Bug 368472

Using KDE Platform Version 4.14.2.

When OpenAL Soft <http://openal-soft.org/> is set to use PulseAudio for output, and is configured to allow output streams to be moved during playback, KDE will see the stream it creates and forcefully move it to the preferred audio device as set in the System Settings. This occurs even when the stream is explicitly connected to a specific device by the app, and even if the app was previously moved to a different device through kmix or pavucontrol. This effectively makes it impossible for any OpenAL app to open a specific device when playback is movable, and instead has to be moved onto the desired device after starting.

Other applications, such as Firefox, do not exhibit this behavior. They will use the device that they were last set to use through pavucontrol. Unloading module-device-manager from PulseAudio works around the problem by preventing KDE from handling specific devices, though is obviously less than ideal.

Ideally, what I'd like to see happen, is that if an app has OpenAL Soft connect to the default device, KDE can manage it and keep it on the preferred audio device as the device list changes, but when it connects to a specific device, it leaves it on that device. Or failing that, to simply not ever move it on its own.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install a recent Git version of OpenAL Soft (with PulseAudio support, and with examples if you don't have another OpenAL app to run). A recent release may work too, but the examples in those versions don't have an option to play on a specific device.
2. Configure OpenAL Soft to allow PulseAudio streams to move, by creating or editing ~/.alsoftrc and adding the lines:
[pulse]
allow-moves = true
3. Run an app using OpenAL Soft, such as the alstream example, using different output devices.

Actual Results:  
Playback is immediately moved to the preferred audio device set in KDE's System Settings.

Expected Results:  
Playback stays on the requested device.

I'm the author of OpenAL Soft, and tracked the problem of OpenAL apps not staying on the devices they were opened on, to KDE, as it only happens when KDE has the ability to manage PulseAudio app devices (making the stream unmovable, or unloading module-device-manager, prevents the problem; changing KDE's preferred audio device while the app is running causes playback to move to the new preferred device too). I do not see anything on OpenAL Soft's side that would cause KDE to do this, and can't see any difference between Firefox and OpenAL Soft apps (as seen by PulseAudio's sink-input properties) that could trigger this behavior.