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Ubuntu recommended me to update itself, did it without errors and now... I don't have sound.

  • Surprisingly, Spotify still works - it plays the music, but I can control the volume only from within Spotify itself.
  • Chrome and Firefox are mute (e.g. when playing videos).
  • Volume media keys on keyboard don't work.
  • There are no output devices in sound options.
  • alsamixer shows 4 empty bars (4x S/PDIF at 00).

I've tried already:

  • sudo alsa force-reload
  • sudo apt-get install --reinstall alsa-base pulseaudio and then sudo alsa force-reload
  • mv ~/.config/pulse ~/.config/old_pulse
  • alsactl restore
  • sudo apt-get remove timidity --> Package 'timidity' is not installed, so not removed
  • "Edit the file found at /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/paths/analog-output-lineout.conf and change any instances of Element (such as [Element Desktop Speaker]) from switch = off to switch = on."
  • Adding some stuff to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
  • "go to BIOS -> disable Internal Speakers -> apply changes -> Enable again -> Apply changes -> Exit."

Basically everything reasonable from google. All to no avail. How can I fix it?

zupazt3
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  • You mention Ubuntu 18, where Ubuntu has two different systems, Ubuntu Core uses the yy format, where as all desktop & server releases use yy.mm, so do you mean Ubuntu Core 18 upgraded to 20.04? That shouldn't happen as they are different products. Please clarify if you mean 18.04 to 20.04, or a yy release wrongly upgraded to a yy.mm release. – guiverc Oct 22 '20 at 08:40
  • Sorry, didn't know that. It's a normal desktop version. I wasn't sure if it was 18.04 or 18.10, so I wrote 18. It was either .04 or .10 - I don't remember which one I had. – zupazt3 Oct 22 '20 at 08:44
  • It'll likely be 18.04 LTS (as 18.04 has two upgrade paths, to 18.10 (next release) or to 20.04 (next LTS). 18.10 wasn't an LTS so it's upgrade path was to 19.04 (meaning problems are more likely on a 18.10 -> 20.04 upgrade path due to only automated, no QA testing being outside of intended upgrade path) – guiverc Oct 22 '20 at 08:54
  • Ok, I really don't remember. If that is important for the issue, do you know how I can check that? Maybe there's some log of the update and I can verify? – zupazt3 Oct 22 '20 at 09:01

4 Answers4

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I had a similar problem when upgrading from 18.04 to 20.04, although it only affected the headphones and not the laptop speakers. I also experienced problems in controlling the volume.

The root cause of the problem was in the default software settings not being ok for the specific hardware (intel card on asus laptop) while for 18.04 it had worked out of the box. In my case I fixed it by adding this line in /etc/modprobe.conf/alsa-base.conf:

options snd-hda-intel model=<appropriate model>

where the "appropriate model" was selected by trial-and-error from the list of available values. More information at https://askubuntu.com/a/1233446/1118258

Regarding the volume controls, if you still have issues after getting sound to work, I had the same problem as My volume is either max volume or muted, no middle ground and the solution from Yurii S worked for me.

Davide
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For anyone encountering this problem - I managed to fix it, although I don't know what has finally fixed it.

I've removed again ~/.config/pulse and then reboot. Didn't work. So I removed pulse directory again and then change name of "old_pulse" back into "pulse" (I've done this before). And then rebooted - and it works now. But I don't know which of all those things I did finally helped.

zupazt3
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No sound for me either. Fixed it with...

I used aplay to find my device...

aplay -L

this showed me my analog output was...

plughw:CARD=PCH,DEV=0

HDA Intel PCH, ALC892 Analog

Hardware device with all software conversions

I tested the audio with (using 0,0 that I learnt from the previous command)...

aplay -D plughw:0,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Left.wav

and I heard sound.

in /etc/pulse/default.pa I added the line

load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:0,0

restart pulseaudio with...

pulseaudio -k

pulseaudio --start

Go into settings/sound and I can now see builtin audio as an output option.

Scott
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I had no sound after the upgrade and finally found this solution: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2442561

Amanda
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