random tip: redirecting alsa to usb sound card

This took a bit too much work to figure out so here it is. If you're like me and had to buy a usb sound card (nearly as sensible a name as a cable modem) since the laptop's onboard headphone jack broke, and would like to have that card used by default when it's plugged in, but otherwise have builtin card be used, create an /etc/udev/rules.d/00_local.rules containing:

# Default to using additional (USB) sound cards when they are available.
KERNEL=="pcmC[D0-9cp]*", ACTION=="add", PROGRAM="/bin/sh -c 'K=%k; K=$${K#pcmC}; K=$${K%%D*}; echo defaults.ctl.card $$K > /etc/asound.conf; echo defaults.pcm.card $$K >>/etc/asound.conf'"
KERNEL=="pcmC[D0-9cp]*", ACTION=="remove", PROGRAM="/bin/sh -c 'echo defaults.ctl.card 0 > /etc/asound.conf; echo defaults.pcm.card 0 >>/etc/asound.conf'"

Only programs started after the sound card is plugged in will use it of course, and this might not work if you have it plugged in while booting.

thanks

Thanks for this advice! I almost lost my hope to manage properly both my onboard and usb sound cards. Now everything works as it should!

Comment by Artur