Csdrhrt

I'm using Ubuntu with Xfce, ALSA, pavucontrol, …

After I reboot the system my sound always goes off.

And my speakers in alsamixer are listed as Headphones (which I have to always increase the volume after boot so it works).

What can I be doing wrong that the sound isn't saved?

$ lsb_release -a

No LSB modules are available.

Distributor ID: Ubuntu

Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS

Release:    18.04

Codename:   bionic



$ uname -r

4.16.12



$ alsactl -version

alsactl version 1.1.3

alsamixer controls the sound OK, Master and Speaker are the same but Headphones also controls the volume.

$ pavucontrol 

Package: pavucontrol

Version: 3.0-4

For some reason the pavucontrol does not work well with alsa.

To solve this issue the only way it seems to work is to follow
the third answer at
https://askubuntu.com/questions/50067/howto-save-alsamixer-settings/606115#606115

some modifications are required following the comments
like adding a sleep to the Exec
So to have the settings save after reboot
you need to create a configuration stored file
alsactl --file ~/.config/autostart/asound.state store

and then restore that configuration in a autostart boot script

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application

Terminal=false

Name=alsarestore

Exec=bash -c "sleep 5 && alsactl --file ~/.config/asound.state restore"

in ~/.config/autostart/alsarestore.desktop

The setup where this solution worked:

• Ubuntu 18.04 (GNOME), not xfce


• gnome alsa mixer, not pavucontrol


• realtek alc1220 on the X470 AORUS GAMING 7 WIFI rev1.0

However, the core problem was the same:

1. Speakers from the back panel were detected as a headphones line.


2. After a reboot or relog, the line was muted and had zero level in the gnome alsa mixer.

Solution

Almost 9 years old answer on ubuntu forums helped. Citing it:

I managed to get it to work as expected by replacing the line

load-module module-device-restore

in /etc/pulse/default.pa with

#load-module module-device-restore

Partial solution (just to beware)

Before finding out the solution I tried another approach.
I changed the respective block of /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output-lineout.conf to

[Element Speaker]

switch = on

volume = ignore

Unfortunately, it only unchecks the "mute" checkbox, leaving the line level on the zero mark. So, don't use it.