Dummy output on Dell XPS 15 9570 4k and Ubuntu 22.04

Question

Recently switch from win10 because i was tired loading every time my xubuntu on VM. So week ago installed a fresh new Ubuntu. Feels amazing, smooth and super fast. But there is one problem that i stuck on is dummy output(no sound). I know that is so many post on the internet with this topics and solutions. but i tried everything and nothing has changed. Tested ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Pop_os 22.04, the same issue. Saw solution in this topic https://support.system76.com/articles/audio/ but not worked for me.

Sound menu

aplay -l

aplay: device_list:275: no soundcards found...

lsmod | grep snd_hda_intel

snd_hda_intel          53248  0
snd_intel_dspcfg       32768  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_sof_intel_hda_common
snd_hda_codec         159744  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_soc_hdac_hda
snd_hda_core          110592  6 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_ext_core,snd_hda_codec,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_soc_hdac_hda,snd_sof_intel_hda
snd_pcm               147456  10 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,soundwire_intel,snd_sof,snd_sof_intel_hda_common,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_sof_utils,snd_hda_core,snd_pcm_dmaengine
snd                   102400  13 snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_sof,snd_timer,snd_compress,snd_soc_core,snd_pcm,snd_rawmidi

lspci -nnk | grep -A2 Audio

00:1f.3 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation Cannon Lake PCH cAVS [8086:a348] (rev 10)
    Subsystem: Dell Cannon Lake PCH cAVS [1028:087c]
    Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

Does this answer your question? Only "Dummy output" (sound) in Ubuntu 20.04 after reboot - Broken driver / module — karel, Jul 30 '22 at 11:42
Unfortunately no, ill keep searching for solution, thanks for link — vankwiny, Jul 30 '22 at 13:02

molde · Answer 1 · 2022-09-22T18:43:11.297

This solution has proven to be the one that always works for me. I know it's not very elegant.

-Keep audio playing from any source (youtube, vlc, etc)

-Run this:

   for i in {1..500}; do sudo alsa force-reload; sleep 3; done

It runs the command sudo alsa force-reload then waits 3 seconds and then runs it again. It does this 500 times. I usually get it working in less than a 100 tries.

At some point you will hear a sound coming, then you will see that the dummy output device is gone and the sound works (I keep the sound settings open next to the terminal to see it), abort the script.

This is how it looks:

The sound starts working when this is printed

/sbin/alsa: Warning: Processes using sound devices: 1718(pulseaudio).

You can see the difference when the script runs sudo alsa force-reload before and after that line is printed and the sound starts to work

Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-sof-pci-intel-cnl snd-sof-intel-hda-common snd-sof-intel-hda snd-sof-pci snd-sof-xtensa-dsp snd-sof snd-soc-hdac-hda snd-hda-ext-core snd-soc-acpi-intel-match snd-soc-acpi snd-soc-core snd-compress snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-hda-intel snd-intel-dspcfg snd-intel-sdw-acpi snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-rawmidi snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-timer.
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-sof-pci-intel-cnl snd-sof-intel-hda-common snd-sof-intel-hda snd-sof-pci snd-sof-xtensa-dsp snd-sof snd-soc-hdac-hda snd-hda-ext-core snd-soc-acpi-intel-match snd-soc-acpi snd-soc-core snd-compress snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-hda-intel snd-intel-dspcfg snd-intel-sdw-acpi snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-rawmidi snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-timer.
/sbin/alsa: Warning: Processes using sound devices: 1718(pulseaudio). 
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-ctl-led snd-hda-codec-realtek snd-hda-codec-generic snd-hda-intel snd-sof-pci-intel-cnl snd-sof-intel-hda-common snd-sof-intel-hda snd-sof-pci snd-sof-xtensa-dsp snd-sof snd-soc-hdac-hda snd-hda-ext-core snd-soc-acpi-intel-match snd-soc-acpi snd-intel-dspcfg snd-intel-sdw-acpi snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-soc-core snd-compress snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-pcm snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-rawmidi snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-timer (failed: modules still loaded: snd-hda-codec-realtek snd-hda-codec-generic snd-hda-intel snd-intel-dspcfg snd-intel-sdw-acpi snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-pcm snd-timer).
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: snd-ctl-led snd-hda-codec-realtek snd-hda-codec-generic snd-hda-intel snd-sof-pci-intel-cnl snd-sof-intel-hda-common snd-sof-intel-hda snd-sof-pci snd-sof-xtensa-dsp snd-sof snd-soc-hdac-hda snd-hda-ext-core snd-soc-acpi-intel-match snd-soc-acpi snd-intel-dspcfg snd-intel-sdw-acpi snd-hda-codec snd-hda-core snd-hwdep snd-soc-core snd-compress snd-pcm-dmaengine snd-pcm snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-rawmidi snd-seq snd-seq-device snd-timer.
^C

Alsa documentation: https://www.alsa-project.org/wiki/Main_Page

Surprisingly, this works! Any idea why the problem occurs? (Confirmed on Ubuntu 23:10, Gnome 45.2) — Tenders McChiken, Feb 23 '24 at 09:10

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 04 '23 at 18:32

In my case (also on an Dell XPS 15 9570, though not 4K, and instead of a fresh installation of 22.04, the problem happened after upgrade from 22.04 to 23.04) a different solution helped:

sudo apt install pipewire-media-session

In the middle of the installation my XPS restarted by itself. Very weird - I think I have never experienced before that an apt command led to an automatic restart...

Dummy output on Dell XPS 15 9570 4k and Ubuntu 22.04

2 Answers2