Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

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SMG
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Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by SMG »

This topic has been superseded by Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues Rev. 1 on 13 January 2023.

First check should be to make sure your install has sound drivers installed.

Run inxi -Axxx to check specifically for your computer's audio information.

Audio:
Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1c20
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-91-generic

While snd_hda_intel is the most common, your system may use different drivers.

If your system is missing drivers, you may need to install a newer kernel series to get the drivers.



Next check is to install pavucontrol as the Linux Mint release notes advise:
If you're facing issues with your microphone or your sound output, please install "pavucontrol".

This will add "PulseAudio Volume Control" to your menu. This application has more configuration options than the default volume control.
Check to see if adjustments there help you gain sound output. This older reference How to Use PulseAudio to Manage Sounds on Ubuntu 18.04 has screenshots and explains some of the functionality available in PulseAudio.



The next level of troubleshooting is courtesy of MrEen, our resident sound guru, who has assembled several pages of tips for troubleshooting.


In the "HP Prodesk 600 G6 mini DP/HDMI no sound" topic, this post lists the steps to get sound with HP Prodesk/HP Elitedesk computers.

Workaround for HP UltraSlim Docking Station and no sound via audio output in this post.

This topic How can I improve the sound quality? mentions quite a few tips if you have sound and want to improve its quality.

Some tutorials on the forum which may be helpful:
As always, you are welcome to post a topic on the forum asking for help at any point along the way.


Edited 05 Oct 2022 to add more information on how adding Pipewire might help.
Edited 31 Aug 2022 to add workaound for HP UltraSlim Docking Station and no sound via audio output.
Edited 18 Aug 2022 to add Huawei Matebook X Pro 2021 as one which can use the new sof drivers.
Edited 16 July 2022 to add link to HP Prodesk HDMI fix.
Edited 17 June 2022 to add list of tutorials.
Last edited by LockBot on Mon Jan 16, 2023 11:00 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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JJG
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Re: Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by JJG »

I reply to myself since I could solve the problem. Here what I did :

I did what the following link says :
> https://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/son_problemes ---> in French

paragraphe 1.8.2 (many sounds cards)

and... ta.da..., after reboot, the sound is there !

(sorry my native language is french !)
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Re: Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by SMG »

Here is an Ubuntu Wiki English link for those who do not speak French or have a translator program handy:
Ubuntu Wiki: Audio - "This set of wiki pages is intended to help anyone dealing with audio issues be that users, developers, testers or bug triagers."
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Re: Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by adermex36 »

Hi everybody,
Reading this forum when I need some usefull information... just want to share my experience here...

Got an HP ENVY 17 with Bang&Olufsen inside...
It come with Win10 (windaube in fr...) and at first, I install Linux Mint on dual boot...

Run Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 from live cd, sound ok (speaker, headphone & HDMI)
Install, reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI)
Update everything when ask, include ALSA & PULSEAUDIO.

Reboot, NO SOUND (speaker, headphone &HDMI)
Searching on web for solution and analysed all topics to see if...but to much to probe...

I finally choose a simple method...
Run again Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 from live cd, sound ok (speaker, headphone & HDMI)
Install, reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI)
Update everything when ask, EXCLUDED ALSA & PULSEAUDIO.
Reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update ALSA & PULSEAUDIO.
Reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

who knows....
Kernel: 5.4.0-109-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0
Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una
base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
Laptop HP ENVY Laptop 17-cg0xxx
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Re: Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by Mintalicious »

adermex36 wrote: Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:36 pm ...
I finally choose a simple method...
Run again Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 from live cd, sound ok (speaker, headphone & HDMI)
Install, reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI)
Update everything when ask, EXCLUDED ALSA & PULSEAUDIO.
Reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Update ALSA & PULSEAUDIO.
Reboot, SOUND OK (speaker, headphone &HDMI) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

who knows....
Can you explain this update process you mentioned in more detail (bolded in your text, above). Was it an update within 20.3 to within 20.3, or was it an update to 21?

Did you request this update, or did Mint request it from you?

Do you know the specific name of this update?

TIA...
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Re: Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by SMG »

Mintalicious wrote: Tue Sep 13, 2022 9:27 am Was it an update within 20.3 to within 20.3,
Yes. LM21 was not available in April of this year when that post was made. It was a normal update that came through after doing a fresh install of LM20.3. Periodically, updates are made to PulseAudio and ALSA. LM20.3 came out in January so any updates for ALSA or PulseAudio between then and April 28th would be what they are referencing.

If you are having an issue with an LM21 install, please make a new topic because there are a number of difference in how audio is handled in LM21 compare to how it was handled in LM20 versions.
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Re: Tips for Troubleshooting Sound Issues

Post by terry_dwyer »

Something that happened to me. After a few Kernel updates I thought I'd check that the Mic was working. I found it wasn't so I spent about a day searching the forums and trying various possible solutions. I am not a beginner at sorting out audio problems on this particular laptop and I'm sure I didn't miss any of the suggested fixes.
None worked. I did a search on the web, not the Mint forums and found this:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=279824.

About half way down I found what sounded like a reasonable explanation to the OP's problem:

sudo alsactl init
sudo alsactl store

After running the init command I had my Mic back. at this stage, after running the store command I haven't yet rebooted.
If it's still a problem after rebooting, I'll just put the init command in a startup file.

Edit: I just rebooted and the Mic is working so I guess the store command fixed it across reboots.

I thought I'd post here so others might find this a little more easily than I did.

My Machine:

Code: Select all

System:    Kernel: 5.15.0-52-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una 
           base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: XPS 17 9710 
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