up vote 5 down vote favorite
1

I wish to select a default sound card, or disable all others, in order to have the correct one selected after suspend.

share|improve this question
    
How many sound cards do you have in the system? – Mitch♦ Jun 14 '12 at 15:26
    
2, but 4 things show up in sound settings for output and 3 things for input. – MarkovCh1 Jun 14 '12 at 16:37
up vote 0 down vote accepted

This is a way set default sound output card dynamically using PulseAudio (not ALSA).

  1. Check list of Sources and Sinks

    $ pactl list short sources
0   alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor  module-alsa-card.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz   SUSPENDED
1   alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo   module-alsa-card.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz   SUSPENDED
2   combined.monitor    module-combine-sink.c   s16le 2ch 44100Hz   SUSPENDED

$ pactl list short sinks
0   alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo  module-alsa-card.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz   RUNNING
1   combined    module-combine-sink.c   s16le 2ch 44100Hz   IDLE
2   alsa_output.pci-0000_01_00.1.hdmi-stereo    module-alsa-card.c  s16le 2ch 44100Hz   RUNNING

  2. Set defaults:

    set-default-source alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
set-default-sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

It is possible even to set ports too. See How to switch sound output with key shortcut

Reference: man pactl

share|improve this answer
1  
pactl is for pulseaudio, not alsa – slang Jan 5 '16 at 2:57
    
@slang, thanks, you are correct, I put a note for that. However the OP has alsa in title, nothing in description and tagged for both. This give me an impression that the user was looking for a solution at any level. BTW, my self I want to know if there is a way using ALSA, this is an old question stayed unresolved for two years. – user.dz Jan 5 '16 at 6:15
up vote 1 down vote

I personally use alsamixer

alsamixer

Hit F6 to select sound card.

enter image description here

share|improve this answer
    
F6 only lets you choose which card to modify sound levels for, no? – MarkovCh1 Jun 15 '12 at 0:22
    
Sets the selected card as default as well (at least it does for me). – Panther Jun 15 '12 at 1:33
    
You can select card with alsamixer (F6 or S) and than do sudo alsactl store to save your settings as default. – dmitry_romanov Dec 8 '15 at 17:31

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.