-- snip --
>

> Pulseaudio is a pain in the ass and it's the land of a thousand mutes,

Evil incarnate, purged on everything I own.

> but it can't be blamed for the audio card shuffle.

This is an old hat excuse used far too often (caveat see NB), the fix is easy with modules, something like ...

file: '/etc/modprobe.d/alsa.conf' with contents:

options snd_hda_intel index=0
options snd_usb_audio index=1
options snd_aloop index=2
options snd_dummy index=3

(don't forget to rebuild your initramfs if you insist on using one)

but why do you care about audio card shuffle, after all you are referencing audio devices by there names in /etc/asound.conf | ~/.asoundrc anyway ?


NB: ALSA documentation sucks!