After installing Lubuntu 16.10 on my Lenovo Y510P, the key binding for volume control (Fn + Left/Right) were not working.

I found out that all key bindings can be easily configured using the XML configuration file ~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml.

The default commands were configured as follows:

  <!-- Keybinding for Volume management -->
  <keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
          <command>amixer -q sset Master 3%+ unmute</command>
      </action>
  </keybind>
  <keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
          <command>amixer -q sset Master 3%- unmute</command>
      </action>
  </keybind>

When executing these commands on the console (lxterminal), I received the following error message:

$ amixer -q sset Master 3%+ unmute
amixer: Unable to find simple control 'Master',0

It appeared that the simple channel name was wrong.

The problem could easily be fixed by manually selecting the first sound card via -c 1 (the option -q serves to suppress any standard output):

amixer -q -c 1 -- sset Master playback 3%+ unmute # increase volume by 3%
amixer -q -c 1 -- sset Master playback 3%- unmute # decrease volume by 3%

The modified part of the configuration files looks as follows. Note: The X server needs to be restarted for the changes to take effect!

 <!-- Keybinding for Volume management -->
  <keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
          <!--<command>amixer -q sset Master 3%+ unmute</command>-->
          <command>amixer -q -c 1 -- sset Master playback 3%+ unmute</command>
      </action>
  </keybind>
  <keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
          <command>amixer -q -c 1 -- sset Master playback 3%- unmute</command>
      </action>
  </keybind>
  <keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
      <action name="Execute">
          <command>amixer -c 1 -- sset Master toggle</command>
      </action>
  </keybind>