[pulseaudio-discuss] Autmatically increasing the volume if muted or 0.

[Bill Cox]

Blind users of Ubuntu Lucid, and Vinux 3.0, are reporting that on many
machines, volume is muted at the initial boot, both for the LiveCD and
after the install.  We have added a keybinding, so that blind users of
Vinux can press Insert+PageUp to increase the volume, and this works
in most cases.  However, it would be better if we could detect this
case, and set the volume loud enough to be heard.

Naturally, the first suggestion I heard from a blind developer was to
disable PulseAudio's volume-restore function, as this seems related to
the problem.  However, at Vinux, I'd prefer to fix or work around
problems, rather than disable functionality.  Apparently these
problems are due to various problems with various sound cards and
drivers.  What would I need to change to detect and resolve this
situation?

Thanks,
Bill