Gene Heskett wrote:

> So it is. Owned by root but world rw. Then why, if root can access it
> during the init phase, is it not active for me until I do an alsactl
> restore ? �Something in starting the x stuff as the usr after the login,
> is killing the sound UNTIL the user does a restore. �And its a right
> PIMA. Just for S & G, I just added an aplay command to be executed by
> me, immediately after a line in rc.local that does a theoretical
> restore, as me to play the front-center channel id file. �I'll see if
> that plays when I next reboot. Which is not eminent ATM.

In my opinion the problem is somewhere else. This file is not meant to be
used by user. It is used when alsa framework is initialized. When you do
restore you actually load the settings from this file.
The question is why it is not restoring on boot. You should inspect the
scripts used to start/initialize alsa.
I can't look further ATM. I would actually trace the log files, but the
approach with playing something is also valid, only it will not help
understand why if not working.

BTW I don't have anything in rc.local. I have (jessie)
find /etc/rc* | grep alsa
/etc/rc0.d/K01alsa-utils
/etc/rc6.d/K01alsa-utils
/etc/rcS.d/S21alsa-utils

regards