[Pkg-alsa-devel] Bug#524196: USB webcam randomly disables soundcard

[Philip]

Package: alsa-base
Version: 1.0.17.dfsg-4

If a logitech pro 9000 webcam (with built in microphone) is plugged in
then the Intel motherboard sound card will randomly fail on boot.
This will appear in dmesg
[   10.698812] cannot find the slot for index 0 (range 0-0), error: -16
[   10.698812] Intel ICH: probe of 0000:00:1e.2 failed with error -12

Solution.
Edit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
add this to the file

# Keep webcam from being loaded first
options snd_usb_audio index=-2

In my opinion this extra line should be included in
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base by default as it is a fair assumption that a
USB microphone / webcam should not take precedence over a normal sound card.

thanks, Philip