Audio output changes every boot

General Help
1

This is an issue that has bugged me in Linux generally since I tried most of the Debian based one. Why do the audio output change when I reboot my PC?

I am not interested in changing it to a primary one, but have it so it always is the same as the last one used. Like in any normal OS behavior. And not change it to the one I would like at every login.

It's been 10 years now since I started testing and trying out Linux. And this have been here since then. If anyone have a permanent solution, please send it my way.

2 Likes
2

A severe annoyance. I suspect this one is Pulseaudio. Perhaps @swarfendor437 or @337harvey may have some pipewire tips or tips to eliminate our reliance on Pulse.

3

See if anything here helps you:

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From what I have gleaned a few months ago, pipewire is just a modified pulse audio. I prefer ALSA.
You can create a 'pulse off' folder in /etc and drag 'pulse' folder into that so it will never launch at boot. Would advise you install most alsa packages via synaptic, even the pulse plugin so that audio works in browsers. No guarantee this will solve your issue.

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This is just to set a different default device, not to have it actually remember my last output.

It's ridiculous that there doesn't seem to be anyone bringing this forward and getting it fixed. This is something any other OS have had since the beginning.

Is there no one that has reported this ever? Is there a way to put in a report as an major oversight?

6

Another suggestion to try:

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Actually, it shows a way of disabling auto-switching, so once you've set a default device, it cannot automatically switch away from that device... Linux doesn't handle device loading very well, different devices come available at different times during boot, so if your speakers, for instance, aren't available, but they're the default device, it'll automatically switch to your headphones as fallback, since there must be a device. Disabling that auto-switching means it must wait for the set default device.

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So I assume this is too difficult of a task for a linux distro to fix? It's just boggles my mind that this is not the default behavior to ANY audio system.

I guess I will just have to live with swapping around audio sources manually another 10 years.

1 Like
9

Pulseaudio leaves much to be desired.

10

Gday @TCi
Open Pulseaudio/Output
select your speakers as "FallBack"
This seems to help with last state.
Eg: normally i have the speakers running, with FallBack set i can plug-in my TV via HDMI, & the sound changes to the HDMI output, if i turn the pc off, when re-start the pc again it will still have audio via HDMI if it is plugged in, If i unplug the TV, it reverts back to the speakers.
Hope this helps.

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