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I have just switched from OSX to Xubuntu 14.04 on my iMac Late 2013. I've got everything running smooth, except for my freakin' audio card. It works occasionally for a few minutes and then it just stops. I can't hear anything, but the sound indicator in the sound settings is moving.

I followed every single possible solution on askubuntu and the Ubuntu forums but I couldn't get it to work permanently. The only thing that kinda works for me is force reloading the pulse audio driver. But I gotta do that a couple of times, including logins and log outs to reactive the sound for a few minutes.

I really don't want to give up, and hope you guys can help me figure this one out. I don't want to go back to OSX, I really like my new found freedom!

Let me know if you need more information, any help would be greatly appreciated!

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: CS4206 Analog [CS4206 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: CS4206 Digital [CS4206 Digital]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Card: HDA Intel PCH                                 
Chip: Cirrus Logic CS4206
Kristopher Ives
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LinuxScientist
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2 Answers2

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I had many issues with my late 2013 iMac 21.5" as well. The setup which currently works for me is the following:

  • Pulseaudio and alsa default settings

  • in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf, make sure you have the following option

    options snd-hda-intel model=imac27_122

Then, speakers should work out of the box. To fix headphones, I had to use hda_analyzer.py, instructions are here. I actually had to modify the source a bit to run on my machine, let me know if you need further help with that.

Using hda_analyzer, make sure that you configure card-1 codec-0 as following: enter image description here

Sound should then work with both speakers and headphones. The [2] IO is your headphone, the [3] is the speaker. To make the changes permanent, use exp to save the changes to a script and call it in the boot process (e.g. in rc.local).

noleti
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  • Thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated! By the way, do you also experience poor sound quality, like an old mono radio with a hissing noise on voices, especially when I turn the volume up? – LinuxScientist Aug 14 '14 at 17:29
  • What is the exp program you referred to? –  Dec 02 '14 at 16:31
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    sorry, my markup is confusing, Exp refers to the button in the screenshot – noleti Dec 05 '14 at 23:23
  • I added the exported Python script from exp to be called from /etc/rc.local. I placed the exported python script here /usr/sbin/sound.py. In rc.local I removed the -e from #!/bin/sh line. In /etc/rc.local I put python /usr/sbin/sound.py
    exit 0 to run it on boot. It seems to work. However, when I check HDA Analyzer, it is not putting a check next to [2] under data. Therefore, if I check next to [2], it works. Any ideas? @noleti Thank you so much for posting this answer! It made me so glad to find it.     – jbrock Apr 15 '15 at 00:23
  • @jbrock Sorry, no idea. I am actually still starting the script by hand every time I reboot (not that often). It also fixes some other stuff, so I need to run it anyways... – noleti Apr 22 '15 at 11:26
  • @noleti I actually have been just fine in doing the same thing. I created an alias for it, and it is no big deal to do this once a day for me. – jbrock Apr 23 '15 at 15:04
  • Here is how to get the audio to work from boot. I linked a pdf because these comments don't have formatting. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B40SH78AyQDxdFl1Y1lYRElFbmM&authuser=0 – jbrock Apr 25 '15 at 13:09
  • After sleeping, the audio would not work. Here is how to run the script on wake. http://askubuntu.com/questions/226278/run-script-on-wakeup You just create a script in /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d that runs the python script that correctly sets the audio. – jbrock May 26 '15 at 17:22
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  • You can try uninstalling Pulseaudio and test with the Alsa audio layer only: 

    sudo apt-get purge pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install  gnome-alsamixer

  • Reboot and set the volume with the Gnome Alsa mixer (in the multimedia menu), or alsamixer in a terminal: it could be better as Pulseaudio is cpu consuming and not necessary for audio to work.

  • If you want to go back to Pulseaudio, look here :
    Audio suddenly stopped, pulseaudio reinstall has not helped? (14.04)
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laugeo
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  • Holy crap, thanks laugeo! This seems to have fixed my problem for now. Thank you Thank You Thank you, I am so super happy! Oddly enough I tried the Alsa Audio Layer before but it didn't work. Now it does and I'm so thrilled, my computer may look like a Mac, but it actually runs Linux exclusively! I can't thank you enough, you made my day! – LinuxScientist Jun 05 '14 at 00:37