I run Suse 11.2 with two sound cards , one HDA comes with motherboard and second is USB, which I use for skype and talking. In YAST everything is fine the motherboard card is marked as prime card and the usb card is marked as second.
But often when I log in alsa decides that second card is main and I have to pull out the USB card, run command “rcalsasound restart” and put the USB back afterward.
It is a way that to be fixed in the way that alsa remember my choices forever.
The other problem is that from time to time the sound suddenly dies and I have to bring it up with rcalsasound restart again.
But I have to admit that their significant improvement with managing sound with PulseAudio.
If you are on kde4 you may go to ‘KControl Centre’ and decide which card should be set as primary sc, at user level. Thats what I did at least. I have heard that pulseaudio is buggy so perhaps you should try and use plain alsa API, if the crash continous? Also, I read somewhere that one should not configure alsa from ‘alsaconf’ command on OpenSuSE 11.2, if you did so and run that OS.
I have set in System Setting of KDE4 the audio and the settings stays as I wished. The first problem starts in loggin in as user or root, that is why I believe is something connecting with transfering alsa to phonon. The same happens much less frequently if I loggin in GNOME. But Gnome’s logging in and out sounds does not work at all, have no idea why. The second problem happens when for example I am watching a film and sound suddenly disappears, video continues mute and I have to bring sound up with restarting ALSA. The problem happens less frequently even if I pull out USB sound card out before booting.
I used to have second PCI Audigy card , which I wanted second , but after booting it was always firest. That why i take it out and changed it with usb.
But Gnome’s logging in and out sounds does not work at all, have no idea why
I actually had quite a similar problem with kde3 at one point. The problem for me was caused by a small arts programme which I had configured to run in the panel (don’t remember what it was called). It affected the log-in sound only.
I used to have second PCI Audigy card , which I wanted second , but after booting it was always firest. That why i take it out and changed it with usb.
Bad luck, I have never had problems with setting which should be the primary-card. Except that I have had configuration problem from time to time, driver and/or firmware related. These problems hasn’t always been detected during installation and I have selected the prefered order. But when trying to use the card after installation there would be no sound. Maybe there is a problem with the integrated one which in terms again suppresses the order you selected and, thus, both the Audigy, when it was present, and your USB will be made the primary card at booting?
Have you tried to disable pulse, anyway?
Maybe you should try and configure one card at a time, use it for a little while, change to the next, and see how it goes?
I did disable pulseaudio and take out the usb audio card. Reboot . The sound missed again. I turned it back with restarting alsa. I think something happens between booting and logging in. Because in process of booting I can hear when the audio drivers are started.
I think my hardware is good enough - Motherboard ASUS M3N78-EM, integrated video in Chipset NVIDIA GeForce 8300 , integrated audio - Realtek® ALC1200 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC , AMD processor - AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+, RAM - 8.0 Gb.
I have another comp - MB ASUS M2N-VM DH, integrated video NVIDIA GeForce 6100 / nForce 430, integrated audio ADI AD1988 8-channel High Definition Audio CODEC , AMD processor - AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+, RAM - 8.0 Gb. On that machine I run SuSE 10.3 and it goes absolutely smooth and easy. PulseAudio does not work, but alsa works fine. The problem with audio cards prioryity does not exists. The usb card is second as I want. But there is problem if I want to listen 5.1 channels movie. No other audio source works, except the 5.1. In SuSE 11.2 there no more such problem I can run as much sound sources I want, it does not matter 5.1, 7.1 or stereo they are. It is much more easy to manage audio in SuSE 11.2.