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[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just discussed this with John. He explained that the motivation for
making it per-user was to avoid the problem where some settings are per-
user and some are system-wide, and users can't predict which is which.

Now, consider the case where you don't log in at all. You turn on your
PC, and at the login screen, the drumbeat sounds much too loud. You
wince and turn down the volume. Your parents, hearing you fiddling with
the computer, call you away to do something else, so you shut down
without logging in. When you start up your PC the next day, what should
the volume of the drumbeat sound be? The volume you set previously, of
course.

This illustrates that Ubuntu needs a system-level volume setting,
regardless of whether there is *also* a per-user volume setting. Even if
that wasn't true for volume (for example, if we had no drumbeat at the
login screen), it would be true for brightness, keyboard layout, and a
host of accessibility options that apply to the login screen.

Now, in many cases a device has only one user account. That's often the
case with a laptop, usually the case with a tablet, and almost always
the case with a phone. When there is, it would be annoying to have to
set each of those settings twice, once for the login screen and once for
everywhere else. That's the reasoning behind settings propagating from
the login screen to the user session and vice versa.

The point I tried to make is that I don't see any functional difference
between that and just having a system-wide volume setting. When B logs
in, does the sound volume get propagated from the login screen to B's
session, or doesn't it? If it does propagate, then there's no point in
momentarily showing B as having a volume that they won't actually have.
And if it doesn't propagate, then how do you avoid the annoyance of
having to set the volume twice when B's account is the only one?

You could make settings propagate if there is one user account, and not
if there's more than one. But that would mean different behavior on
different Ubuntu installations. It would introduce unpredictability,
exactly the problem that user-specific settings were intended to solve
in the first place.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/840777

Title:
  Muting sound indicator in Unity Greeter does not mute sound on login

Status in Ayatana Design:
  Fix Committed
Status in Sound Menu:
  Invalid
Status in Unity Greeter:
  Invalid
Status in “pulseaudio” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in “pulseaudio” source package in Raring:
  New

Bug description:
  I am using beta edition of Ubuntu 11.10,with lightdm 0.9.3-0ubuntu8,and unity 4.12.0-0ubuntu2,
  There is a new feature in Display Manager(well,I didn't notice it in gdm,but it might have been there as well),That you can mute the sound so that login sound wont play(This option exists in the top of the lightdm login page,when you turn on ubuntu and load it)However,Login sound will still play and sound settings will change regardless of what you choose.
  I should add that,this happens only after a reboot or shutdown,boot again,and not when you logout and login again

  Desired solution:
  - Any changes made to the volume control in the Unity Greeter should carry through to the logged in session and vice versa.  
  - For example, if a user changes or mutes the volume in the Unity Greeter, when they are logged in to their session this value should be carried over
  - The other way around is also true, if a user changes or mutes the volume in their session, when they log out this value should be displayed in the greeter.
  - Sound settings are stored individually on a per user account basis.  The sound settings displayed in the greeter should change in line with the currently focused user account.  So for example User A is currently focused and has has volume at 100%. If the focus in the greeter is changed to User B (who has volume muted), the sound indicator should change to display the muted state.

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