Re: [gentoo-user] pavucontrol - Pulseaudio Volume Control, save settings

[Sid S]

Pulseaudio is started automatically by either your desktop environment
or programs which make use of it. It's running under your user.

To solve your problem, I would look at adding `pactl` or `pacmd` line
to any startup scripts you might have available. Note I don't actually
think you are experiencing pulseaudio "forgetting" your settings - I'm
pretty sure the default behavior just prefers external devices to
internal ones (so, you're fighting pulseaudio in this case).