Sound problem no speakers

[Patton Echols]

On 03/25/2011 12:25 AM, Ric Moore wrote:
> On Fri, 2011-03-25 at 00:00 -0700, MR ZenWiz wrote:
>> On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 5:06 PM, Patton Echols<p.echols at comcast.net>  wrote:
>> :
> I have had a problem with Xine, as it always seems to set the volume to
> zero when I use it. But, that doesn't mess up my bootup sounds.
>

Yeah, if all settings would stay the same through reboot I'd be happy.
> But, I'm happier with alsa+pulse than I was with alsa alone. I can
> switch between my 5.1 sound system and my USB headphones easily. And, if
> I last listened to a DVD with the headphones, then the headphones are
> switched to automatically the next time I play a DVD. pavucontrol allows
> you to select/switch sources and outputs on the fly.

But how do you do that?  For example, if I want to switch between the 
built in mic on my netbook and a plugged in one?  I do not see a place 
to select.  On the hardware tab there is  "internal audio analog stereo" 
as the only choice.  Same with speakers.  No way to choose headphones 
over the built in speakers.  (Maybe there would be If I had usb 'phones)

Looking at PA chooser, there are a bunch of things that I suppose can be 
configured, like sources, servers and sinks (whatever that is) but so 
far I have not found any meaningful guides in the 'buntu forums.  Maybe 
I should try and google up a PA project page.  But the difficulty of 
getting this working seems to fly in the face of the "it just works" 
philosophy.

Any thoughts gratefully accepted.  Even RTFM, if you have an FM in mind!

Thanks
  -- PE