Only one in 20 boots have sound

Support Sound
2

ALSA is not a software sound server like the other 3 servers shown. ALSA works within the kernel like a Hardware Abstraction Layer to tie the hardware devices and drivers together
The other sound servers run outside the kernel and rely on ALSA for sending audio streams to analog jack sockets, HDMI outputs or USB devices (ALSA does not support Bluetooth audio)

But PipeWire and PulseAudio should not be running simultaneously as they are known to conflict

I suggest you either:

  • Install manjaro-pipewire to remove and replace PulseAudio packages

  • Or remove package pipewire to use PulseAudio
    (Xfce does not support Wayland like other DEs and does not require Pipewire as a DE dependency)

  • Or just disable pipewire server:

    systemctl --user disable --now pipewire.socket pipewire.service

See this post for how to change the default sink for audio playback:
How do I permanently set the default audio device in Manjaro xfce with Pipewire? - #15 by nikgnomic
The pactl commands suggested will work for PulseAudio or PipeWire
But the accepted solution (changing card profiles) might not be optimal for this system because of the additional USB devices

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