Ever had a question about Linux but felt too afraid to ask? Well now’s your chance, ask any question about Linux, no matter how noob or repeated it is, and I and others will help answer them.

Previous noob question thread: https://lemmy.ml/post/14261893

  • wheeldawg@sh.itjust.works
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    1 month ago

    I don’t know if this is specifically possible. I’m not quite rookie-level new (been using it about a year now) but I have something I would love to have convenience-wise.

    It’s a desktop machine with regular speakers, and I have a wireless headset that connects to its own dongle (not Bluetooth). It’s there a way to switch to the headset automatically when I power it on, and revert to speakers when I turn it off?

    I feel like it’s possible hardware-wise, but I’m not tryna learn how to code to make it happen, and I don’t know how to find a software solution. I don’t even know what to call what I’m looking for.

    • qpsLCV5@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      i’d suggest starting by finding out what package in your distro actually decides where audio goes - mostly it is pulseaudio (older) or pipewire (newer).

      depending on the details of how your distro and the dongle work, it could either be a simple “pactl set-default-sink <headset-name>”, or a more complicated set of udev rules or pipewire/wireplumber scripts.

      note that distros using pipewire still often support a lot of pactl commands, so it may be worth looking at the simple option even when not using pulseaudio.

      • azuth@sh.itjust.works
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        30 days ago

        They can also use pavucontrol, whether they use pulse or pipe, for a GUI to select default audio interface as well as easily switch apps to different outputs if needed