Sound lost after updates? [SOLVED]

[zeller]

This is a hunch. I believe applied updates to my laptop may have caused a loss of audio.

I looked back through the updates (all 3s on the security) and I didn't see anything audio oriented.

But it was the same day I did the updates, about three days ago, that audio stopped working.

I reinstalled everything PulseAudio related through synaptic. No luck. Still no audio.

lspci output gives me:

Code: Select all

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL Memory Controller Hub (rev 0e)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82915G/P/GV/GL/PL/910GL PCI Express Root Port (rev 0e)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.3 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc M24 1P [Radeon Mobility X600]
0b:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx21/x515 Cardbus Controller
0b:00.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
0b:00.3 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx21 Integrated FlashMedia Controller
0b:00.4 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCI6411/6421/6611/6621/7411/7421/7611/7621 Secure Digital Controller
0b:02.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0b:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

I don't know enough about any of this to know what to do next. Would appreciate the help asap so I can recover sound.

Thanks!

[zeller]

Anyone? I've no clue. I know the speakers work because when I shut down Mint, a loud beep cries out. It also didn't used to do that either.

[kei84]

You lost the sound system or you can hear something?

At alsamixer, all the levels are up?

[zeller]

Yeah. I checked and when playing anything with sound the graphical bar moves left and right. I know the computer is processing the sound, but it's like it's not sending it to the speakers anymore. I tried headphones too, thinking maybe my speakers are dead, but the headphone jack didn't work either. Must be software related.

EDIT: Should I remove everything Alsa and PulsAudio related and reinstall?

[uskomaton]

It seems I ran into the same issue today, the "successful login" sound plays but after that nothing.
I am not quite sure if this happened after updating the system, but it was my first reboot after doing
a reinstall on the system, before the reboot it was working fine.

I think I will try a reinstall and see if that helps.

EDIT: Just did a reinstall, this is definetly due to one of the updates, after the install had 99 updates,
installed those, 5 Firefox updates came up (that I had not seen before, so assume those are ok and
not related), installed those, sound was working fine. Restarted, had login sound but nothing after
that. My sound card is detected as CMI8738 incase that has anything to do with it and I have checked
that the sound wasn't muted after the restart either.

[uskomaton]

*shameless begging for answers*

[uskomaton]

Well, my laptop seems to still have sound after the updates.
The chip on it is Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM.

So, this might be related to the chip but who knows.

[nick]

Hi
Have you tried;

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... e0#p140731

Nick

[kansasnoob]

Regarding sound issues in general, regardless of when they begin, I always start by running in terminal:

Code: Select all

aplay -l

BTW that's a lower case L. If you end up with an output that includes "no soundcard found" then we know where to begin, just post the full output of that command and we'll go from there.

Something else I always do is install gnome-alsamixer from Synaptic Package Manager. It's installed flawlessly for me on every version of Mint since Daryna, but I still prefer installing via Package Manager just to be on the safe side (so you can see exactly what is going to be installed and/or removed). It'll then show up in Sound & Video.

It's pretty self explanatory, it just gives you many, many toggles to play with!

The next thing is pulseaudio! I've found this guide to be essential:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578

Of course you must follow only the proper steps for your version of Mint:

Gloria is based on Jaunty
Felicia is based on Intrepid
Elyssa is based on Hardy
Prior to that pulseaudio was not used.

[uskomaton]

I'll have to get back to you on that, but right now it seems the sound loss is totally random and NOT related
to the updates as I didn't install any priority 3 updates and my sound still got borked. Anyway, too late to do
anything about it today, but I will see if I can get it back up and running tomorrow.

Thanks for the guide too, looks very long and painful

[kansasnoob]

Nothing long and painful about it if you're using Gloria. Even with Elyssa it's about a 30 minute deal.

And everything you learn doing it is something you'll use later on!

[zeller]

zeller@zd8000 ~ $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel ICH6]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 4: Intel ICH - IEC958 [Intel ICH6 - IEC958]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

So, my device is being found. I will try uninstalling anything sound related and then reinstalling to see if that works...unless that's a bad idea.

I'll go through that Pulse Audio thread when I have it reinstalled.

Any reason ALSA and Pulse may be fighting for dominance causing this loss of sound?

[uskomaton]

Ok, so here is "aplay -l" results:

Code: Select all

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: CMI8738 [C-Media CMI8738], device 0: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI DAC/ADC]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CMI8738 [C-Media CMI8738], device 1: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI 2nd DAC]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: CMI8738 [C-Media CMI8738], device 2: CMI8738-MC6 [C-Media PCI IEC958]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

So it does definetly find it, also the "successful login" sound plays when I login.
Gonna check that Ubuntu Forums thread now and see if any of that helps.

This is really weird cos I just installed this system like 10min before this post
and all I did was remove a buggy screensaver package (rss-glx) that kept
freezing my system added conky, installed 1 and 2 priority updates and
rebooted. Oh yes it is Gloria and was a Gloria install to begin with.

I am using the same /home folder as the other Gloria install before this, so
could it be something in there that is causing this?

[uskomaton]

Well, I tried that guide on Ubuntu Forums, I had sound for a moment, but after a reboot
it was gone again, now when I try to run "pavucontrol" I get this error:

Code: Select all

(pavucontrol:4118): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_main_quit: assertion `main_loops != NULL' failed

Trying to run PulseAudio Device Chooser from the main menu resolts in nothing.
Also now it appears that my PulseAudio Volume Control is not connecting, but then I
think it and pavucontrol are the same thing, so it would make sense.

EDIT:
If I go to Multimedia Systems Selector the test sounds work fine.

[uskomaton]

Removed and installed again these:

mint-meta-main [7.0.5]
mint-meta-gnome [7.4.3]
padevchooser [0.9.3-2ubuntu4]
pavucontrol [0.9.7-1ubuntu3]

No help, except I can now run PulseAudio Volume Control again and there under
Output Devices it says Null Output where the device name should be.

[uskomaton]

Did a full reinstall, deleting all but my /media/data and so far it seems to have lasted thru at least
2 reboots, we will see if it will last longer than last time once I start removing some programs.

EDOT: So far, so good. I'm nearly done with the setup and all is well.
It's annoying not knowing what caused it, makes me wonder every move I make and that will
most likely mean that I won't stay on this distro for long, at least not on this machine.

[kei84]

In my opinion, you don`t choose a distro. A distro chooses you when comes to Linux.

The user have to find the distro that better suits his needs and that fits his system.

I always liked OpenSuse but the distro that better fits my notebook is Linux Mint. And I learned to love this distro.

[zeller]

Regardless of distro discussion...

I am still having trouble figuring out what I need to do in order to get my audio working. I'd like to know if anyone can diagnose this with me. Go step by step if need be.

I love Linux, but I need help in the troubleshooting department.

[kei84]

Zeller,

try using your LiveCD and see if sound work fine there. You can also remove pulseaudio.

[zeller]

Unfortunately, my drive doesn't read the brand of CD-Rs I purchased a while back, so no liveCD experience there. CD-Rs may be cheap, but my cashflow is seriously hindered right now. Ten bucks is like 3 meals. Gotta have those more.

I'll try to uninstall Pulse Audio and see if that remedies anything. I'll update you all later.