Sound OK at LiveUSB, but sound card not found after install

[gfnogueira]

I just got my Asus Zenbook UX390UA. It came with Windows installed, but I need Linux to work. I first installed Ubuntu 16.10 (dual boot) and everything worked fine. But then I decided to try the new release of Linux Mint 18.1 KDE. I erased Ubuntu from the drive, created a LiveUSB with Linux Mint 18.1 KDE and booted. At first, everything looked fine. The only problem I had was the sound (it was too low). But a little digging and I knew it was solvable. So I decided to actually install it.

Then the nightmare began.

The system does not recognize my sound card at all. I started to google this problem, saw a few people with the same problem and most of them solved it, but not me. As you can see below at the inxi result, I upgraded my kernel to 4.8.0-36 (because upgrading the kernel, at that time to 4.7, solved the problem for some guy).

I'm hoping you guys could help me.

inxi -Fxz

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gabriel@gfnogueira-asus-linux ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: gfnogueira-asus-linux Kernel: 4.8.0-36-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.8.5 (Qt 5.6.1) Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine:   System: ASUSTeK (portable) product: UX390UAK v: 1.0
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: UX390UAK v: 1.0 Bios: American Megatrends v: UX390UAK.308 date: 11/04/2016
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5-7200U (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 10800
           clock speeds: max: 3100 MHz 1: 661 MHz 2: 848 MHz 3: 1087 MHz 4: 689 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Device 5916 bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.05hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Kabylake GT2 GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 12.0.6 Direct Rendering: Yes
Network:   Card: Intel Wireless 8260 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 256.1GB (2.8% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: SanDisk_SD8SNAT2 size: 256.1GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 19G used: 6.2G (36%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-2: /home size: 73G used: 140M (1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 0.50GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda7
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 42.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 210 Uptime: 1 min Memory: 517.2/7867.8MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.461) inxi: 2.2.35

alsa force-reload

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gabriel@gfnogueira-asus-linux ~ $ sudo alsa force-reload                                                                                                                                                                                    
Unloading ALSA sound driver modules: (none loaded).                                                                                                                                                                                          
Loading ALSA sound driver modules: (none to reload). 

lspci

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gabriel@gfnogueira-asus-linux ~ $ lspci                                                                                                                                                                                                      
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 5904 (rev 02)                                                                                                                                                                                  
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 5916 (rev 02)                                                                                                                                                                    
00:04.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Skylake Processor Thermal Subsystem (rev 02)                                                                                                                                        
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)                                                                                                                                                  
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)                                                                                                                                          
00:15.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #0 (rev 21)                                                                                                                                
00:15.1 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Serial IO I2C Controller #1 (rev 21)                                                                                                                                
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)                                                                                                                                                  
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)                                                                                                                                            
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d10 (rev f1)                                                                                                                                                                                  
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #6 (rev f1)                                                                                                                                                    
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d58 (rev 21)                                                                                                                                                                                  
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)                                                                                                                                                                  
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)                                                                                                                                                                            
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 8260 (rev 3a)

aplay -l

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gabriel@gfnogueira-asus-linux ~ $ aplay -l                                                                                                                                                                                                  
aplay: device_list:268: no soundcards found...

[kc1di]

Hello gfnogueira and Welcome to the Mint Forums,

Congrates on trying to figure this out.

You may want to check your Bios at boot up to see if there is a setting to turn the sound card on/off and make sure it's on first.
and could you list the out put of

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 lsmod

command here also.

also install pavucontrol from the terminal do this

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sudo apt-get install pavucontrol

or from the software manager.
once install open it it will be listed under sound -- make sure the setting are right.

Good luck

[phd21]

Hi "gfnogueira",

Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux Mint and its excellent forum !

I just read your post and the good replies to it. Here are my thoughts on this as well.

I really love Linux Mint KDE and have been using it for years now. I think Linux Mint KDE 18.1 is an excellent computer operating system.

FYI-1: If you have not installed all the updates from the Linux Mint Update Manager including kernel updates, I would do that first and reboot (restart) your computer. Check the Device or Driver Manager in your system menu for any device drivers, install the recommended ones, and if you installed any, then restart your computer.

FYI-2: I have found with my Linux Mint KDE 18.x installation, that I had to do the updates and then restart a couple times before everything worked properly from then on. With some applications, I also had to start them which on their first run creates their configurations folders (typical in Linux), then exit and restart those before they also worked well from then on.

As for your sound card issues, I do not see your sound card listed in the results of the "inxi -Fxzd" command. If Linux Mint does not recognize your sound card, then it is not going to work properly.

In addition to installing pulse audio volume control (pavucontrol) which I do with any installation of Linux Mint, you can right click the volume icon in your system tray panel, click "Audio Volume Settings", under the default General icon, perhaps increasing the "Maximum Volume", and I like changing the Volume Stepping to "1" (nice to have that option easily available now), click the "Audio Volume" icon on the left, make sure your various volume slider controls are where you want them.

Once your system recognizes your sound card, there are the "Qas" packages that you might consider installing as well.

FYI: There are some really nice graphical (GUI) programs for sound that start with "Qas", like the fantastic "Qasmixer", in the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) that you can install and use. Sound "Mixers" can be a little confusing if you are not familiar with them. If you bring up "Qasmixer" and make it fullscreen, on the right side you will have mixer devices where you can control your system sound. If you do not see the mixer devices, hit "F6". The mixer item "sysdefault" will show all installed sound card devices, and you will have various options to adjust various volume controls using "sliders" which you can turn off and on using the "dot" below the volume slider. There are also various other check boxes below that you can use, and depending upon your sound card(s) that sometimes includes headphone checkboxes and or sliders as well, like "Headphone Jack Sense".

The applications included are:
- qasconfig - browser for the alsa configuration tree
- qashctl - mixer for alsa's high level control interface
- qasmixer - desktop mixer with features similar to alsamixer

Qasmixer is a desktop mixer application for alsa's "simple mixer interface" and offers features similar to alsamixer. it also features a sytem tray icon with basic mixer functionality.

For System Wide equalizers, install the pulse audio equalizer, or Install "libasound2-plugin-equal" which is another system wide equalizer that's in the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) that shows up in "QasMixer".

And in the event your Linux Mint system does not recognize your sound card, then there are low cost USB sound card adapters (dongles) available that do work well with Linux Mint at places like Amazon.com, just search for "USB sound linux".

one Example of many:
Sabrent USB External Stereo Sound Adapter, $6.99us
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External ... B00IRVQ0F8

Amazon.com - "USB sound adapter linux"
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... pter+linux

Hope this helps ...