I’ve looked up a lightweight volume control OSD for Openbox for over an hour. I want it simple, no-dependency and XF86Audio-keys-supported so it’s really hard to find. But finally I got this pretty tool, written in Bash. It’s a small script which can be well integrated with Openbox’s keybind.

You may need libaosd to use this tool. You can install it by running:

yaourt libaosd

Here’s the tool (slightly modified by me):

#!/bin/bash

#============================================#
#   mixer-osd
#============================================#

S="$(amixer set Master 0+ | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $6}' | tr -d '[]')"

case $1 in
    volup)
        case $S in
            on) A="VOLUME: $(amixer set Master 1+ | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '[]')" ;;
            off) A="[MUTED] VOLUME: $(amixer set Master 1+ | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '[]')" ;;
        esac ;;

    voldown)
        case $S in
            on) A="VOLUME: $(amixer set Master 1- | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '[]')" ;;
            off) A="[MUTED] VOLUME: $(amixer set Master 1- | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '[]')" ;;
        esac ;;

    mute)
        case $(amixer set Master toggle | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $6}' | tr -d '[]') in
            on) A="VOLUME: $(amixer set Master 0+ | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '[]')" ;;
            off) A="[MUTED] VOLUME: $(amixer set Master 0+ | grep 'Mono:' | awk '{print $4}' | tr -d '[]')" ;;
        esac ;;
    *) echo "Usage: $0 { volup | voldown | mute }" ;;
esac

killall aosd_cat &> /dev/null

echo "$A" |  aosd_cat -p 4 --fore-color=green --shadow-color=#006633 --font="Droid Sans Mono 16" --x-offset=-40 --y-offset=-0 --transparency=2 --fade-in=0 --fade-out=0 --fade-full=1000 &

# END

To use it, save the above script as /usr/bin/mixer-osd, and add the following configurations in your Openbox’s rc.xml:

<!-- Keybindings for volume control  -->
<keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">
    <action name="Execute">
        <execute>
            mixer-osd volup
        </execute>
    </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">
    <action name="Execute">
        <execute>
            mixer-osd voldown
        </execute>
    </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
    <action name="Execute">
        <execute>
            mixer-osd mute
        </execute>
    </action>
</keybind>

OK, you’re done. Try pressing the volume-down, volume-up and mute key on your, laptop, perhaps. There will be a green banner in the center of your display telling you the volume and whether it’s muted.

Acknowledgement. http://techpatterns.com/forums/about1354.html

Note. You can also directly use amixer to adjust volume as stated in this article: http://urukrama.wordpress.com/2007/12/19/managing-sound-volumes-in-openbox/. However I think osdsh is a little bit harder to configure than aosd_cat.