On Mon, 2022-04-25 at 06:38 -0700, stan via users wrote:
> Alsa allows referencing sound devices by name, instead of the slot
> they were put into.  That *should* allow pipewire to know which
> device to use no matter which slot it is put in at boot, so it
> shouldn't be necessary.

As far as I'm concerned, that's the way things should always run.

I have a PC with on-board sound hardware, but it's being ignored (by
me).  It sometimes may be able to detect something is plugged into it,
but I've never considered that feature reliable.  Also, having a set of
speakers plugged in, but not powered up, or the volume turned down, is
undetectable.

It also has a HDMI monitor with sound hardware.  The quality is pretty
dire.  You can't enjoy any sound through it, but you can certainly
listen to someone speak through it.

It also has a Behringer Uphoria USB sound device I use for recording
music, listening to music via headphones or my stereo system, and sound
in general.  It's nearly always on, and nearly always what I want to
use.  And like other things, the computer has no idea whether I've
plugged in headphones, turned on the amplifer, or turned the volume
down.

With a choice of playback hardware from a list like built-in or on-
board, HDMI, USB-audio (or better, "Behringer Uphoria" which it never
appears as), I could easily get the right device.  But HW0.423,
00343.234, etc., is utterly useless to me.  And, from time to time, I
*do* have to reset which device is which.  Not only do I have to work
out which device is which, it's position in the list is variable.  So
it always needs hunting for.

The HDMI monitor goes to sleep, and seems to respond different to the
PC when it's asleep.  Or, I've switched it off to stop the blinking
light.  And from that moment, the audio hardware choices may have
changed, as it often takes over when it suddenly comes back to life.

Or, the external USB sound device has disappeared for a moment because
the USB connection doesn't grip the plug very well (it's a fundamental
flaw in USB connections, I have to keep re-tensioning the metal tangs
in the connectors to make them grip better), and suddenly the available
hardware has been renumerated.

I don't expect the causes to go away (like in the above examples), so I
do want a predictable and straight-forward way to deal with it.  So,
logically named devices, and preferably ways for my configurations to
always use my preferred defaults any time they're available, are what I
want.  If they go away then come back again, I want to use them, not
something else, and not to have manually make them default again.

I've tried various setting options for setting default devices,
fallback devices, over the years.  But the computer only seems to
acknowledge them as what to do "now."  It never seems to accept that I
want sound from this device always.  It's a shame there's not a ranking
system, like boot devices in BIOSs (start here, then fall back to this
if the first one isn't present, etc., *and* next time start at the top
of the list again).

-- 
 
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Linux 5.11.22-100.fc32.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed May 19 18:58:25 UTC 2021 x86_64
 
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