Comment 31 for bug 598308

I can also confirm this issue, and affects ubuntu touch. After the device is booted, when playing something, it'll always be set to maxium, even though pactl list sinks shows the right volume

Once I change volume up or down, it gets to the right and expected volume level (abruptly changing the volume).

In my case:
Sink #1
 State: SUSPENDED
 Name: sink.primary
 Description: Droid sink primary
 Driver: module-droid-card.c
 Sample Specification: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
 Channel Map: front-left,front-right
 Owner Module: 7
 Mute: no
 Volume: 0: 15% 1: 15%
         0: -49.44 dB 1: -49.44 dB
         balance 0.00
 Base Volume: 100%
              0.00 dB
 Monitor Source: sink.primary.monitor
 Latency: 0 usec, configured 0 usec
 Flags: HARDWARE DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY
 Properties:
  device.description = "Droid sink primary"
  device.class = "sound"
  droid.hw_module = "primary"
  device.icon_name = "audio-card"
 Ports:
  output-earpiece: Output to earpiece (priority: 200)
  output-speaker: Output to speaker (priority: 300)
  output-wired_headset: Output to wired headset (priority: 400, not available)
  output-wired_headphone: Output to wired headphone (priority: 400, not available)
  output-bluetooth_sco: Output to bluetooth sco (priority: 100)
  output-sco_headset: Output to sco headset (priority: 100)
  output-sco_carkit: Output to sco carkit (priority: 100)
  output-aux_digital: Output to aux digital (priority: 100)
  output-analog_dock_headset: Output to analog dock headset (priority: 100)
  output-digital_dock_headset: Output to digital dock headset (priority: 100)
  output-fm_tx: Output to fm tx (priority: 100)
  output-speaker+wired_headphone: Output to speaker+wired headphone (priority: 100)
  output-parking: Parking port (priority: 50)
 Active Port: output-speaker
 Formats:
  pcm

This is already enough to set the right value:
phablet@ubuntu-phablet:~$ pactl set-sink-volume sink.primary 16%