ASUSTeK audio problems

[shrub]

I have just installed Mint for the first time. It is on a new machine with no other OS. The first impressions are very good, and this forum helped me get up and running.

I am posting for suggestions on how to debug not having sound.

The computer has an Asus Prime Z590-A motherboard, with no separate sound card (or graphics card). I boot with the kernel options
pci=noaer nomodeset
and it appears that a sound driver is loaded (the Driver Manager says no additional drivers are needed).

Here is inxi output, any suggestions would be appreciated:

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$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-91-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 wm: muffin 5.0.2 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: N/A v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: PRIME Z590-A v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: American Megatrends v: 0605 date: 03/11/2021 
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_2 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard 
  serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes 
  status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: 8-Core model: Intel Core i7-10700K bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: N/A L2 cache: 16.0 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 121596 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/5100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 800 2: 801 
  3: 800 4: 800 5: 800 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 800 11: 800 12: 800 
  13: 800 14: 800 15: 800 16: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:9bc5 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: fbdev 
  unloaded: modesetting,vesa resolution: 2560x1440~93Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.0.3 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:f0c8 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-91-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igc v: 0.0.1-k port: efa0 
  bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 8086:15f3 
  IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8192EE PCIe Wireless Network Adapter 
  driver: rtl8192ee v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 04:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:818b 
  IF: wlp4s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.27 TiB used: 376.85 GiB (16.2%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WDS100T3X0C-00SJG0 
  size: 931.51 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 111110WD 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sde type: USB vendor: Western Digital model: WD15EADS-11P8B2 
  size: 1.36 TiB serial: <filter> rev: 2002 scheme: MBR 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 109.20 GiB used: 15.64 GiB (14.3%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3 
  ID-2: /home size: 805.70 GiB used: 16.76 GiB (2.1%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 27.8 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://mintmirror.math.washington.edu/linuxmint-repo uma main upstream import backport
  2: deb https://mirror.it.ubc.ca/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb https://mirror.it.ubc.ca/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb https://mirror.it.ubc.ca/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 357 Uptime: 21h 55m Memory: 31.17 GiB used: 4.48 GiB (14.4%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38

[shrub]

Since I made my initial post, I noticed the pinned Tips for Troubleshooting post and I went through linked tips from MrEen: http://mreen.epizy.com/SoundFixTips.html?i=2

This is good, but I am now at point 7 which suggests asking for help here. But at least I now have an indication of something that maybe sheds some light on my problem, I just don't see the light:

He suggests posting the output of
pacmd list-sinks
(which I'll do below), and he says we don't usually want to see "available: unknown" for the active port, but that is exactly what I see.
In pavucontrol, the only output device is Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (IEC958) (that makes sense), and the only configuration profile available is Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output (or that + Analog Stereo Input); all Analog Stereo/Surround options are (unplugged) and (unavailable).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

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$ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC1220 Analog [ALC1220 Analog]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC1220 Digital [ALC1220 Digital]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

Code: Select all

$ pacmd list-sinks
1 sink(s) available.
  * index: 1
	name: <alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.iec958-stereo>
	driver: <module-alsa-card.c>
	flags: HARDWARE HW_MUTE_CTRL DECIBEL_VOLUME LATENCY DYNAMIC_LATENCY
	state: RUNNING
	suspend cause: (none)
	priority: 9038
	volume: front-left: 45123 /  69% / -9.72 dB,   front-right: 45123 /  69% / -9.72 dB
	        balance 0.00
	base volume: 65536 / 100% / 0.00 dB
	volume steps: 65537
	muted: no
	current latency: 126.42 ms
	max request: 25 KiB
	max rewind: 25 KiB
	monitor source: 1
	sample spec: s16le 2ch 44100Hz
	channel map: front-left,front-right
	             Stereo
	used by: 4
	linked by: 4
	configured latency: 146.00 ms; range is 146.00 .. 371.52 ms
	card: 0 <alsa_card.pci-0000_00_1f.3>
	module: 26
	properties:
		alsa.resolution_bits = "16"
		device.api = "alsa"
		device.class = "sound"
		alsa.class = "generic"
		alsa.subclass = "generic-mix"
		alsa.name = "ALC1220 Digital"
		alsa.id = "ALC1220 Digital"
		alsa.subdevice = "0"
		alsa.subdevice_name = "subdevice #0"
		alsa.device = "1"
		alsa.card = "0"
		alsa.card_name = "HDA Intel PCH"
		alsa.long_card_name = "HDA Intel PCH at 0x6001110000 irq 152"
		alsa.driver_name = "snd_hda_intel"
		device.bus_path = "pci-0000:00:1f.3"
		sysfs.path = "/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1f.3/sound/card0"
		device.bus = "pci"
		device.vendor.id = "8086"
		device.vendor.name = "Intel Corporation"
		device.product.id = "f0c8"
		device.form_factor = "internal"
		device.string = "iec958:0"
		device.buffering.buffer_size = "65536"
		device.buffering.fragment_size = "32768"
		device.access_mode = "mmap+timer"
		device.profile.name = "iec958-stereo"
		device.profile.description = "Digital Stereo (IEC958)"
		device.description = "Built-in Audio Digital Stereo (IEC958)"
		module-udev-detect.discovered = "1"
		device.icon_name = "audio-card-pci"
	ports:
		iec958-stereo-output: Digital Output (S/PDIF) (priority 0, latency offset 0 usec, available: unknown)
			properties:
				
	active port: <iec958-stereo-output>

[shrub]

Okay, so I learned that I, um, I need speakers in order to hear sound. The sound is just great if I plug the earbuds into the line port at the back of the box, directly connected to the motherboard.

I get no sound out of the headphone jack at the front of the box. I confirmed that this is properly wired into the motherboard, so is that maybe a problem with the Linux driver?

I have speakers on my monitor, but no HDMI audio indication. This is likely because I am still booting with nomodeset, e.g.,
viewtopic.php?t=284805
so I will post on the graphics board looking for hints on moving beyond that.

[Terrum]

It might be worth checking the sound in another OS (preferably Windows) just to be 100% sure it's not a hardware issue.

If you are 100% sure it works on Windows or any other OS, try rebooting your PC a few times. I'm having a similar-ish issue (but might not be related at all) where my analogue output for my ASUS sound card doesn't show, and I have to reboot my PC a few times in order for it to show.

EDIT: Writing 'sudo alsa force-reload' seems to have a similar effect to rebooting. Give that a shot also.

[shrub]

Thanks Terrum, I will try live-booting a different OS. I got the machine OS-free, so Windows isn't a debug option I'll likely try. I tried sudo alsa force-reload, but the Audio outputs still don't show as available for the profile in the pavucontrol Configuration panel.