# Possible Fix: Pi 5 Bookworm Alsamixer not saving audio settings through reboot

**URL:** https://forum.digirig.net/t/possible-fix-pi-5-bookworm-alsamixer-not-saving-audio-settings-through-reboot/5903
**Category:** Uncategorized
**Tags:** os-linux
**Created:** [April 10, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://forum.digirig.net/t/possible-fix-pi-5-bookworm-alsamixer-not-saving-audio-settings-through-reboot/5903 "2025-04-10T02:43:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Drew\_Rinella](https://forum.digirig.net/user_avatar/forum.digirig.net/drew_rinella/32/2730_2.png) [@Drew\_Rinella](https://forum.digirig.net/u/Drew_Rinella)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://forum.digirig.net/t/possible-fix-pi-5-bookworm-alsamixer-not-saving-audio-settings-through-reboot/5903/1 "2025-04-10T02:43:24Z")

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I was disappointed to see that my Pi 5 running Bookworm OS didn’t save my Alsamixer audio settings past the reboot, even after adjusting the settings and typing:

sudo alsactl store

I troubleshooted this from several angles with the help of Copilot AI. I downloaded pavucontrol with:

sudo apt install pavucontrol

However, I did not see the settings I wanted in pavucontrol, so I then went back to alsamixer, adjusted the settings, and saved the settings again with sudo alsactl store. And then the settings were saved after the next reboot!

So downloading pavucontrol may have compelled Alsamixer to actually store its settings, however I have not yet attempted to replicate these steps. If anyone else is struggling with this issue on a Raspberry Pi 5 running Bookworm, please give it a shot and let us all know if that fixed the issue.

The other thing I tried was typing:

sudo chmod 644 /var/lib/alsa/asound.state

however that didn’t seem to make a difference on its own. I can’t yet completely rule out if that helped. I entered that prior to downloading pavucontrol.

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### Author: ![WB9TEN](https://forum.digirig.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/db5fbb/32.png) [@WB9TEN](https://forum.digirig.net/u/WB9TEN)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2025, 4:33pm UTC](https://forum.digirig.net/t/possible-fix-pi-5-bookworm-alsamixer-not-saving-audio-settings-through-reboot/5903/2 "2025-09-25T16:33:41Z")

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I don’t think this is limited to Pi 5. I am struggling with a 32-bit Pi 4. I started over with a clean install of Bookworm without any applications and had the same results.

However, when I added _pavucontrol_, only the “Speaker” setting seems to be stable. That was just the opposite of what I was seeing before.

There is a thread on [groups.io](http://groups.io) discussing this, but no resolution.

[https://groups.io/g/direwolf/topic/109997217?p=Created,20,2,0,0](https://groups.io/g/direwolf/topic/109997217?p=Created,,,20,2,0,0)

Dave  
WB9TEN

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### Author: ![Drew\_Rinella](https://forum.digirig.net/user_avatar/forum.digirig.net/drew_rinella/32/2730_2.png) [@Drew\_Rinella](https://forum.digirig.net/u/Drew_Rinella)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://forum.digirig.net/t/possible-fix-pi-5-bookworm-alsamixer-not-saving-audio-settings-through-reboot/5903/3 "2025-11-18T02:43:48Z")

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I am now attempting to wrap my brain around the new OS Trixie. Pavucontrol has no affect on the alsamixer settings. But I did find some instructions that work:

[Alsamixer not saving settings after restart | Techie Show](https://techie-show.com/alsamixer-not-saving-settings/)

I did not create the file that they created. I simply made the changes to the digirig sound settings that I wanted in Alsamixer with:

_sudo alsamixer_

then I typed:

_sudo alsactl store_

Then, per the linked instructions, I accessed the bash file as described:

_sudo nano ~/.bashrc_

At the bottom I simply added:

_sudo alsactl restore_

Alsamixer sound settings for the digirig are now persisting through a reboot.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Drew\_Rinella](https://forum.digirig.net/user_avatar/forum.digirig.net/drew_rinella/32/2730_2.png) [@Drew\_Rinella](https://forum.digirig.net/u/Drew_Rinella)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2025, 6:20am UTC](https://forum.digirig.net/t/possible-fix-pi-5-bookworm-alsamixer-not-saving-audio-settings-through-reboot/5903/4 "2025-11-18T06:20:52Z")

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I’ve got more.

Simply writing _sudo alsactl restore_ in that bash file works for the purpose of restoring the alsamixer settings post reboot, but it results in two error messages displaying in the terminal whenever it’s opened.

Changing the command in the bash file to this fixes the errors:

_sudo alsactl --no-ucm restore_

By the way I did try the instructions in the techie-show website exactly as described, and it would not accept the -file command. Anyway, the method I described is currently working.
