Ubuntu 12.04 alsamixer not found

Question

I have a Lenovo Y500 with Windows 8. I successfully got Ubuntu 12.04 installed alongside Windows 8 and the nvidia drivers just worked from the start. The sound wasn't working at all however, and although alsamixer was alive and well when I started out, I seemed to have completely destroyed it now.

I keep getting:

$ alsamixer
cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

Kernel version:

$ uname -a
Linux laptop 3.5.0-28-generic #48~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 24 21:42:24 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I've tried both of the following packages from https://code.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-audio-dev/+archive/alsa-daily/+packages:

oem-audio-hda-daily-dkms - 0.201305101424~precise1
oem-audio-hda-daily-lts-quantal-dkms - 0.201305101424~precise1

but to no avail.

This is the output of my alsa-info:

http://www.alsa-project.org/db/?f=09851ab8c4380c25feaea7ff1de68d847bd4160c

I've tried many other solutions as well but nothing seems to get alsamixer back, nevermind trying to get the audio to work again.

PS. when alsamixer was still working I did check the levels and it was not a case of the channels being muted.

Edit

/usr/bin is in $PATH.
no asound rc or conf files anywhere.
alsamixer is in /usr/bin, can't run it as alsamixer, /usr/bin/alsamixer not with sudo, even after purging and re-installing alsa-utils.

Edit 2

$ ls /dev/mixer -l
ls: cannot access /dev/mixer: No such file or directory
$ ls /usr/bin -l | grep alsamixer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root   root       65344 Mar 28 23:54 alsamixer
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root   root       61272 Dec 18  2011 gnome-alsamixer

Edit 3

$ ls /dev/snd -l
ls: cannot access /dev/snd: No such file or directory

Those Unknown symbol errors indicate that you have installed drivers that do not match your kernel. — CL., May 13 '13 at 14:24
@Radu Wow man this is a coincidence, I joined here actually to thank you for your guide on installing Ubuntu alongside Windows 8 but didn't have enough rep to comment! So, thanks! — alecvn, May 13 '13 at 14:30
Edit your question with the results of ls /dev/mixer -l and ls /usr/bin -l | grep alsamixer commands. — Radu Rădeanu, May 13 '13 at 15:07
@Radu It opens up, but it crashes as soon as I try to configure it. — alecvn, May 13 '13 at 16:58
@Radu lsmod | grep snd also doesn't come up with anything. — alecvn, May 13 '13 at 17:14
@skepticscript This is very strange. Maybe is better to report this problem as a bug. — Radu Rădeanu, May 13 '13 at 17:19
@Radu I might be the cause of the bug with all my tinkering. Will try a clean install first. Thanks for the help! — alecvn, May 13 '13 at 17:22

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 24 '14 at 15:09

7

I hit this error and solved it by adding myself to the audio group.

sudo addgroup <username> audio

Log out and back in, then test.

answered Mar 24 '14 at 15:09

Drew Noakes

5,708

1

It might be enough to just run newgrp audio and log out && log in, at least within the same shell. – moon.musick Mar 25 '15 at 21:40

Radu Rădeanu · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-14T09:37:02.210

6

Firts of all, you should check if you have /usr/bin directory in your $PATH in terminal with:

echo $PATH

If the $PATH is ok, check if alsamixer is there:

ls -l /usr/bin | grep alsamixer

If yes, try to run alsamixer like this:

/usr/bin/alsamixer

If still doesn't work delete .asoundrc file (in your home directory) and /etc/asound.conf (if you have them) and reinstall alsa-utils:

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-utils
sudo apt-get install alsa-utils

edited May 14 '13 at 09:37

answered May 13 '13 at 14:27

Radu Rădeanu

169,590

1

I updated my question with the results. After reading your guide to installing Ubuntu alongside Windows 8 I have a lot of faith in you! ;D – alecvn May 13 '13 at 14:49
Updated my answer again. On my other PC with Ubuntu 12.04 installed ls /dev/mixer -l doesn't show anything either. – alecvn May 13 '13 at 16:32
Marking this as the solution as it brought me to the final conclusion. – alecvn May 14 '13 at 09:16
1

Radu, thank you very much. The simple checks and your if/else guide was spot on. The final solution (purge and install again) resolved a 3 week long issue I was struggling to resolve. So nice to see alsamixer again. Thanks. – James Feb 16 '15 at 17:03

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 17 '14 at 20:28

1

I had the same problem and it happened while the sound card (ALC662) was disabled in BIOS. Enabling it, allowed me to start alsamixer. I hope it helps.

answered Mar 17 '14 at 20:28

user259304

21
1

Could you explain it a bit more and maybe add screenshots? – Mar 17 '14 at 21:11
This might have helped, however I just re-installed and started over. – alecvn Mar 18 '14 at 10:00

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 24 '17 at 16:00

1

For me using the -c parameter worked

alsamixer -c 1

but I'm on 16.04

answered Feb 24 '17 at 16:00

842Mono

9,790
28
90
153

Ubuntu 12.04 alsamixer not found

4 Answers4

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