The desktop
Sound and Bluetooth
Sound
Sound is PipeWire. It needs no setting up: plug in headphones and they are used.
Settings › Sound has the output device and its volume, and the input device and its volume. Automatic leaves the choice of device to the system, which prefers what it rates best of what is connected. A dock's sound comes after the laptop's own speakers there: a dock cannot tell whether anything is plugged into its jack, and sound sent to an empty one is never heard. A device you choose, the dock's included, is remembered through restarts and used whenever it is connected.
alpymist set sound.volume 60
alpymist set sound.input-volume 80
alpymist list sound.output # the devices there are
The keyboard's volume, mute and microphone keys work wherever a keyboard has them, on the lock screen too, and the play, next and previous keys control whatever is playing; see Hotkeys.
On the bar, a click on the speaker opens the volume mixer (pavucontrol), with a volume for each program that is playing and each device. A right click mutes. Setup › Audio in the menu opens the same mixer.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is installed and off until you turn it on:
alpymist set bluetooth.enabled true
or Settings › Bluetooth. It is a system setting, so it asks for an administrator's password, and it stays on at every start from then on. Other devices cannot see the computer unless you make it discoverable while pairing.
To pair, connect and forget devices, open Setup › Bluetooth in the menu or
click the Bluetooth icon on the bar. That opens bluetuith, a device list in
a terminal: scan, choose a device, pair and connect.
Bluetooth headphones and speakers then appear as sound devices like any other.