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Problem: My audio is not working. I'm getting that "Dummy Output" in the sound settings. I've been scouring the web, but nothing I try is working. I've tried

sudo alsa force-reload

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-utils

sudo apt-get install alsa-utils

I've tried about every single little thing, and it's driving me crazy.

Ubuntu dist: Saucy Salamander (13.10, running GNOME-3 Desktop) Results of lspci: 

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB xHCI Host Controller (rev 04)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev c4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev c4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
02:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5289 (rev 01)
03:00.2 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 0a)

(wasn't quite sure how much you guys needed)
For some reason, I don't have a .asoundrc file or /etc/asoundrc.conf file. I can't get into alsamixer either. I've uninstalled, reinstalled, uninstalled, and reinstalled alsa-base, alsa-utils, pulseaudio, and even Wine.
I don't know what else to do at this point. Can you guys help me?

EDIT: sudo alsa force-reload returns 

 Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: (none loaded).
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: (none to reload).
Do I have to reinstall Ubuntu?

YungDaVinci
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  • go to home , press Ctrl+h and then there you will find .asoundrc and its used from /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf and possibly you might have it at /etc/asound.conf. – Sukupa91 Nov 27 '13 at 02:01
  • Umm.. that's the problem. When I press Ctrl+H, there is no .asoundrc file. @Sushantp606 – YungDaVinci Nov 27 '13 at 02:16
  • try to edit speech dispatcher once. – Sukupa91 Nov 27 '13 at 02:17
  • that means alsa-base is not installed, to make sure use aptitude search alsa-base .. Open Synaptic and click on reload. When it's done running see if it shows any broken packages or upgrades. btw which kernel are you using?? – Sukupa91 Nov 27 '13 at 02:34

5 Answers5

3

Thanks to GLauro for the pointer in the right direction. I experienced the same problem on upgrade to kernel 5.8.0.36. I attempted to modprobe the snd-intel-dspcfg module, and found by searching that it had been moved to the linux-modules-extra- package. So I had to install that package, since it hasn't been installed by default since 5.4.0-60.67

sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-5.8.0-36-generic

Then reboot

Brett Johnson
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  • After purging some old 5.4.x kernels, my grub.cfg became corrupt. Once grub was fixed and I found all sound was lost. Re-installing the linux-modules-extra (for my version) completely solved the problem! TY! – J Jorgenson Apr 23 '21 at 03:22
1

To anyone that might have had a similar problem in 2021. On 2021-Jan-07 I upgraded to kernel version 5.8.0-36-generic on Kubuntu 20.04. After rebooting, the audio was gone and ALSA wouldn't detect my sound card.

I was getting the same output as the original question:

EDIT: sudo alsa force-reload returns

Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: (none loaded).
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: (none to reload).

Running the solutions suggested by Sukupa91 did not work.

Solution

I got it to work by adding the following to the bottom of /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf

options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1

And then rebooting.

GLauro
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1

After searching, I have found a simple answer. Just execute 

killall pulseaudio

Your speakers should work fine now. To ensure this, test the sound stack in System Settings > Sound > Test Sound (Speaker test, Not Digital Output (S/PDIF) test)

The only problem with your issue is there is no driver found for your audio for that then Try to reinstall pulse audio and Alsa, open terminal and enter the following commands-

sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install alsa-base pulseaudio
sudo alsa force-reload

even Upgrading your sound drivers may fix the nosound issue , for that use the following commands -

 sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-audio-dev
 sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

the final try from me is to make some changes in speech-dispather by-

sudo gedit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher

and change 

RUN=yes

to 

RUN=no

hope these workarounds will solve your issue, before testing make sure to restart once after doing any of the method.

Sukupa91
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  • killall pulseaudio just made my mouse disappear. The other things didn't do anything. – YungDaVinci Nov 27 '13 at 02:18
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    In speech-dispatcher, it was already set to RUN=no. – YungDaVinci Nov 27 '13 at 02:23
  • everything is done from my side, sorry I could not figure it out, backup your data and re-install it , and for the last time force reload by sudo alsa force-reload, and then restart . i was having the same issue once on my dell inspiron and just a restart worked out. – Sukupa91 Nov 27 '13 at 02:27
  • if nothing works downgrade your kernel once , thats the last hope i know , if it works well and good otherwise you need to re-install. – Sukupa91 Nov 27 '13 at 02:52
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    I booted Xubuntu from my flash drive. I think it's that I don't have a soundcard (or they aren't being recognized). Thanks for your help though – YungDaVinci Nov 27 '13 at 03:31
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    -1, these commands are quite dangerous. sudo apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio will uninstall ubuntu-desktop and render novice users unable to recover. TREAT THIS ANSWER WITH CARE! – Josh Sep 29 '14 at 04:35
  • Did not work for me – Hack-R Nov 26 '16 at 23:57
0

I had this problem with Linux Mint19 ... for me it helped to upgrade kernel to version 4.15.0-29-generic which made the system see the card but still no sound.

Used then:

alsactl -nrestore

This command re-grabs the card and initializes it. Then created a file (called it alsafix) 

echo alsactl nrestore >alsafix

Then 

chmod +x alsafix&&cp alsafix /sbin

then added a startup entry via GUI 

"./alsafix"

and it works.

Hardware: Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)

Card: HDA Intel PCH │ Chip: Realtek ALC269VC

(in my case a Panasonic Toughbook CF-C2)

Stephen Rauch
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Christian Kießling
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0

I solved this problem:

  1. sudo apt-get purge alsa-driver-linuxant
  2. https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SoundTroubleshootingProcedure
Andre Kirpitch
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