In Unity I use my ThinkPad hot keys to change the volume. I need to know the command that these keys run so that I can bind it in my window manager. I have tried using amixer but could not change the volume through command line amixer set Master 10%- amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Master',0 amixer scontrols: Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0 amixer set 'IEC958' 50%- amixer: Invalid command! So obviously this is not what Unity is running. I have tried changing the default sound card as well but that didn't help.