Here are some more observations about the problem and a hack that makes it work. The outright failure situation (e.g. the errors in the original bug report) can often be resolved by unplugging the USB device and reconnecting it and then restarting pulseaudio. The system where the USB sound device was working well is a HP Microserver, with no built in audio device. If the Creative USB device is connected to the Microserver, sound comes out on the analog ports by default. To force it to play sound via the optical port, I had to put this in /etc/pulse/system.pa: load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,1 That is quite acceptable for a static server config. Now, on to the laptop. The typical use case for a laptop is plug and play, so I am trying to avoid using any hacks like that in the config. Nonetheless, I've found that I can make the sound come out of the optical port with this entry in /etc/pulse/default.pa: load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:1,2 This seems a little bit bizarre. While the card number change from 0 to 1 is understandable when moving to different host, it is not clear why the device number changes from 1 to 2. Before trying these config hacks, I tried all the permutations of output settings using the Gnome sound preferences panel and the pavucontrol tool as well. I had no luck with either of them (unless I give up on using the optical output and just send sound to the analog port). This makes me feel that normal desktop/laptop users will struggle with this. Here is the aplay output for the device connected to the laptop: $ aplay -l **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices **** card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CONEXANT Analog [CONEXANT Analog] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: HD [USB Sound Blaster HD], device 0: USB Audio [USB Audio] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: HD [USB Sound Blaster HD], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1] Subdevices: 1/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 card 1: HD [USB Sound Blaster HD], device 2: USB Audio [USB Audio #2] Subdevices: 0/1 Subdevice #0: subdevice #0 $ aplay -L null Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture) pulse PulseAudio Sound Server default:CARD=PCH HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog Default Audio Device sysdefault:CARD=PCH HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog Default Audio Device front:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog Front speakers surround40:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, CONEXANT Analog 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=0 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 0 HDMI Audio Output hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=1 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 1 HDMI Audio Output hdmi:CARD=PCH,DEV=2 HDA Intel PCH, HDMI 2 HDMI Audio Output default:CARD=HD USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio Default Audio Device sysdefault:CARD=HD USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio Default Audio Device front:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio Front speakers surround40:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio 4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers surround41:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio 4.1 Surround output to Front, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround50:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio 5.0 Surround output to Front, Center and Rear speakers surround51:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio 5.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Rear and Subwoofer speakers surround71:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio 7.1 Surround output to Front, Center, Side, Rear and Woofer speakers iec958:CARD=HD,DEV=0 USB Sound Blaster HD, USB Audio IEC958 (S/PDIF) Digital Audio Output -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-bugs-dist-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org