diff -urN alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsamixer/cli.c alsa-utils-1.0.21.new/alsamixer/cli.c
--- alsa-utils-1.0.21/alsamixer/cli.c	2009-09-01 01:13:36.000000000 +1000
+++ alsa-utils-1.0.21.new/alsamixer/cli.c	2009-11-05 15:58:15.000000000 +1100
@@ -120,6 +120,10 @@
 	textdomain(PACKAGE);
 #endif
 
+	/* We don't want to control a pulseaudio mixer, since that can be done from
+	 * pulseaudio itself. */
+	setenv("PULSE_INTERNAL", "0", 1);
+
 	parse_options(argc, argv);
 
 	create_mixer_object(&selem_regopt);
diff -urN alsa-utils-1.0.21/amixer/amixer.c alsa-utils-1.0.21.new/amixer/amixer.c
--- alsa-utils-1.0.21/amixer/amixer.c	2009-09-01 01:13:36.000000000 +1000
+++ alsa-utils-1.0.21.new/amixer/amixer.c	2009-11-05 15:57:21.000000000 +1100
@@ -1892,6 +1892,11 @@
 {
 	int morehelp, level = 0;
 	int read_stdin = 0;
+
+	/* We don't want to control a pulseaudio mixer, since that can be done
+	 * from pulseaudio itself. */
+	setenv("PULSE_INTERNAL", "0", 1);
+
 	static const struct option long_option[] =
 	{
 		{"help", 0, NULL, 'h'},
diff -urN alsa-utils-1.0.21/iecset/iecset.c alsa-utils-1.0.21.new/iecset/iecset.c
--- alsa-utils-1.0.21/iecset/iecset.c	2009-09-01 01:13:36.000000000 +1000
+++ alsa-utils-1.0.21.new/iecset/iecset.c	2009-11-05 15:57:22.000000000 +1100
@@ -324,6 +324,10 @@
 	char tmpname[32];
 	int parms[IDX_LAST];
 
+	/* We don't want to control a pulseaudio mixer, since that can be done
+	 * from pulseaudio itself. */
+	setenv("PULSE_INTERNAL", "0", 1);
+
 	for (i = 0; i < IDX_LAST; i++)
 		parms[i] = -1; /* not set */