Unable to maintain or 'lock-in' my audio output preferences

General Help
1

I'm hoping there is a simple fix for the following, I've tried searching for help online but everything seems to assume I want the opposite solution.

I want to use a headset purely for discord and similar usage - i.e. purely for voice calls.

However every time I plug in a headset Zorin switches to using it as the default audio output.

I've set the line out as "default" using the hack of a pactl line within the Startup Applications and that seems to ensure that line out is audio if the headset is already plugged in.

However if I plug in the headset "mid-session" it immediately steals all audio.

Windows (yes I know, I'm sorry, but ...) can set one output as system output and set the headset as default Communication output. Is there anything similar I can do within Zorin?

As I say, all trawling of the internet seems to turn up opposite results - how to send all sound to the headset.

2

This is a really good question.

I tried framing a net search in multiple ways on this - and had the same trouble you did. I kept getting results for the opposite of what you want. But - I wonder if reverse engineering the provided answers might help.

For example in alsamixer > F6 > NOT setting to auto mute - would that create what you want?

3

After making changes, save your preferred alsamixer setting using:

sudo alsactl store

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4

Tried a bunch of various things with alsamixer and while I can get it not to mute the line out I still get desktop sound coming through the headset which should only be used for voice comms.

5

So, you want System Sound to be routed through Speakers - Say, using your HDMI, whereas the LineOut jack only isolated to Discord or Zoom type apps, correct?

6

No, line out for system sound, game sounds, whatever.

USB headset, Discord, Zoom etc.

7

Solution found:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/228619/disable-sound-through-hdmi-permanently

sudo sed -ri 's/^(load-module module-switch-on-.*$)/# \1/' /etc/pulse/default.pa

This stops the system from switching output when a device is plugged in, combined with using Startup Applications to set your default audio on power up - I finally have audio working the way I would expect.

4 Likes
8

I have bookmarked this solution in hopes of it being helpful to others.

Users seeking a resolution to Sound Switching is not an unusual issue.

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