pulse.conf overrides ~/.asoundrc for default

[flatmax]

On many systems pulse audio sets the default device to pulse. This overrides the settings in ~/.asoundrc.

This is further complicated by using a tool like pasuspender and finding that pulse's default device is still set and overriding ~/.asoundrc

It would seem more empowering to let the user override the default device in ~/.asoundrc and have that take effect over pulse.conf which typically resides in /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf.d
For that matter, it would be more empowering to the user to override everything (well almost any thing) using ~/.asoundrc, whether it is in alsa,conf.d or elsewhere.

[perexg]

It's already possible.

# Override default PCM device back to the native ALSA device

pcm.!default cards.pcm.default

[flatmax]

As an example, when I set default in my ~/.asoundrc like so :

pcm.!default {
  type hw
  card "HARDWARE"
}

the pulse.conf default still takes over. In otherwords, aplay file.wav => pcm.pulse rather them my pcm.default from .asoundrc.

The only way I have found to override this is to put the following in my .asoundrc :

@hooks [
	{
		func load
		files [
			"~/.asoundrc"
		]
		errors false
	}
]

[perexg]

Something is bad in your system:

$ aplay -L
default
    Default ALSA Output (currently PulseAudio Sound Server)

Modified ~/.asoundrc:

pcm.!default cards.pcm.default

Result:

$ aplay -L
default
    Default Audio Device

With the recent alsactl (not released yet):

$ alsactl dump-cfg | grep -E "^pcm.default"
pcm.default 'cards.pcm.default'

[flatmax]

I am a little lost !

Lets say my setup has pulse as the last loaded default from /etc/alsa/conf.d/99-pulseaudio-default.conf.example This runs through a HDMI connector to the monitor with speakers as it is card 0.

I have a second USB soundcard which comes up as card 1. How do I setup my asoundrc without having to use the @hooks to force audio through the USB card 1?

Setting the following makes the audio still come through card 0 :
pcm.!default cards.pcm.default

[perexg]

cards.pcm.default redirects to the generic device definition which has card 0 as default (defined at defaults.pcm.card 0 line in /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf)

Possibilities:

pcm.!default "hw:1" or pcm.!default "plughw:1"

defaults.pcm.card 1
pcm.!default cards.pcm.default

pcm.!default {
  type hw
  card 1
}

The card may be identified by the number or ASCII identifier (see /proc/asound/cards [] brackets).

[perexg]

Answered.