For logging, PANEL_DEBUG=all(source) seems to work. Anyway, did you reboot the system after removing xfce-volumed-pulse (so only xvce-pulseaudio-plugin should be enabled) ?
You don't need pulseaudio and pipewire at the same time because pipewire provides pulseaudio-compatible server (pipewire-pulse). Also, pipewire usually doesn't require audio group. Did you follow the official docs or other online guide?
“Pactl load-module” outputs “you have to specify a module name and arguments.”
As I said in earlier comment, please run "pactl load-module module-switch-on-connect" exactly.
Note that Pactl and pactl are different commands and the former is invalid.
Is the command different for that?
As the name suggests, pactl is a command for PulseAudio. PipeWire supports
application written for PulseAudio, including pactl. Try "man pipewire-pulse"
to get further info.
Yes. In a typical live USB session, all changes are written to the RAM, so they are lost on the shutdown. Some live USB supports persistent storage, but I think it's not so common.
I see. Before the switching, you may want to try Linux on Windows using WSL2 or VirtualBox, etc.
Also, Mint and other distros provide bootable image, so you can try it without installing Mint on your machine. Good luck!
Kernels are usually intalled in '/boot', and we usually install new kernels via a package manager (gnome-software, pacman, dnf, etc.).
What distro and package manager are you using?
Long ago I made such restricted shell with filtering the shell command history file then disabling command history logging. With some shell scripting, I think you can get more sophisticated version. What shell are you using? (Bash, Fish, Zsh, etc.)
You may need gtk-murrine-engine (actual package name may differ).