When plugging a USB sound card may sometimes cause the current audio output (ie. Banshee and PC speakers) to switch immediately. But the volume controls (sound widget in systray, volume keyboard keys) are stuck on the old sound card.

Plug a soundcard and amplifier while the volume is set to ultra high for the pc speakers. You can't control the volume without opening the sound settings or alsamixer. This could probably cause neighbour disturbance in some countries. You can't control it with the sound widget of the systray nor the volume keyboard keys.

How to disable auto switch of hardware audio output, or enable auto switch of software volume controls ? It would be great to make the software behaviour consistent with the hardware's.

Ubuntu 11.10 vanilla up to date.