a desktop it is irritating having to UNPLUG my headphone in
order to use the speaker and even control it. 
- I would rather simply want the option to CHOOSE ONE OR MORE CONNECTED devices
(like speaker AND headphones) to playback from (at the same time, if I want
to).
- I had to look in multiple places before realizing that there is a setting
called "auto-mute mode" in Alsamixer which needs to be disabled in order to
playback from multiple devices. The settings page can also expose this as a
toggle.
- HONESTLY, the alsamixer TUI is pretty well designed. The Audio settings page
in KDE plasma can be modelled after it, while the "taskbar" widget can remain a
bit simpler to use.

PS: Sorry, I didn't know how to separate the above into "steps to reproduce",
"expected result", "observed result", as it involves more than just a bug
report. It is a bit of a bug and a bit of a feature request.

SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS
KDE Plasma Version: 5.25.5
KDE Frameworks Version: 5.98.0
Qt Version: 5.15.3
Kernel: 6.2.6

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Motherboard: http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5497#ov
(this has speaker output)
Frontpanel on tower has headphones output

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