[orca-list] Semi-OT: Selecting Pulse device/profile from the command line

[Nolan Darilek <nolan thewordnerd info>]

I have a semi-complicated soundsetup. My laptop has crappy internal 
speakers that I don't use unless I have to. It plugs in via USB to a 
dock, which has an internal sound device that I don't use. To the dock 
I've connected a Creative USB 5.1 surround system to which my desktop 
speakers connect, and which sees most of my use. I also run a set of 
wireless headphones, also connected via USB, which are only occasionally 
connected and in use.

This complicated setup never gave Windows any issues, but Linux/Pulse 
just can't handle it. At the moment I have the correct sound setup 
configured, but if I disconnect my hub then I often don't get sound back 
when I reconnect it. I've taken to pulling the hub connection, which 
causes fallback to the internal speakers, at which point I navigate to 
Settings and reconfigure the right connections.

But lately something is horribly broken and I don't know what. 
Sometimes, despite arrowing up and down on the device selection combo 
box, sound goes away and never comes back (I.e. I'd expect it to return 
at some point if my selection lands back on Internal Speakers, but it 
never does.) Sometimes, plugging back in the hub doesn't bring back my 
USB devices (as in, even my USB keyboard doesn't come back) and I can 
only conclude that rapidly cycling devices is confusing some subsystem 
or other.

Does anyone have any experience configuring this mess via the command 
line? It would be useful if I could dump my configuration as it is now, 
run a terminal command, and restore my preferred configuration without 
using the GUI. I also want to restore my sound profile to 5.0 Surround, 
which lately seems to be causing crashes as well. I seem to be locking 
up Linux entirely such that I can't even switch to another TTY and reboot.

As a semi-related aside, is there a way to navigate settings in combo 
boxes without selecting them? I'm wondering if I can navigate directly 
to the device I want and activate it without navigating through, and 
presumably rapidly cycling, a whole bunch of other devices between my 
current choice and the one I want. I don't know if that might be causing 
anything, I'm just annoyed at having to hard shutdown this laptop all of 
a sudden because I've lost all but my internal speakers.

Thanks.