diff --git a/src/daemon/start-pulseaudio-x11.in b/src/daemon/start-pulseaudio-x11.in

index 722a639c0..7cdf14e4d 100755

--- a/src/daemon/start-pulseaudio-x11.in

+++ b/src/daemon/start-pulseaudio-x11.in

@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@

 set -e

+# probe to test if autospawn works, else resort to starting manually

+@PACTL_BINARY@ info > /dev/null 2>&1 || @PA_BINARY@ --start "$@"

+

 if [ -n "$1" ] ; then

     case $1 in

     stop)