I have a machine (Ubuntu 11.10) that I would like to have it play audio (typically through an amplifier), but the machine should be headless (where its final placement will be). I will control what is played through ssh.

However, there is no sound output until I login to the graphical console. At first I thought it was an issue with pulseaudio, so I promptly removed it to use the default ALSA, but I have the same issues. I ssh to the machine, I run alsamixer and get the typical cannot open mixer: No such file or directory error (while /proc/asound/cards display correctly what I have). If I login on the graphical console, alsamixer works fine in the ssh session, and I have sound output. I logout, and then alsamixer stops working. So something runs (Xsession perhaps?) when I login that enables sound output, and gets disabled when I logout.

I remember in older versions of Ubuntu, there was a drum roll when the machine showed the login screen; that is not the case anymore. Perhaps if I somehow can enable that drum roll, I'll have fixed my problem too.

In any case, the question I ask is what the title says.