[arch-general] [hacked solution] Re: GDM and/or PulseAudio mute my sound

[Kyle]

It's a bit of a dirty hack, but it works on this box, and I wouldn't 
hesitate to use it anywhere it's needed.

If PulseAudio is muting your master volume control when it starts, first 
copy /usr/bin/start/pulseaudio-x11 to /usr/local/bin

sudo cp /usr/bin/start-pulseaudio-x11 /usr/local/bin

Edit the local copy (/usr/local/bin/start-pulseaudio-x11) and add a line 
similar to the following at the end of the file:

amixer -D hw set Master 92% unmute

Again, it's a hack, but it effectively gives all GNOME users, and 
hopefully anyone else on the system who starts a PulseAudio session, 
sound at a sensible volume. The same or similar line should be able to 
be added to start-pulseaudio-kde in the same way, and it can also be 
added to your local shell configuration/profile as well if you start 
PulseAudio some other way. It doesn't fix the bug specifically, but it 
gives satisfactory results.
~Kyle