Bug#1147508: pulseaudio: Sometimes does not notice newly plugged USB devices (e.g. laptop dock)

Paul "LeoNerd" Evans leonerd at leonerd.org.uk
Sat Sep 12 15:48:16 BST 2026


Package: pulseaudio
Version: 17.0+dfsg1-3
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

After a reboot, all my sound devices work fine. However, as they are
attached by USB through a USB-C audio dock, it's easily possible these
can be removed and replaced.

Sometimes, replugging the USB-C dock works fine. But sometimes, while
the USB devices themselves appear just fine (e.g. they appear on
`lsusb`), they do not appear as available outputs to pulseaudio, and
sounds still go through the laptop internal speakers.

This can be fixed by manually replugging the USB devices, or by
restarting pulseaudio:

  $ systemctl --user restart pulseaudio


-- Package-specific info:
File '/etc/default/pulseaudio' does not exist


-- System Information:
Debian Release: forky/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'oldstable-updates'), (500,
'oldstable-security'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 7.1.12+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/12 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Kernel taint flags: TAINT_WARN
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8),
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages pulseaudio depends on:
ii  adduser                         3.159
ii  libabsl20260526                 20260526.0-2
ii  libasound2-plugins              1.2.12-2+b4
ii  libasound2t64                   1.2.16.1-1
ii  libc6                           2.43-4
ii  libcap2                         1:2.78-1+b1
ii  libdbus-1-3                     1.16.2-5+b1
ii  libfftw3-single3                3.3.11-1
ii  libgcc-s1                       16.2.0-1
ii  libglib2.0-0t64                 2.89.4-2
ii  libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-0  1.28.6-2
ii  libgstreamer1.0-0               1.28.4-2
ii  libice6                         2:1.1.1-1+b2
ii  libltdl7                        2.6.2-2
ii  liborc-0.4-0t64                 1:0.4.43-2
ii  libpulse0                       17.0+dfsg1-3
ii  libsm6                          2:1.2.6-1+b2
ii  libsndfile1                     1.2.2-4+b1
ii  libsoxr0                        0.1.3-4.1+b1
ii  libspeexdsp1                    1.2.1-4
ii  libstdc++6                      16.2.0-1
ii  libsystemd0                     261.2-1
ii  libtdb1                         2:1.4.15+samba4.24.6+dfsg-1
ii  libudev1                        261.2-1
ii  libwebrtc-audio-processing-1-3  1.3-3+b3
ii  libwrap0                        7.6.q-37
ii  libx11-6                        2:1.8.13-1
ii  libx11-xcb1                     2:1.8.13-1
ii  libxcb1                         1.17.0-2+b2
ii  libxtst6                        2:1.2.5-1+b2
ii  pulseaudio-utils                17.0+dfsg1-3

Versions of packages pulseaudio recommends:
ii  dbus-user-session        1.16.2-5+b1
ii  libpam-systemd [logind]  261.2-1
ii  rtkit                    0.14-1

Versions of packages pulseaudio suggests:
pn  paprefs      <none>
ii  pavucontrol  6.1-1
pn  pavumeter    <none>
ii  udev         261.2-1

-- no debconf information
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