I need to quickly switch from speakers to headphone when my PC receives an incoming phone call. The speakers and headphones are always plugged in. I am on Fedora 27, Gnome 3.26.2 So I want to write a script that calls a few lines of pactl. But the pactl commands I tried aren't switching sound from speakers to headphone. This is what I have tried from the command line:   $ pactl set-sink-port 1 "analog-output-headphones" But it didn't effect my speaker or headphone behavior. I also tried:   $ pactl set-sink-port 0 "iec958-stereo-output"   Failure: No such entity Here are the pactl sinks on my system:   $ pactl list sinks   Sink #0     State: SUSPENDED     Name: alsa_output.usb-1130_USB_AUDIO-00.iec958-stereo     Description: USB AUDIO  Digital Stereo (IEC958)     Driver: module-alsa-card.c     Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 48000Hz     Channel Map: front-left,front-right     Owner Module: 7     Mute: no     Volume: front-left: 15176 / 23% / -38.12 dB,  front-right: 15176 / 23% / -38.12 dB       balance 0.00     Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB     Monitor Source: alsa_output.usb-1130_USB_AUDIO-00.iec958-stereo.monitor     Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec     Flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY SET_FORMATS     Properties:     alsa.resolution_bits = "16"   device.api = "alsa"     device.class = "sound"   alsa.class = "generic"     alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"   alsa.name = "USB Audio"     alsa.id = "USB Audio"   alsa.subdevice = "0"     alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"   alsa.device = "0"     alsa.card = "0"   alsa.card_name = "USB AUDIO"     alsa.long_card_name = "USB AUDIO at usb-0000:00:14.0-3, full speed"   alsa.driver_name = "snd_usb_audio"     device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:14.0-usb-0:3:1.0"   sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb2/2-3/2-3:1.0/sound/card0"     udev.id = "usb-1130_USB_AUDIO-00"   device.bus = "usb"     device.vendor.id = "1130"   device.vendor.name = "Tenx Technology, Inc."     device.product.id = "1620"   device.product.name = "USB AUDIO "     device.serial = "1130_USB_AUDIO"   device.string = "iec958:0"     device.buffering.buffer_size = "384000"   device.buffering.fragment_size = "192000"     device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"   device.profile.name = "iec958-stereo"     device.profile.description = "Digital Stereo (IEC958)"     device.description = "USB AUDIO  Digital Stereo (IEC958)"     alsa.mixer_name = "USB Mixer"     alsa.components = "USB1130:1620"     module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"     device.icon_name = "audio-card-usb"     Ports:     iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority: 0)     Active Port: iec958-stereo-output     Formats:     pcm   Sink #1     State: SUSPENDED     Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo     Description: Built-in Audio Analog Stereo     Driver: module-alsa-card.c     Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz     Channel Map: front-left,front-right     Owner Module: 8     Mute: no     Volume: front-left: 30129 / 46% / -20.25 dB,  front-right: 30129 / 46% / -20.25 dB       balance 0.00     Base Volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB     Monitor Source: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo.monitor     Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec     Flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL HW_VOLUME_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY     Properties:   alsa.resolution_bits = "16"     device.api = "alsa"     device.class = "sound"     alsa.class = "generic"     alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"     alsa.name = "ALC283 Analog"   alsa.id = "ALC283 Analog"     alsa.subdevice = "0"   alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"     alsa.device = "0"   alsa.card = "2"     alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"   alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7c30000 irq 47"     alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"   device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1b.0"     sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card2"   device.bus = "pci"     device.vendor.id = "8086"   device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"     device.product.id = "9c20"   device.product.name = "8 Series HD Audio Controller"     device.form_factor = "internal"   device.string = "front:2"     device.buffering.buffer_size = "352800"   device.buffering.fragment_size = "176400"     device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"   device.profile.name = "analog-stereo"     device.profile.description = "Analog Stereo"   device.description = "Built-in Audio Analog Stereo"     alsa.mixer_name = "Realtek ALC283"   alsa.components = "HDA:10ec0283,80862054,00100003"     module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"   device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"     Ports:   analog-output-headphones: Headphones (priority: 9000, available)     Active Port: analog-output-headphones     Formats:   pcm Am I on the right track? (I don't know PulseAudio) set-sink-port only sets the port. What else do I need to set? Switching sound on Gnome Sound Settings works but it takes a lot of clicks (right-click on Desktop > Settings > Sound). I have tried "sound-output-device-chooser" but it takes 2 clicks to switch to headphone, and then two more clicks to go back in and adjust the volume. I posted the question on the LinuxQuestions forum last week, and got 589 views and 0 replies: https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/pactl-command-to-switch-from-speakers-to-headphone-4175624840/ Thank you for your help, Wolfram Volpi