Pulseaudio in that case is not cleanly removed. Faceplant. For some reason alsa with dead or missing modules gets more and more defective over time. pulseaudio --kill kills the server does not disable the alsa linked parts. So yep still defective. Alsa is not the most prefect beast out there. Lot of people running ubuntu also don't think they have pulseaudio. pasuspender ok will disable the alsa links but it also has the side effect of missing to add dmix back in if its required. I need a ubuntu person to answer if pulseaudio purge returns alsa to normal with dmix put back in if required. Alsa is one of these things left configured wrong it kinda works but it also mucks up from time to time.
