How to restore sound session in ALSA [SOLVED]

[neyuru]

System sound settings are not stored when computer restarts. There are two systemd services that help store the configuration. The problem is that none of the configuration files exist for these services:

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systemctl status alsa-restore
● alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
  Condition: start condition failed at Sat 2020-05-09 10:48:57 CDT; 4min 33s ago
             └─ ConditionPathExists=/var/lib/alsa/asound.state was not met

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systemctl status alsa-state
● alsa-state.service - Manage Sound Card State (restore and store)
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/alsa-state.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
  Condition: start condition failed at Sat 2020-05-09 10:48:57 CDT; 13min ago
             └─ ConditionPathExists=/etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf was not met

and thus none of the services are executed. How can I save sound session configurations?

[neyuru]

The solution, although if not optimal (because the cause of the problem was not found) was to:


1) unmerge alsa-utils:

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emerge -aC alsa-utils

2) emerge alsa utils:

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emerge -a alsa-utils

and now the service is active:

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● alsa-restore.service - Save/Restore Sound Card State
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/alsa-restore.service; static; vendor preset: disabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Sat 2020-05-09 23:30:26 CDT; 2min 9s ago
    Process: 325 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/alsactl restore (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 325 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 2ms

At every shutdown, the service records the sound settings back to /var/lib/alsa/asound.state

[szatox]

I wonder if

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systemctl is-enabled alsa-state

would answer your question.
Before you re-emerged it. It's too late to check it now (unless you have a backup), but i'm leaving it here just in case someone in the future stumbles over a similar problem.

[neyuru]

I figured out the problem. Here are the steps to enable autosaves by alsa from a fresh install (assumes alsa-restore or alsa-state are not running, maybe never been run):

Option 1. Saving settings with a daemon:

1) Make sure state-daemon.conf file exists:

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touch /etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf

2) Manually save your settings (only required for the first time):

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alsactl store

3) Enable and start the daemon:

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systemctl enable alsa-state
systemctl start alsa-state

Option 2. Saving settings when session ends:

1) Make sure state-daemon.conf file does not exists:

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touch /etc/alsa/state-daemon.conf

2) Manually save your settings (only required for the first time):

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alsactl store

3) Enable and start the service:

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systemctl enable alsa-restore
systemctl start alsa-restore

The previous solution worked because before the reinstall I had manually saved the configuration by alsactl store.