Avoid accessing /usr or /var during startup. Neither /usr (where the alsactl binary is stored) nor /var (where mixer settings are stored) are guaranteed to be available during the early phases of system startup. So udev shouldn't try to use them this early. An init script should be used instead to ensure that active sound cards are initialized once those file systems are ready. 2011-09-25 Martin von Gagern References: https://bugs.gentoo.org/384375 Index: alsa-utils-1.0.24.2/alsactl/90-alsa-restore.rules =================================================================== --- alsa-utils-1.0.24.2.orig/alsactl/90-alsa-restore.rules +++ alsa-utils-1.0.24.2/alsactl/90-alsa-restore.rules @@ -1,2 +1,3 @@ ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="sound", KERNEL=="controlC*", KERNELS=="card*", \ + ENV{STARTUP}!="1", \ RUN+="/usr/sbin/alsactl restore $attr{number}"