diff -Naurw phonon-4.2.96/phonon/globalconfig.cpp phonon-4.2.96.pulseaudio/phonon/globalconfig.cpp
--- phonon-4.2.96/phonon/globalconfig.cpp	2008-11-27 16:41:41.000000000 +0100
+++ phonon-4.2.96.pulseaudio/phonon/globalconfig.cpp	2009-01-08 21:29:18.000000000 +0100
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 #include "phononnamespace_p.h"
 
 #include <QtCore/QList>
+#include <QtCore/QHash>
 #include <QtCore/QVariant>
 
 QT_BEGIN_NAMESPACE
@@ -167,6 +168,15 @@
                     | ((override & HideUnavailableDevices) ? FilterUnavailableDevices : 0)
                     );
         }
+        // make PulseAudio the global default (assume it is already default in this list)
+        if (!list.isEmpty()) {
+            int firstIndex = list.first();
+            if (backendIface->objectDescriptionProperties(Phonon::AudioOutputDeviceType,
+                  firstIndex)["name"].toString() == "PulseAudio") {
+                list.removeFirst();
+                defaultList.prepend(firstIndex);
+            }
+        }
         defaultList += list;
     }
 
@@ -222,6 +232,15 @@
                     | ((override & HideUnavailableDevices) ? FilterUnavailableDevices : 0)
                   );
         }
+        // make PulseAudio the global default (assume it is already default in this list)
+        if (!list.isEmpty()) {
+            int firstIndex = list.first();
+            if (backendIface->objectDescriptionProperties(Phonon::AudioCaptureDeviceType,
+                  firstIndex)["name"].toString() == "PulseAudio") {
+                list.removeFirst();
+                defaultList.prepend(firstIndex);
+            }
+        }
         defaultList += list;
     }