Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

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darsh

Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by darsh »

So my Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon 64-bit install, recent, on my newer laptop, has sound, just fine; but, almost every time I switch to Windows 10, via GRUB as I dual boot, then return to Mint 19, suddenly my sound doesn't work.

Note that there is no appearance of a problem. The buttons/levers/sound cards/etc. everything looks fine and is visible. But all sound everywhere doesn't work.

I've fixed it a few times, but either my approach isn't always consistent or I forgot something. I post here in hopes to better understand and permanently, or more easily, resolve it. I've already tried:

1. Terminal pulseaudio start.
2. Terminal alsa force-reload.
3. Installing various apps like an alsa mixer, pauvcontrol, etc.
4. Reinstalled pulseaudio and alsa, and other parts like -utils.
5. Removed two different pulseaudio directories.
6. Loaded alsamixer in Terminal.

Update: I just fixed it again, but would still prefer to know why this is happening and get a permanent solution. This time the fix was:

1. sudo apt-get install --reinstall alsa-base alsa-utils
2. rm -r ~/.pulse*
3. reboot

Thanks for any help. I know dual booting has it's errors. And even though I spend almost all of my time on Mint, I still need/want Windows 10 dual bootable for a few Windows-only games, Windows targeted/based software development projects and Windows testing. And I have been able to manage most of the bugs, except for this one, the worst of them.

Here's some info that may be asked for, in case it helps (I use an HP Pavilion AMD laptop, with quite high specifications):

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA ATI HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Generic [HD-Audio Generic], device 0: ALC295 Analog [ALC295 Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

inxi -Ax
Audio: Card-1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Device 157a
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:09.2
Card-2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Kabini HDMI/DP Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:01.1
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.15.0-24-generic

P.S. > When I open gnome alsa mixer, the ATI R6xx HDMI tab has like no options, but the Realtek ALC925 tab does, so I wonder if I can change my default sound card from 0 to 1? If that's even a thing.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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MrEen
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Re: Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by MrEen »

Hi darsh.

You probably don't need to change the defaults. For example, my card 0 is HDMI (like yours also ATI R6xx HDMI,) and Generic is card 2 (Realtek ALC221.) Card 2 is playing all my sound. I'll bet that like me, you don't have anything plugged into any HDMI port. That may explain the lack of options in alsamixer.

When linux boots up and you have no sound, try putting the computer to sleep then wake it back up. This has worked for some people.
darsh

Re: Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by darsh »

Thanks, MrEen sir, glad to have the input of someone with sound card(s) up my alley. I'll try the sleep/wake trick next time and report here if it worked!

I've only switched to Windows 10 and then back to Linux Mint 19 maybe 5-6 times and perhaps 3-4 of those times resulted in the loss of sound. And each time I fixed it, the previous time when I first posted this thread being one of the lengthier attempts of resolving it, I must have fixed it by some program or setting 'jogging it loose' or the main concept that is what, directly or in some form, worked once or twice before, and especially this time, the three steps I noted (the reinstall, remove and reboot, approach).

So while my own problem/question was now solved by me/technically the various web-sites I read that a few Google searches gave me, like Linux Mint Forum users, Easy Linux tips project (epicly detailed pages) and Itsfoss (helpful but one recommendation of theirs for fixing broken sound which was purging alsa while uninstalling it almost broke Mint for me, because it uninstalled cinnamon which did not automatically re-install, lol, but I manually re-installed the missing pieces)..

.. even so, the question/problem of 'why does dual boot cause this and how can I patch up my Mint 19 PC to not do this?' remains. And so I look forward to any more replies I may get. But I also leave my thread in the hands of whatever the reputable moderators of the outstanding Linux Mint distro/forum deem best fit.
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jimallyn
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Re: Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by jimallyn »

I remember having a similar problem with a Windows/Linux dual boot. If I selected "Reboot" from Windows, some piece of hardware - it's been so long I can't remember which - wouldn't function properly. But if I completely powered down the computer and then turned it back on and booted to Linux, everything was fine. My theory was that Windows left the hardware in some screwy state that interfered with its proper operation in Linux, but powering down and back up would of course put the hardware back to normal. So, have you tried completely shutting down the computer and cold booting into Linux? Or, from Linux, rebooting into Linux? Any pattern turn up that way?
“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you'd be upset. But, as it is, they're only coming for your sons.” - Daniel Berrigan
darsh

Re: Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by darsh »

Ah, thanks also to you, jimallyn sir, I'll try that next time! Shutdown instead of restart. I'll note here if it worked.

It's an excellent theory, by the way, because the secret to Windows 10 booting up at a decent pace, compared to prior product versions, is that it doesn't actually 'shut down' 'all the way.' I had to disable fast boot to help with issues from that. And because Windows seems to too often utilize and be rather sensitive to bootup level components, like how the Windows clock is wrong each time you boot into it, after you dual install Linux. I had to edit the registry so my Window's side clock would use a different time scale. Dual boot has caused some bugs I had to deal with on both Windows and Mint, simply because of dual booting, but it's still a valuable approach for me.
gcaceres93

Re: Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by gcaceres93 »

Hi Darch,
Sorry for the late question, have you found a solution for this issue?
I have exactly the same problem, with my dual boot of windows / linux and tested all the solutions you propose, with no results.
Currently i have good sound from my speakers, but sadly no with my headphones.
I will aprecciate any feedback on your currently state of the problem.
Thanks in advance.
PD: i have a hp omen model.
darsh

Re: Sound only quits working after dual boot to Windows 10 then back to Mint 19

Post by darsh »

I was able to fix it almost every time it happened, that I switched back from Windows 10 to the dual boot Linux Mint 19 [.1] and the sound quit working. The best article, for me, was itsfoss.com/fix-sound-ubuntu-1304-quick-tip . The..

sudo gedit /etc/default/speech-dispatcher
In here, change RUN=yes to RUN=no

.. approach worked for me once, for sure (you can directly find the file and edit it with a text editor (after right-clicking the folder it's in to view as root) rather than terminal, btw).

Each time either that or a clean/delete/reinstall of various sound files and such (also in the article ^) seemed to work, eventually.

I wonder if Linux Mint 19.3 and a kernel that's 5.0+, would carry the support needed to avoid the problem. Haven't tried it. I just boot Linux Mint from a separate drive now (a flash drive that's been turned into a HDD/SSD), to avoid any issues.

Hibernation crashes (because Windows stores files at the end of the partition, and when we shrink it to add a dual boot OS like Linux, we can cause issues), this sound issue and, thirdly, changing the time system for either Windows or Linux, as Windows time quits working when Linux is installed, at first, were the three issues I constantly dealt with.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, good luck to all with this problem, I hope the article has a step that works for you, and others!
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