USB audio interfaces mute when Ubuntu Studio 22.04 reboots - weird

[ThatJackElliott]

Hi merlyn,

Thank you for the tip on giving zita-j2a and -a2j JACK names.

For the amixer suggestion, I think I am looking at a roadblock, I don't know if there are workarounds. Your suggestion to use amixer is something I could work with, but apparently the target card, a Presonus Studio 24c has no controls.

The device is presently enumerated as "4", so:

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kpov_tech@AirchainProcessor:~/Desktop/Settings$ amixer -c 4 controls
numid=3,iface=CARD,name='Clock Source 5 Validity'
numid=1,iface=PCM,name='Capture Channel Map'
numid=2,iface=PCM,name='Playback Channel Map'

No "mute" or "unmute" And alsamixer reports this card as "This sound device does not have any controls"

Which leads to the question of how is the OS launching with this card muted? How does it even control it?

Thank you for looking at this silly little problem.

[merlyn]

Did you try Loki's suggestion of nrestore?

If ALSA doesn't have a mute control for this card, it could be this 'System Settings' that's muting it. It seems logical that it's getting muted somewhere other than ALSA. I'm not familiar with Ubuntu Studio, but is there some way to configure System Settings so it remembers your settings?

[ThatJackElliott]

Hi, I hadn't tried Loki's suggestion of nrestore, sorry, I hadn't noticed it. So I just now tried it and it does not do the job. The sound card remains muted.

This was not the behavior when I was using the same card with straight-up Ubuntu 22.04, it seems to be a Ubuntu Studio quirk.

Perhaps another usergroup / forum might have get my question to some ALSA/Ubuntu Studio OS wizards?

Of course I welcome any further suggestions here!

Thank you!

[ UPDATE ] I just received the second USB audio interface that I plan to use with this rig. It is a Mackie Onyx 2-2. The computer boots with it muted, just as it does with my first card, a Presonus 24c. So, it ain't the soundcard's fault, it's an OS thing.

[ThatJackElliott]

I have been digging into this . . . as if I have nothing better to do with my life . . . I find in /etc/init.d/alsa-utils this:

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# Description:       This script stores and restores mixer levels on
#                    shutdown and bootup.On sysv-rc systems: to
#                    disable storing of mixer levels on shutdown,
#                    remove /etc/rc[06].d/K50alsa-utils.  To disable
#                    restoring of mixer levels on bootup, rename the
#                    "S50alsa-utils" symbolic link in /etc/rcS.d/ to
#                    "K50alsa-utils".

So sure - why not live dangerously? I do! So here to try the "To disable restoring of mixer levels on on bootup" portion.

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sudo mv /etc/rcS.d/S01alsa-utils /etc/rcS.d/K01alsa-utils

Aaaaand ... nope, the two USB soundcards still wake up muted. Phooey.

[sunrat]

Ubuntu use systemd, not sysv. What shows:

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systemctl status alsa-restore.service

Here I get:

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alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.service; static)
     Active: active (exited) since Sun 2023-08-13 17:40:48 AEST; 3 days ago
       Docs: man:alsactl(1)
    Process: 452 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/alsactl -E HOME=/run/alsa -E XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/alsa/runtime restore (code=exited, st>
   Main PID: 452 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 7ms

Aug 13 17:40:48 bullseye-brain systemd[1]: Starting Save/Restore Sound Card State...
Aug 13 17:40:48 bullseye-brain systemd[1]: Finished Save/Restore Sound Card State.

[merlyn]

If the cards have no controls, then the problem seems to be that a checkbox doesn't stay ticked in System Settings. It's telling that you said normal Ubuntu doesn't have this problem. It sounds like a bug/misconfiguration in Ubuntu Studio.

One possibility is to try AVLinux as a comparison. It would tell us if this is Ubuntu Studio specific, and if it works, you could use AVLinux.

https://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/

[ThatJackElliott]

SOLVED!

Under "Studio Controls" > Extra Devices > Select Device to Edit I found "Headphone plug in Action" set to "Switch outputs to Headphones" for my devices.

Setting the Action to "No Action" did the trick. Because I keep a pair of headphones plugged into the PC.

Probably good to untick "Bridge USB Devices to JACK When Plugged In" because I manage that elsewhere.

Thank you all for the effort to track this down.