Public bug reported:
Volatile device number ordering of ALSA devices is a major usability
problem.
For example, I have motherboard sound. It starts off as ALSA device 0.
Now I plug in a webcam, it becomes ALSA device 1 because it has an
integrated mic. Everything is working fine.
Now I reboot. Since the device numbering is not stable there is a race
at boot. This time when I boot the webcam becomes ALSA device 0 and
motherboard sound is ALSA device 1. All sound on the desktop stops
working. Normal users are never going to figure this out. It is a major
usability problem.
People say this can be fixed in udev. I work on the kernel and can't
figure out how to fix it in udev. Normal people are never going to be
able to fix this.
The problem is even worse when a USB audio device is plugged in. Now
there is a three way race for the numbering. I like to use USB audio
because it sounds better than my motherboard audio. But if I'm going to
use it I have to go into the BIOS and turn off my motherboard audio to
force it to a stable ALSA device number.
Best solution to this is to get rid of ALSA device numbers and switch to
a naming scheme. udev can be used to assign names to devices.
** Affects: alsa-driver (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: Unconfirmed
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ALSA device number ordering is volatile
https://launchpad.net/bugs/89510
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