Mint 20 not recognizing sound cards

[fred56]

Hi, I've been trying to solve this, spent hours, but no luck. I've tried many suggested solutions to no avail. I'm a newbie.

I installed Mint 20 on an Acer 14 (Edgar) Chromebook. Everything is fine except the sound cards aren't being recognized. I had Dummy Output in the Audio settings.

Something that I did along the way made the Dummy Output go away and showed the HDA Intel PCH card in Auto settings. But no sound. (Sorry no details, I cut and paste to the Terminal and didn't keep notes).

Using AlsaMixer I can see two cards, but the "HDA Intel PCH" card does not show any controls. The other, "chtrt5650," shows controls that can be manipulated.

How can I make the chtrt5650 card the default? How can I make Audio settings recognize the card? Or, how can I get the HDA Intel PCH card to work?

Thank you!

[MrEen]

Hi fred56, and welcome to the forum.

Let's get a look at your sound setup with this command:

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curl https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/raw/master/src/utils/pa-info?inline=false | bash | nc termbin.com 9999

The last line of output will have a URL pointing to the info. Pasting that URL is all I need.

It's probably just a simple config change necessary, but it could be deeper than that.

[fred56]

Hi! Thanks for the reply.

https://termbin.com/fm3j

Let me know if you need anything else.

I put Linux Mint on my PC (dual boot) about six weeks ago and loving it. And just put Mint on the Chromebook yesterday. It's been frustrating at times since everything is so new to me, but a lot of fun puzzles.

[MrEen]

Okay, we didn't get the full output, but I think I know what's wrong. ALSA is seeing the chtrt5650 card but PulseAudio isn't. Try runing this in the terminal and see if there's a change in your sound settings:

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pacmd load-module module-alsa-sink device=hw:1,0

If that fails to help, run this command please:

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wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

That script will ask if you want to save locally or upload. Please choose upload and paste the URL it'll give you when it finishes.

[fred56]

The first command did nothing. Here's the output of the second:

http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=ab40277aa ... acaa2a66af

Thanks for your help!

[MrEen]

Okay, try these and tell me if either work:

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aplay -D plughw:1,0 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

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aplay -D plughw:1,1 /usr/share/sounds/alsa/Front_Center.wav

[fred56]

I entered both commands and then rebooted the computer, just in case that would help.

I looked at Sound settings, Pulse Audio Volume Control, and AlsaMixer. Everything looks the same as before. Still don't have sound.

[MrEen]

I was hoping one of those two would produce sound. But no such luck apparently.

In your attempts to fix this you've added this line to a file in /etc/modprobe.d (maybe alsa-base.conf?) that I'd like you to remove, then reboot, then try the two lines in my last post again.

Were you testing with headphones or without? Normally, either the headphones or the speakers would be muted, but neither of yours were. Typically, headphones have a better chance of working when there are issues.

[fred56]

Yes, the config file that you suggested is the one I changed. I added this line to the bottom (through cutting and pasting from the terminal); "options snd-hda-intel model=generic". The file is read-only and I don't know how to make it writable. Can you help?

I don't have headphones, so I've only been testing the built in speakers.

[MrEen]

To open that file to remove the edit you made, use xed admin:///etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf in the terminal.

[fred56]

After removing the line and saving, the output device in the Sound setting has reverted to Dummy Output. So no sound.

[MrEen]

Wow, interesting.

Do this one again please:

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wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

[MrEen]

Actually, regardless of the output, I'd like you to try this next:

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sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/sof-fix.conf <<<'options snd-intel-dspcfg dsp_driver=1'

Run that in the terminal then reboot and test.

[fred56]

wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

[fred56]

http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=b1f8b0f63 ... 9fa13aadcd

[fred56]

I ran it and rebooted, no changes, Dummy Output is still there.

[MrEen]

In case you missed it, try what's in my last post. We were posting at the same time.

[MrEen]

I'd like to see if it made changes to this once more:

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wget http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-info.sh -O alsa-info.sh && bash alsa-info.sh

[MrEen]

This is going to be the next thing to try:

In the terminal run xed admin:///var/lib/alsa/asound.state and when the file opens find this section:

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state.chtrt5650 {
	control.1 {
		iface MIXER

Change it to this:

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state.chtrt5645 {
	control.1 {
		iface MIXER

Save the change, then run sudo alsactl restore then see if the sound is working.

[fred56]

http://alsa-project.org/db/?f=348263764 ... feb5d80f46