This was my question in IRC – and thanks to those investigating on my behalf. I’m a total Linux newbie. Let me do my best to explain:

I’m on KXStudio, where all audio goes through Jack (as I understand it). When I switch my firewire device (Phonic Firefly) on, jack recognizes it straight away and runs all audio through it instead of my onboard PCM. That’s great! However, if I want to turn my firewire device off and have all sound go through the onboard PCM again (and subsequently my built-in computer speakers), this doesn’t work! When I turn the firewire off, jack simply stops completely and I have to ‘force restart’ a couple of times to get sound out of my speakers.

It’s not the end of the world – I just wondered if it’s fixable as Windows was able to automatically switch between my firewire and onboard cards with no problem. I’m a graphic designer by trade and if I’m just listening to music I don’t want to use my firewire device to do so. But if inspiration strikes spontaneously I just want to switch my firewire on, lay down some recordings, then turn it off and go back to using onboard audio… preferably.

Sorry if my terminology’s off – just say if I can explain myself better.

- Dan Capp