[Ubuntu] Volume and brightness controls - wacky intervals


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Hi everyone,

I just installed Ubuntu and given that I'm a total linux noob I have a couple of questions that may or may not be fixable lol .. hopefully you might be able to help me solve these problems.

I am using a Dell XPS m1530 laptop.

Firstly, I've noticed that the volume controls in Ubuntu - whether I use the touch volume controls on the laptop itself or the software controls in the OS - offer a very small amount of variance in volume levels. Anything below 60 volume is hardly audible; 60-75 is very quiet, and from 75-100 -ish it gets very loud. I want something medium.. is there something I can do to make it more like in Windows (Vista)? :/ BTW, I had to raise volume in alsamixer for the "Front" setting so I could turn the volume levels up.

Second, by using the Fn+Up/Down arrows on my keyboard I can change the brightness of my LCD just like in Windows. However, I only have something like 4 or 5 brightness levels / intervals to choose from; in Windows I had probably around 10. How can I get more intermediates? BTW, my max brightness in Ubuntu is definitely brighter than in Windows -- is that dangerous to the LCD or is it just gonna use more power (less battery life)?

Oh and one more thing -- is there any way to get fonts looking as sharp as they do in Windows? even if I use the "subpixel smoothing" option the text still looks blurry even with the MS fonts (Verdana). :/

Thanks everyone! BTW how is Ubuntu vs. Vista in terms of power consumption? ATM I'm using the "extra" interface which has those fancy animations. :)

Edited by dt
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You are using gnome as your desktop right? And to control the volume you use the volume control tool that comes with Gnome? You may need to configure extra settings in alsa for your audio card, also try something like aumix-gtk (should be in your package manager list) and play with the volumes there.

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