Mint 19 Cinnamon does not find soundcard

[JowiKrause]

Hi!
Since updating to Cinnamon 19 I have absolutely no sound. When I click on Sound in the setup, there is simply no soundcard availabele.
As sugested by MInt, I installed 'Pavucontrol', but this does not start. Error:
Conection to PulseAudio failed
In this case, this is likely because PULSE_SERVER .... is misconfigured.
The suggested manual restart by start-pulseaudio-x11 also gives no remedy,
The result in terminal is: Verbindungsfehler: Verbindung verweigert
pa_context_new() fehlgeschlagen: Verbindung verweigert
What can I do to get my soundcard working? It is a Soundblaster Live!, i.e. the chip is EMU10K1, which should be included in the kernel...
Please help. I don't want to go back to 18.3, where everything worked just fine.
Cheers!

[MrEen]

Hi JowiKrause.

What happens if you type pulseaudio --start in the terminal?

When you reply, also include the output of aplay -l please.

[JowiKrause]

Hi and thanks for responding!

For the command "pulseaudio --start" I get the response:
W: [pulseaudio] core-util.c: Failed to open configuration file '/home/johann/.config/pulse//daemon.conf': Keine Berechtigung
W: [pulseaudio] daemon-conf.c: Öffnen der Konfigurationsdatei fehlgeschlagen : Keine Berechtigung
As Keine Berechtigung=No permission, this seems to be a permissions issue?

For the command "aplay -l" the response is:
W: [pulseaudio] core-util.c: Failed to open configuration file '/home/johann/.config/pulse//daemon.conf': Keine Berechtigung
W: [pulseaudio] daemon-conf.c: Öffnen der Konfigurationsdatei fehlgeschlagen : Keine Berechtigung
Karte 0: Live [SB Live! 5.1 [SB0220]], Gerät 0: emu10k1 [ADC Capture/Standard PCM Playback]
Sub-Geräte: 32/32
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
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Sub-Gerät #31: subdevice #31
Karte 0: Live [SB Live! 5.1 [SB0220]], Gerät 2: emu10k1 efx [Multichannel Capture/PT Playback]
Sub-Geräte: 8/8
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Sub-Gerät #1: subdevice #1
Sub-Gerät #2: subdevice #2
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Sub-Gerät #7: subdevice #7
Karte 0: Live [SB Live! 5.1 [SB0220]], Gerät 3: emu10k1 [Multichannel Playback]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], Gerät 0: VT1708S Analog [VT1708S Analog]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], Gerät 2: VT1708S Alt Analog [VT1708S Alt Analog]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], Gerät 3: VT1708S Digital [VT1708S Digital]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0
Karte 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], Gerät 7: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Sub-Geräte: 1/1
Sub-Gerät #0: subdevice #0

So I take it that the soundcard is being recognized....

Re Pulse Audio: Do I have to install something additional if I want to use an external bluetooth speaker as my speaker?

Re the permissions issue: Could it be a problem that I have externalized my home folder to an external partition? /home is just the mountpoint.

What now?

Cheers!
Jowi

[MrEen]

Looks like it could be just some messed up permissions.

You can check with:

Code: Select all

find $HOME ! -user $USER

And fix with:

Code: Select all

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /home/$USER

I'd then delete the files in ~/.config/pulse/ and try pulseaudio --start

[JowiKrause]

Hi and thanks!
I saw the suggestion in the other chat with Dirk and did just that: "sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /home/$USER"
Presto! Pulse Audio starts without any other activity.
However all find when I open the pavucontrol is the built-in soundcard, wher I can chhose a number of options, from "Analog Duplex Stero (unplugged)" to "Digital Stereo (HDMI 2 -Output).
My Bluetooth speaker (JBL) is not available, though it is connected in the Bluetooth Service app.
So, well, problem #1 seems solved, but I still have no sound....
Cheers!

[JowiKrause]

Hi again!
Just to complete this:
I went to the App Manager and searched for everything with pulse. Found pulse-module-bluetooth. Installed it.
No change initially, but after restarting the computer and the bluethooth speaker connection, the JBL speaker appears!
So: My sound problems seem to be solved.
Thanks to the forum and to you, MrEen!
Cheers!

[MrEen]

Very nice work, JowiKrause!

So glad you're fixed.