xubuntu: permanently unlocking/separating sound output channels

Question

I'm using Xubuntu 14.04 and it has really useful feature of 'unlocking' output channels, so if channels are not locked together the volume level will be controlled separately. Unfortunately this settings resets to it's default when channels are locked, every time I log in. How could I separate them permanently?

I have a similar issue with brightness (long story, no meaningful solution) and I could set it for certain value using rc.local every time I log in. So may be it would work in a similar way, if I knew where the settings are stored.

Thanks for help!

Answer 1

Ok, so I found a solution.

You should put this code:

restore_alsa() { while [ -z "$(pidof pulseaudio)" ]; do sleep 0.5 done alsactl -f /var/lib/alsa/asound.state restore } restore_alsa &

somewhere into the /etc/rc.local

Although, if you suspend/shut-down/lock and log in again without unplugging headphones you sometimes you will end up with sound level of your speakers. But simple unplug and plug in resolves this. And it you suspend/shut-down/lock unplug headphones, come later log in and plug them in, you get your previous volume and until you plug them in the volume of the speakers will be the one you set for speakers last time.

This problem occurred because "PulseAudio usually overwrites the ALSA settings" For more details see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio#Pulse_overwrites_ALSA_settings

Hope this helps someone in the future.